Scarecrow (Espantaho, 2025) masterfully weaves horror with emotionally resonant family drama, delivering a haunting yet deeply human story rooted in Filipino mourning rituals. The film unfolds at a slow, deliberate pace, revealing its chilling mystery through unsettling visions, ancestral secrets, and a cursed painting that dooms all who possess it.
The story begins with the death of Pablo and the fractured family’s struggle to navigate their grief. His estranged legal relatives return after decades, not out of love, but to claim his property and secure their own futures. However, before they can take what they came for, they must confront the sinister forces within the house and the emotional scars they left buried. Scarecrow is more than a ghost story—it’s a layered exploration of loss, legacy, familial tension, and the unspoken traumas that haunt us far longer than any spirit ever could.
This article contains spoilers.
Scarecrow (Espantaho, 2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with Pablo dying and his daughter, Monet (who has epilepsy) having fits. While walking with Pablo’s body Monet has seizure once again. By the time Monet wakes up, Pablo is buried. That night, Monet has a nightmare where she sees her father asking Monet not to let someone inside. The next morning, Monet’s mother, Rosa (who is a ghost whom only Monet can see and hear), scolds Monet as she didn’t have dinner the previous night.
Later, Jack (Monet’s husband) tells Monet that he needs to leave town as his child from his wife (Jack’s legal family) is sick and needs Jack there. So, Monet asks Jack to return by the ninth day of the prayers (pasiyam—nine-day prayers after death). Before leaving, Jack gives his son Keith (Jack’s son with Monet) a chain, asking him never to remove it. After Jack leaves, the family realizes he has left a painting. So they take it inside the house despite Rosa’s warning. The painting is on a field with a scarecrow and two people. On the first night of the prayer, Henri’s room (caretaker) is taken over by locusts. To kill the locusts, Henri uses his lighter, but his entire hand catches on fire.
What happens on the farm?
As Henri tries extinguishing it, he gets out the door, sees a yeti-like creature, and disappears. The next morning, Frieda is unable to find Henri. In the market, Monet has fits, so Rosa starts scolding Monet for not taking her pills on time. By the time they are home, Monet has visitors. They are Pablo’s legal family. There are three people: Aunt/stepmother Adele, half-sister Andie, and half-brother Roy. The only thing Adele does is criticize Monet for not maintaining the house. Their rudeness makes Rosa angry.
In the basement, Monet tells Andie that Pablo has expressed his love for her and Roy. Andie confesses that they could not come because of Adele. On the second night of the prayers, Adele asks Monet to prepare the land title for the farm, as Adele wants to sell it. At the farm, Adele complains that it is not well-maintained. Suddenly, a swarm of locusts start flying towards them. The group enters their van and closes the doors as the locusts crash into the van and die. On the third night of the prayer, Adele tells Monet that she also wants to sell Pablo’s house.
Why are the cops called?
On Rosa’s insistence, Monet speaks up, saying she will not have anywhere to go because her shop is in the house. However, Adele says it is not her problem and is doing this for her children’s future. The argument continues as Monet explains that Adele and others did not even bother seeing Pablo when he was ill, and the house is as much as hers as Monet’s half-siblings. When Monet adds that Pablo found a way to send Adele money despite his illness, Adele gets mad and calls Monet an illegitimate child. Now, Rosa gets angry and flips the table, scaring everyone except Monet. Seeing this, Roy thinks it is Pablo and that the house is haunted.
So Roy decides to leave the house. Later, Monet tries to reason with Adele, saying Pablo loved her. Now, Adele breaks down, expressing how she felt to be cheated on. On the other hand, Rosa starts to say that she does not know that Pablo was married. In the room, a leech is on Roy’s back. As Roy tries to get rid of it, the scary creature arrives, and Roy goes missing. The next day, the cops are called and are informed about the disappearance. Meanwhile, Rosa starts hitting Adele because she crosses a line with Monet.
How are Rosa and Madamba related?
On the fourth night of the prayer, Adele and Andie argue. Suddenly, Andie’s room locks itself, and worms start popping out of Andie’s body. Similar to others, the creature arrives, and Andie disappears. Rosa scratches the scarecrow in the painting, but it repairs itself. On the fifth night of the prayer, an espiritista (a medium), Georgia, is called.
