We’re well into Summerween, but I do miss my autumnal horrors. Enter Strawstalker — a POV/found footage film that pairs new-aged streamers with a rural nightmare. With characters you love to hate and a severely frightening scarecrow, this straw man gives a new feeling to the term “influencer.”
When a fame hungry couple moves into an ideal LA home, their new dream life spirals into a nightmare as a supernatural scarecrow begins stalking them – feeding on their lies, testing their truth, and turning their fandom into witnesses of its judgment.
Strawstalker, Amazon Prime Video
Narrated by finance bro Sandy (Vincent Ranola), the dramatic ending to the YouTuber duo Henry (George Henry Horton) and Haley (Branika Scott) is broadcast for all to see (and as an attempt to lessen the blow of Sandy being outed as an Uber driver and not a “finance king”). Here, we’re transferred to Henry and Haley’s POV of them moving from Dallas to LA with hopes and dreams of becoming stars. They rent a house and soon find a rather scary scarecrow in the bushes. Thinking it’s a prank, they go about their time throwing parties and such. But soon, weird things begin to happen — all linked to the scarecrow. Henry and Haley’s tinsel-town dreams are shattered as the “Strawstalker” takes on a life of its own — with the help of the neighbors.
Done all through the lens and shown as though it’s an actual livestream, Strawstalker puts the audience right into Henry and Haley’s shoes. We see what they see. We go where they go. This POV gives us more of a spectacle and enhances the multiple jumpscares because, like this douchey duo, we don’t know what they scarecrow is doing until the final showdown. Horton and Scott do their best to portray fame-hungry influencers, which — from a person who doesn’t necessarily hate lifestyle content creators like this — makes it all the more satisfying when shit starts getting scary. They prank each other endlessly, and Henry turns out to be even more of an unlikeable character as he is found to be a cheater as well. So if you’re asking yourself why people feel the need to film everything in a scary situation, this answers that question.
As for scares, Strawstalker is filled with jumps, bumps, and loud noises. I know not everyone loves jumpscares, but if you can look past that and instead focus on the insanely terrifying scarecrow, you’re in for a treat. His design is simple, yet scary with a burlap face that looks like it was superimposed onto a real human face. He wears a monotone brown/black outfit from head to toe, and walking silently the entire time, stalks the duo throughout the house while leaving little dead crow surprises for them to find. At the conclusion to the film, we see a cult-like following that gives more background to the Strawstalker legend, something that Haley points out is extremely weird in farm-free Hollywood. A little meta moment like this actually makes the story better written than it first appears.
Strawstalker blends the supernatural with our current obsession with influencer life in a way that brings good-ol’ scarecrow scares to our livestream-loving eyeballs. Sure, this movie has an insane amount of cringy couple moments, but at its center is a comeback to small town legends and rural lore meant to keep us from becoming terrible people. If you’re not into found footage and all the tropes that come with it, that’s all fine; but I recommend spending just a few minutes looking at the creature itself to determine if you want to watch the rest — it might surprise you. Plus, we spend the same 120 minutes of watching other people clean their rooms, put on makeup, and party in the Hills… might as well see a supernatural straw man do his thing while we’re glued to our phones anyway.
Strawstalker is available to rent or purchase now on Amazon Prime Video.
