In the Tall Grass

In the Tall Grass

Starring Laysla De Oliveira, Avery Whitted, Harrison Gilbertson, Patrick Wilson

Directed by Vincenzo Natali

The Story:
While driving across country, brother and sister Cal (Avery Whitted) and Becky (Laysla De Oliveira) end up in a small town with only a church when they pull over due to Becky's pregnancy sickness.  Then they hear the sound of a distressed child in the tall grass, and decide to go in and find him.  They soon become separated and it seems that the grass has a mind of its own, as they end up close together or far apart without moving at all.

Meanwhile, Becky's boyfriend Travis (Harrison Gilbertson) followed the siblings and enters the grass himself, meeting the young boy Tobin (Will Buie Jr.), whose parents - Natalie (Rachel Wilson) and Ross (Patrick Wilson) - have also become trapped in the grass.  As everyone tries to find one another, they stumble upon a deadly secret about the grass that may result in them being trapped there forever.

The Synopsis:
Stephen King is undoubtedly the king of horror, as his novels have been terrifying readers for decades.  The films based off his books have spanned the gambit from masterpieces ("The Shining," even though he hated it) to complete duds ("Dreamcatcher") to cult classics ("Maximum Overdrive"), and mostly it's due to something getting lost in the translation.  One of King's recent novellas, "In the Tall Grass" (which he co-wrote with his son), has recently become the newest Netflix original, and the result is a mixed bag - amazing visuals and cinematography, a surreal story that leaves you guessing and wondering what's happening, but also dragged down by a too-long runtime and so-so performances.

The story focuses on a mysterious patch of tall grass in the middle of Kansas (at least I think it was, although one would be forgiven if thinking this takes place in Nebraska along with "Children of the Corn") where siblings hear the sound of a distressed child trapped in the grass and go in to find him, resulting in them getting trapped and lost in a place where time seems to be different and there's a mysterious monolith in the center of the grass.  As the film progresses, more people end up in the grass and everyone becomes trapped, seemingly held captive there by a mysterious force.  It's hard to describe this film without giving major points away, but suffice it to say time doesn't occur in the same flow in the tall grass.

If you're watching this with a totally linear mentality, you'll be absolutely befuddled within the first half hour.  King is extremely cerebral in his storytelling, and there's much more depth and meaning to this than meets the eye, something that everyone can relate to if they really think about it.  Still, the script itself seemed lazily written through most of it, and the movie could've been better if it was cut down by at least twenty minutes or so, in which those times were spent with the characters obnoxiously screaming out other peoples' names (which, I suppose, is something one would do if trapped in an ever-changing labyrinth of tall grass).  Also, as is with most horror movies, it gets a bit frustrating when you see the characters doing the most stupidest things, things normal people would never do.  If I personally heard a child crying in a labyrinth of grass, I'd call 911.  If I somehow, due to some brain damage, decide to actually enter the maze, I would grab hands with whoever I was with and never let go.  Neither of those things happen here.

The performances are decent enough but obviously not great for a wide theatrical release.  The only really well-known actor is Patrick Wilson, who plays Ross to insane perfection as the one who seemingly knows the secret of the grass and wants everyone else to know it too.  He seems to know that the story is so outlandish that he's allowed to be totally crazy, and pulls it off very well.  The rest of the cast fare well enough, and the most positive thing I can say about the child actor is that I didn't want to see him die horribly like I do with most kids in horror films.

The cinematography really saves this film from being totally mundane, as there's beautiful aerial shots of the grass and the people in them, and the camerawork is fascinating as it bends and twists with the story, leaving you as frazzled and incoherent as the hapless characters.  There's some CGI thrown in that doesn't really fit (such as a storm coming that looks totally fake), but the overall scenery is something magical in that you wouldn't expect a setting like grass to be exceptionally terrifying, but it manages to achieve those chills despite that fact.  If the film was a little shorter and tighter, it would've been amazing.

The Summary:
Offering a layered meaning that you probably won't understand until after looking it up, "In the Tall Grass" serves as a decent Stephen King adaptation that could've been shorter, but still provides some deeply cerebral thought processes and some great cinematography.

The Score: B