Like Monet, Georgia can also see Rosa. When Georgia blows some incense ash on the painting, it reveals the drawings of everyone it has killed. Now, Adele takes Monet to her former colleague’s house, who is an expert in identifying the paintings and their history. Seeing the painting, Emeritus says Madamba painted it. Initially, Madamba drew fields and farm life. Slowly, the drawings became eerie. Urban legend says unrequited love caused Madamba’s downfall.
When Madamba confessed his love, the woman ran away. Even though Madamba tried to be with other women, it did not make him happy. So Madamba killed these women, put them up like a scarecrow, and drew them so they resembled his muse. The professor shows a picture of Madamba’s muse, which turns out to be Rosa. At home, the yeti-like creature tries to kill Keith but fails because of the chain Keith has on his neck. Outside the room, Frieda starts seeing ghosts, and this creature kills Frieda. In the car, Rosa reveals that she posed for Madamba’s painting to earn money, but she did not realize that Madamba started to like Rosa. One day, Madamba tried to molest Rosa, so she ran away. At that time, Rosa met Pablo, and they fell in love.
How does the family connect the disappearances to Jack?
After that, Rosa assumed Madamba would not come looking for her. One day, as Rosa picks up Monet from school, Madamba spots Rosa and chases after them in his car. Rosa pushed Monet, asking her to hide. Unfortunately, Madamba’s car brakes fail, and it hits Rosa, killing her instantly. Now, Monet loses her cool as Adele calls Rosa and Monet witches. At home, Keith tells Monet about the chain that saved him. On the sixth day of the prayer, in pain, Adele, in her room, pulls out a rat from her mouth. Hearing the noise, the others enter Adele’s room and see this creature. To get rid of the creature, Rosa takes the chain and puts it on the creature. Now, the creature vanishes.
Monet burns the painting. On the seventh night of the prayers, the family sees that the painting is back to normal. At that time, the Emeritus calls Adele. At the professor’s house, he shows the origin of the paintings. It looks like everyone who owned the painting died. The painting was last owned by a Filipino-Chinese businessman. In the background of the image, Monet sees Jack. Immediately, Monet takes Adele to Georgia, and they show her the chain. It is red soil that Georgia’s raven knows where to find. At the location of the red soil, Monet asks if she can have four chains, but Georgia tells Monet that Rosa will not need one.
Scarecrow (Espantaho, 2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Now that everyone knows Georgia can see Rosa, Georgia asks why Rosa has not crossed over. Rosa says it was because of Monet’s epilepsy. Until Monet is ready, Rosa will not cross over. To end the curse, the person who brought the painting must die. This is Jack, and Monet realizes Jack did all this for money. To bring Jack home, Monet messages Jack, posing as Keith, saying, “Papa, mother is gone.” When Jack comes home, Adele attacks him and they tie Jack to a chair. It is the eighth night of the prayer, and Jack wakes up as the family says prayers. Monet confronts Jack, saying she knows his plans to eliminate them and take Pablo’s money and property.
Monet leaves Jack in front of the painting and leaves. As Monet leaves, Jack tries to crack a deal to share all the riches by killing Adele, but Monet does not stop. The creature comes out and kills Jack. The ninth day of the prayer is at the graveyard. They finish the prayer and leave, but Rosa stays back. When Monet calls out to Rosa, Rosa says she is ready to leave, and Monet is ready to lead a life without Rosa. Before leaving, Rosa asks to ask Adele for forgiveness. In the post-credits, the painting is destroyed and picked up by the trash pickers.
By the film’s end, Rosa is only able to cross over after witnessing Adele, Keith, and Monet walking together—finally, as a family. Yet despite its supernatural elements, Scarecrow leans more heavily into family drama than pure horror. From the outset, characters vanish without much alarm or concern, and Adele, in particular, barely pauses to reflect on her children’s disappearance. Still, the film uses horror as a lens to explore infidelity and generational trauma. The destruction of the cursed painting in the final act symbolizes the breaking of the cycle—both the supernatural curse and the emotional one.
Adele’s resentment toward Rosa stems from the belief that Rosa had stolen Pablo from her. But as the truth of Rosa’s suffering comes to light, Adele softens. Her forgiveness is unspoken yet palpable in the closing moments—especially in the way she embraces Monet as her own. The killing of Jack becomes a symbolic act, representing these women uniting against betrayal and reclaiming their power. Rather than delivering a neat sense of justice, the film leaves you with what the characters themselves feel: sorrow, reckoning, and the lingering ache of unresolved loss.
