The Filipino horror film Scarecrow blends grief and horror along with elements of gore. At the center of the narrative are Monet, her mother, Rosa, and her stepmother, Adele. Monet shared a deep bond with her father and cared for him during his remaining time. Even though she knew his days were numbered, she struggled to make peace with her reality. He meant the world to her, and after his demise, she struggled to hold herself together. Her partner, Jack, supported her during the trying times, and her son, Keith, was the reason she felt hopeful about the future. Monet owned an antique store, and when Jack left a painting outside her store, she didn’t think much of it. Rosa didn’t approve of her bringing the painting into their house, but Monet didn’t pay heed to her opinion. Immediately after, strange things started to happen, and it soon became clear that the painting was cursed.
Spoiler Alert
What was the story behind the painting?
Rosa was displeased when Adele stormed into their house unannounced with her son, Roy, and daughter, Andie. Adele was Pabling’s legal spouse, and she despised Rosa and Monet and blamed them for her failed marriage. Rosa didn’t know that Pabling was a married man when they met, and while she didn’t intend on hurting Adele, she also owed her daughter a secure life. When Adele complained about the dilapidated condition of the house, Monet reminded her that she didn’t have the time to repair the place because she was busy looking after Pabling. Adele and her children never came to visit him, but she didn’t waste a minute to remind Monet that her husband’s properties now belonged to her. She wanted to sell the farmland and also the house. Monet begged her to leave the house to her son and herself, but Adele didn’t seem to care at first.
Meanwhile, during the nine-day vigil and wake after Pabling’s passing, those living in the house started to magically disappear. At first it was Henri, a young man who helped with the daily chores. He suffered a locust attack and was visited by a demonic scarecrow before he completely disappeared. Roy and Andie met with the same fate. Roy was attacked by leeches before he was taken away by the scarecrow, and Andie had worms emerge from beneath her skin before the demonic creature paid her a visit. The scarecrow lived in the painting, and it visited its targets when they were completely vulnerable. After it attacked its victims, it dragged their spirits back into the painting, and they were forever trapped there.
When Monet invited a local shaman, Georgia, to their house, she immediately felt something sinister was going on. She used a spell to summon the spirits trapped in the painting, and immediately several figures showed up, including Henri, Roy, and Andie. Adele decided to consult her former colleague, who was an expert in art history. After taking a look at the painting, her colleague explained that it was created by Silvio Madamba, a prominent artist during the 50s and 60s. He started his career painting pastoral landscapes, but gradually his subjects became more and more sinister. He eventually became obsessed with the figure of a scarecrow that reemerged in several of his paintings. Adele’s colleague also went on to reveal that Silvio was obsessed with one of his muses. She was way younger than him, and when she rejected his advances, he lost his calm. Unrequited love turned him cold and dark. He took pleasure in torturing his subjects and even killing them. He used to slit his wrist and use his blood to paint his canvas. He tied the bodies of his victims to a pole and adorned them like scarecrows. This explained the spirits that were seen around Monet’s house; they were either victims of Silvio, or they had bought the painting, and the curse claimed their lives.
Was Rosa alive or dead?
During Scarecrow’s ending, we discover that Rosa had died years ago. Rosa was Silvio Madamba’s favorite muse (her ties to a painter and the world of fine arts explain why she named her daughter Monet). She respected him and perceived him as a parental figure, but when he tried to get intimate with her, she fled. Years later, when she was walking Monet home from school, she crossed paths with Silvio. He was in his car, and he started following her. Silvio wanted to have a word with Rosa, but he soon figured out that his brakes weren’t working. He tried to warn Rosa, but she couldn’t hear him, and he ended up unintentionally running her over. Even after her death, Rosa’s spirit continued to dwell in the mortal world. She refused to cross over because she knew that Monet needed her. Monet suffered from epilepsy time and again, and Rosa believed that as long as she was by her daughter’s side, she would be safe. So, throughout Scarecrow, we’ve seen Rosa’s spirit; this explained why she was in the same clothes every day and why her questions or her reactions went unaddressed by everyone except Monet. Remember the footprint on the salt Frida (the help) had sprinkled to keep spirits away? Frida couldn’t see Rosa, and therefore she saw only the footsteps, and she prayed to God to protect her.
