The Scarecrow

The Scarecrow ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This review may contain spoilers.

So i would like to elaborate on the “attention to detail” I commented on in my last review of this film. I’ve looked at negative reviews of this short film and most of the people that didn’t like it said that there was “no story” and that it didn’t make sense. So I’m going to explain details throughout the short film that lead me to the conclusion of what I think happened in the story. I’m not saying this is the right interpretation or what Hitop intended to do, it’s just what I got from it. Feel free to think about the story yourself or disagree with me. 
MY DETAILED ANALYSIS: 
Ok, so the film starts off with a car on the side of the road with a body next to it. We then cut to the close ups of the girls face. She is clearly disturbed. We then see the intense sequence of her writing things in her notebook like “I’m so...” and “accident” before ripping them out. This scene also shows us that she is a heavy smoker and drinker. The sequence of writing ends with her slamming a quick sketch of what I interpret as the scarecrows face on the glass table. She can’t write it here, because he’s here with her. She needs to go somewhere else. So she leaves her apartment. She walks to the park, but before she gets there we get to see her walking with cars rushing past her. This is another clue as to what happened. She goes to the park. We see that it’s calm and quiet, and while at first her walking through the park seemed like it took too long, I think it was to emphasize how peaceful the place was. That is, until she sits down on the bench, takes out her notebook, and writes “dear mr. and mrs.” And the scarecrow theme (I guess I’ll call it that) music comes back on. She continues writing in the notebook and if you pause it you can read it. This is what I made out: “I don’t know where to begin. I think you might know what I am going to reveal to you. I don’t know how to put it into words. .... something that gravely impacts your life. I’ve fricked things up for you. God I don’t know how to say it. The other night something happened. I was drinking and... and your son was out walking and... things became unclear. I lost control...” we then cut to her close ups of her crying in blue light. We can see that she’s driving in a car. The story is coming together. We can infer that she hit that guy while drunk driving. “I don’t know how to tell you any of this” the music builds as we cut back and forth from her on the bench to her crying in the car. Suddenly, we get a shot from behind the tree branch, watching the girl from afar. Something is watching her. She begins bobbing her head. She falls asleep, only for a loud banging to wake her up immediately. In the background, cloaked in shadow... the scarecrow moves closer. Close up on her face as she falls asleep yet again. She wakes up and it’s dark. Crickets sound in the shadows of the night. The girl has a coat around her as a blanket, but she didn’t have a coat before. She takes it off. We can infer where she got it. The scarecrow. She then is walking in the dark, and we see that the scarecrow is following her. His blurry white face looks similar to the drawing she slammed on the table at the beginning. It goes dark and she lights a cigarette. She lights the lighter again and the flame reveals the scarecrow right next to her. She runs away. Through a tunnel, trying to make it to the light at the end of the tunnel of trees, trying to escape. She runs home, but he’s already there, waiting. In the kitchen. She turns and runs outside. But he’s there, across the street. She runs back upstairs and the boy falls out of the kitchen and throws up. The scarecrow was just in the kitchen. The looks at her and she turns to run. She looks at the scarecrow at the bottom of the stairs, the lighting is red, the music swelling. She screams “what do you want from me!” Before we cut back to the car on the side of the road, the victim next to it. It drives away. The girl is in the car, crying. She lets out a final scream before we cut to the credits. But the story isn’t done there. We get one final clue from the credits. “With John Graves......the victim......the scarecrow.” 
The victim is the scarecrow. The scarecrow is the girls guilt over killing him. She can’t escape the guilt. She will never escape the guilt over killing that boy on the highway. 
Well, that’s my detailed analysis of what happened. Hopefully if you didn’t understand it before this gave you some ideas. This is also why I like this film so much. Hitop made something truly brilliant that doesn’t tell you what happens, but rather shows you and let’s you infer. You will get out of this film what you put in. If someone has a different interpretation of what the scarecrow represents feel free to comment.

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