the audience applauded

one of my absolute favorites!

Just perfect...

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is an effective, mildly graphic shocker of the 'Jeeper Creepers' variety where a selection of teens get themselves involved in the eerie ritualistic machinations of animated scarecrows eager to recruit more innocents to become like them. There is no CGI, the scarecrows are physical, solid creatures, and as such, provide a tangible and frightening threat.The location is beautifully shot and lit. The use of colour is especially worthy of note. The cornfield and decrepit farmhouse nearby provide a wonderfully creepy location for many of the events.The teens are a formulaic bunch. Johnny, the one who goes missing; Brian, the square jawed hero; Chris, the untrustworthy one; Scott, the one in glasses (he seems empathetic and witnesses an insight into the 'scarecrows' past), while talented Australian actress Tammin Sursok has the thankless role of Natalie,'the girlfriend'. And that is where I find this film lacking. There are no jokes in this film – just posturing performers with whom we only sympathise when they begin dying. That isn't to specifically knock 'Husk', which is an extremely well made and well-paced film – but just how more involving (and scary) would it have been for audience if they were actually invited to be invested in the main characters? It is very effective, throughout much of the film, that the ongoing pattern of the spirit's plan continues relentless, no matter what our heroes try to do. One by one they are strung up and killed, become infected by the 'curse' and, zombie-like, lurch towards the upstairs farmhouse room to fashion themselves a new scarecrow mask. It is through the mask that their possession is complete. When that is removed, their spirit then animates another in the ever increasing army. The ending is as open-ended as any can be, and provides a real punch-the-air moment. It seems Chris is on the verge of rescue by two passers-by, even though another scarecrow is lurking in the foliage nearby. Fade to black.

As far as soil-your-pants, creepy-ass movie characters go, only the clown has a slight edge over the scarecrow (unless the scarecrow is wearing a curly wig, a big red nose, face paint and a squirty flower, in which case the scarecrow wins hands down). Husk's sack-headed monstrosities sure are unsettling to look at, but they are made even more scary by the fact that they can move like the clappers and have very sharp nails in their fingers (metal nails—the type you hit with a hammer!).Attacking with lightning speed and remarkable ferocity, these fleet-footed frights whittle down an unfortunate group of friends who crash their car by the side of a cornfield after ploughing headlong into a flock of crows. Seeking refuge in a dilapidated farmhouse, the pals try to figure out how to get back to the road without being killed and turned into scarecrows themselves.Killer scarecrows are nothing new in the world of horror (see Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Scarecrows, Messengers 2: The Scarecrow, Scarecrow Gone Wild, Dark Harvest), Husk's characters are two dimensional, and much of its action can easily be labelled as predictable, but writer/director Brett Simmons more than compensates for his familiar foes, cookie-cutter victims and expected developments with a rollicking pace and several genuinely clever touches.Simmons kicks the action off almost immediately and kills off the only female early in his film, putting paid to the tired 'final girl' trope that plagues many a modern horror movie; he also introduces an ingenious plot device that ensures that only one scarecrow can attack at any given time, which gives the remaining characters a faint glimmer of hope. Another nice touch sees the scarecrow losing its power when unmasked. It's unique elements like these that go to make his film a very enjoyable and satisfyingly scary flick.

Overall, 'Husk' inspired within me a sense of nostalgia for horror movies of the seventies and eighties. In that light perhaps my review will be considered a biased one based on yearning for pictures of that era. However, if you are a serious horror fan who is closer to his fourth decade mark than the third, skip my review and watch 'Husk' without further delay. You will enjoy it. 'Husk' brought to mind films such as 'Hell Night' and 'Scarecrows' - that is a good thing. Nostalgia again. I do miss the dark, unpredictable films of those bygone years. Years before CGI and hundred million dollar budgets. Way back when a horror movie was made with the dual purpose of frightening you and making you think while it did so. When horror flicks made you sweat bullets for the doomed protagonists or yell at the screen to warn them or tell them how foolish was their blunder into the dark cellar.'Husk' begins with a group of college kids (who else?) on a road trip to do some (what else?) partying at (you guessed it) a cabin somewhere. Thankfully, they never get there. Our cast of twenty something soon to be victims of dark horizons have decided that instead of following a bustling macadam six lane, it'd be wiser to take a detour through hell's backyard. This time around the devil's acreage turns out to be a back country barely two lane that cuts through a lost swath of the heartland.After a very brief introduction to three of the five characters (two are asleep in back of the car)something ends their ability to continue on and they find themselves stranded in a sea of late season corn. Right about here arises the first of very few problems I have with the film - the killing begins too soon. That's it. I enjoy a script that gives me a chance to meet each of the characters before some spawn of hell chomps down on them. Oh well, the score right off the bat is one down, four to go. What follows is a cast of semi shallowly written characters brought to life by competent enough actors who struggle to find help for their damaged ride while searching for their missing friend. Wrapped around the aforementioned is a surprisingly well thought out story which includes much time spent in an appropriately creepy, abandoned farmhouse and a supernatural game of cat and mouse (sorry, no disappointing human slasher element here).Normally I would delve deeper into the plot and happenings while writing out a review but this time I do not want to risk spoiling the goods for others. To sum up, if you're a fan of movies like 'Mama' or pretty much any of the PG-13 horror flicks of late, you might not like 'Husk'. Otherwise, if John Carpenter and George Romero are your guys, run right out and rent or by this movie. You'll "get" it.

I once tried to convince a movie critic that I admire to see Husk by claiming it was a great killer Scarecrow movie. He said, in so many Facebook words that he was done with said "killer scarecrow" movies.How many of them are out there? Outside this one, I can think of maaaaybe Jeepers Creepers (and its sequel(s)) and maybe you could roll in the Children of the Corn and its seventeen-hundred sequels and remakes…and even those did not involve a scarecrow that comes "alive" and attacks corn-wandering-victims.Let's get away from that…this movie was fantastic. I had a lot of fun and admired it's originality EVEN within its typical stereotypes/clichés.Four guys and one girl travel along the cornfields and crash due to some misfortune, daredevil crows and upon consciousness, one of the guys is missing and the others are in disarray. What we're left with are: the pretty, but strong chick, the nerdy guy, the headstrong dude and the scaredy-cat of a boy. One-by-one they venture into the cornfield for assistance and are met with…yeah, I've already spoiled the killer.Oh, but there's so much more. Background, flashbacks, mystical occurrences and haunted grounds are just the beginning. Take in some VERY decent cinematography, hilarious dialogue, original and brutal/effective kills – and in an unpredictable order, depth and true fear that's usually left out of these kinds of films. Hell, they even "took from" one of my all-time favorite slashers, Freddy, but with such a different "edge"…so to speak.The entire movie feels small budget and indie horror, but surprises me with craftsmanship and great filmmaking. And for such a short time frame, I was spellbound in the storytelling and frights. I rooted for our "heroes" and enjoyed being scared – FINALLY – as I'm usually bored when filmmakers pretend to know what will scare us these days. And NOOOOO – 1½ hours of NOTHING happening at a house with cameras everywhere and then BAM, 4 seconds of someone dragged from one side of the room to another, i.e. the Paranormal Crap, does NOT do the trick any day of the week or year.I thoroughly enjoyed this "After Dark Films" horror flick. It's a thrill ride that surprised me from beginning to end and if you, too, enjoy a good-old-fashioned NON-paranormal, NON-hand-held camera, NON-found footage, horror film, you'll like this scary Scarecrow killer driller.