After Adele and Monet discovered the truth behind the painting, they consulted Georgia again. She didn’t think there was any way they could escape the curse until they killed the person who brought the painting into their house. Monet showed Georgia the necklace Keith was wearing that seemed to protect him from the curse. Jack had gifted Keith the necklace, and Georgia believed he did so because he knew about the curse and wanted to protect his son. The pouch attached to the necklace held red soil that kept the scarecrow away. Georgia’s crow (she was a shaman, after all) knew where to find the red soil. Adele and Monet collected the soil and wore pouches carrying it around their necks for protection. According to Georgia, Silvio continued to dwell in the mortal world through his masterpiece, The Scarecrow, and he eventually found his way back to Rosa.
What was Jack’s motive?
Jack worked for a rich Filipino-Chinese businessman, Guang Xi Fei, who bought the painting for a hefty price. Jack was a gambler, and he plotted with his boss and came up with a cruel way to get rid of Monet and her entire family. He was a married man, and he’d had an affair with Monet so that someday he could successfully take over her father’s properties. Once Monet figured out his grand plan, she tricked him. She texted him, pretending to be Keith, and stated that his mother had passed away. Jack assumed his plan had worked, and he stopped by Monet’s house to get Keith and figure out a way to claim the properties. After he walked into the house, he felt a little eerie. Soon Monet and Adele attacked him, and he lost consciousness. They tied him to a chair, and Monet confronted him when he woke up. She admitted that she believed him when he’d told her that he loved her, and she didn’t wonder why he chose her, a small-town girl whom everyone believed was crazy. She was heartbroken when she realized that he chose her only because he thought she was vulnerable and could be easily fooled. In Scarecrow’s ending, Monet exposed Jack to the cursed painting and left his hands tied. He begged her to let him go, and he even agreed to split the money from the sale with her, but he had pretty much lost the plot by then. Before walking out of the room, Monet stated that he was not the man she’d fallen in love with.
Did Jack die?
The painting came to life as soon as Monet, Adele, and Keith left the house. Since they had the red soil protecting them, the scarecrow didn’t come after them. But Jack was exposed, and all the spirits from the painting surrounded him. The scarecrow reached out to Jack from the painting, and he was ultimately taken away, and just like every spirit that the scarecrow had targeted, he too became a part of the painting. It was finally the ninth day of the vigil and wake. Monet and Adele prayed for the peaceful departure of Pabling’s spirit. The strange occurrence brought the stepmother and daughter close together. All the misconceptions that they had of each other were finally cleared up, and Monet and Adele realized that since they had lost their loved ones, they must at least cherish the only family they had left. Pabling would have always wanted that. He never stopped caring about Adele and his children, and he always hoped that, one day, she would forgive him. Seeing the closeness between Adele and Monet, Rosa decided to finally cross over. She had learned to trust Adele, and she knew she would look after Monet just like she had. She believed Monet too was ready to let go of her now. While it pained Monet to not have her mother by her side always, she had to accept Rosa’s decision. Before leaving, Rosa asked Monet to tell Adele that she hoped one day she would be able to forgive her. Adele became emotional, even though she’d always despised Rosa; at the end of the day, she knew that it was not her fault.
Did the curse end?
In the post-credit scene of Scarecrow, the painting ended up on a trash van. It was broken down into several pieces, and from the little glimpse of canvas that we get to see, it became evident that the scarecrow was no longer in the painting. This could suggest that the curse was far from over. The scarecrow was no longer limited to the painting; it had broken free, and it will go on to torment more and more individuals. Maybe the scarecrow/the spirit of Silvio now resides in Monet’s house, and who knows, maybe this can be the very premise of the Scarecrow sequel. Monet, Adele, and Keith will be spared if they decide to sell the house and settle elsewhere, considering all the traumatic memories they have there. But if they choose to stay, then things might get complicated. Can the red soil protect them from the scarecrow and the spirits of its victims forever? And even if it does, presumably death will continue to loom around them.
