Husk – An intimate look at Corn
By Bob Blaschuk
Do you like corn? How about fields of corn? Do you enjoy endless running through corn on a hot summer day? Are your dreams filled with the majesty of the windblown corn fields of life? I hope so because if you are going to watch Husk you’re going to need to love yourself some corn. So grab your shucking gloves, and boil some water because I am going to break it down for you, corn style.
Husk begins with a car full of bland but well admittedly acted characters getting run off the road when an evil scarecrow throws a murder of crows at their car. The crows hit sonic speeds and smash right through the windshield causing them to crash their car in a ditch outside the real star of this movie… a field of corn.
After finding one of their party missing upon waking up, our crew split up and wander through the corn field to look for their lost compadre. What they do find is a creepy old house. Yet, instead of moving on with the plot, at this point, the other set of the characters also decide to wander into the corn field which apparently holds some sort of majesty that draws them away from the well-used highway they have crashed on.
Life Tip #1 – If you crash your car on a well-used road, beside a corn field. The corn will not help you. It is corn. Wait by the road for help, or better yet, use your phone.
Moving on, more corn walking shenanigans ensue and to sum up they find a scarecrow who likes to kill people and make them into other fresher scarecrows.
Okay, to be honest, at this point other than the large amounts of walking through the corn, Husk isn’t so bad yet. It boasts some solid visuals, camera work and a pretty neat villain for our intrepid gang of miscreants to run away from. Also, although not given anything remotely interesting to say. The cast does a good job and soldiers on, with what they have to work with. They really make the most of a bad situation.
Sadly though, it is at this point where the movie stops following its own rules. After searching the house, our heroes learn that once a new body is wearing a scarecrow mask, the evil spirit can jump into it and use it as a vessel to do dastardly deed when inside the corn field… But wait, Bob, you ponder… If the spirit can only control the scarecrows in the field, how does he control them in the house when they come in to make the masks?
To that I say, good question, I don’t know.
I am sure you are also wondering how the spirit can control a mask less victim during the mask making process, and yet later we find out when they forcibly remove a mask off one of the scarecrows it suddenly stops moving. Again, I have no explanation. There is also the mostly unexplained way a scarecrow person can be killed. It is mentioned a few times during the film that they can’t be offed because the spirit inside them is un-killable, then they proceed to shoot them and they are done in one.
Which, to that I say, stop thinking so much, and eat your damn corn!
This is the main failing point of Husk it doesn’t know what it wants to do or be. They seemed to have written a set of rules for the villain to follow, but then quickly found out that the movie would be really boring if they used those rules. The story also doesn’t have enough steam to make it even eighty minutes.
There is barely any exploration of the house, the characters don’t learn much about anything until for some inexplicable reason one of them starts having flashback visions of someone else’s family. Then there is the standing rule for this film. When the action stops, kick start it again, with a brisk and pointless run through the corn field.
That really is Husk in a nutshell… or corn husk.
So, in the end, even if your movie looks good, has a solid villain, and isn’t terribly acted, that doesn’t mean you can stretch out a thirty-five minute concept into eighty minutes. Adding more running through the corn, arguing in the house, and then more running through corn scenes doesn’t make an interesting film.
Sure, corn fields hold a scary endless claustrophobia that easily portrays fear to the character in it. It also adds an endless amount of boredom after the umpteenth time someone runs into the corn for no good reason. Still, if you have an unhealthy relationship with corn, Husk may just be the movie for you.
