Its plot follows a group of mercenaries who hijacked a plane in California, and after making an emergency landing in a cornfield, find themselves stalked by murderous scarecrows possessed by spirits.

Independently financed, Scarecrows was filmed in 1985 in Davie, Florida, and released direct-to-video several years later after its distributor, Manson International Pictures, went bankrupt.

Five paramilitary mercenaries and war criminals—Corbin, Curry, Jack, Roxanne, and Bert—steal three million dollars from Camp Pendleton and take two hostages: Al, a pilot, his teenaged daughter, Kellie, along with their dog Dax.

Nearby, they locate Bert's parachute bag hanging from the tree, and upon attempting to open it, find it filled with blood.

Kellie flees into the field in the melee, and finds her father's eviscerated body hung from a scarecrow post with barbwire.

Corbin retrieves her, bringing her back to the house, where Jack and Roxanne are extracting the wadded cash stuffed in Bert's hollowed-out corpse.

Curry becomes convinced that the scarecrows are possessed by the spirits of three deceased Satanist farmers—Jakob, Benjamin, and Norman Fowler—whose photograph hangs inside the farmhouse.

Back at the house, Curry finds Bert's severed head and limbs have reanimated, and is subsequently confronted by a grossly disfigured Jack, who stabs him to death.

Voice-over narration from a morning news broadcast imparts that the plane was found landed near San Diego, with the charred remains of two individuals being feasted on by Kellie's dog, who then tries to attack the SWAT team and had to be tranquilized.

William Wesley and Richard Jefferies co-wrote the screenplay for the film, with each writing drafts and then passing them between each other, making edits and alterations.

[9] Though the bulk of principal photography took place in Florida, the exterior scenes featuring the airplane landing and taking off were shot in Mexico six weeks after filming ended.

[18] Mick Martin and Derrick Bang of the Video Movie Guide awarded it a full four stars, praising it as "a truly frightening horror film, loaded with suspense, intelligent writing, and decent acting.

"[19] Steve Barton from Dread Central awarded the film a score of 3.5 / 5 stating, "As fun as it is over-the-top violent, Scarecrows is the perfect fit for viewers looking to strap in for some good old fashioned mindless mayhem".

[20] Terror Trap.com awarded the film 3/4 stars, commending its "claustrophobic atmosphere", slow pacing, special effects, and "allegorical plotwork".

"[22] Andrew Smith from Popcorn Pictures gave the film 8/10 stars, writing, "Scarecrows nails the eeriness down to a tee and never once lets up in its attempts to get under your skin.

[25] TV Guide awarded the film 2/5 stars, writing, "The sense of foreboding is surprisingly high, though the performances are two-dimensional at best.