Summary
Something mysterious and terrifying happens when entering the tall grass…
My Thoughts
In the Tall Grass is the latest in the ever-growing catalog of Stephen King stories turned into motion pictures, this time from the short story of the same name. It follows a multitude of characters as they are tricked into an ominous field of, you guessed it, long grass. Once the victims enter this grass, their hopes of getting out are slim, as the grass itself is alive, ever moving and ever watching, waiting for someone to unveil its powerful secrets. A man (Patrick Wilson, “The Conjuring”) searching for his family in the tall grass does just that, but the secret is far more than anyone bargained for. It's not a rare thing for a short story from Stephen King to be made into a movie, both “Shawkshank Redemption” and “Secret Window” are fine examples of them done right, but “In the Tall Grass” just doesn't have enough source material to justify it's nearly two hour length despite an intriguing premise some ambitious filmmaking and one hell of a performance from Wilson, those just aren't enough to distract from the clunky storytelling.
What starts out as a promising beginning with a brother and sister who stop at a church to check for directions when from across the street they hear the wailing cries of a young child, beyond a field of tall grass. After some contemplating the couple decides to go into the greenery, and once they do their world is flipped upside down, their sense of direction becomes askew, they separate from each other, and never can find one again for a while, their voices coming from all directions. One moment shows the couple jumping to catch a glimpse of the other's arms, after the first jump they seem very close to each other, then on the second jump they appear nearly two football fields away, it's a chill inducing scene, and one I would liked to have seen more of. The overall setting of the film is solid, it has a dread filled atmosphere that’s almost claustrophobic at time. The film suffers from a bit of an identity crisis though, at its core it's a mystery leaning towards thriller, but the execution fails to fully capture that emotion, instead it ventures too far into full on horror and action, especially in the film's third, confused act.
To say In the Tall Grass is bad though just isn't fair, because craft did go into making this film, it just should have been in the hands of a stronger filmmaker. The premise itself is fun and twisted, but the execution is rather clunky, it begins to repeat itself halfway through, and a lot of the mystery is gone before the last scenes so it does lose steam towards the end, this film could cut out about 20 minutes of fat, and it would have been a nice, lean, trippy horror film. But instead it gets overburdened with its own writing, that it can't exactly reach its lofty ambitions. While the end isn't without it's fair share of shocks, like Patrick Wilson crushing a living skull with his hands, it suffers from, for lack of a better phrase, not making any sense. The film tries to hide its gaping plotholes but they're just too big for even a casual viewer to ignore. Some stories are better left on the pages.
I will forever be rooting for Patrick Wilson to win an Oscar someday, the man is one of Hollywood's most underrated and underutilized actors, and his performance here is no exception, he starts as a friendly dad looking for his family, but when he finds a strange, ancient looking rock, he gains all the knowledge it holds by touching it, and by doing so it turns him into a bloodlusting maniac who then hunts everyone else in the grass down. It's pretty preposterous, I know and as I stated above, this film is seriously flawed, but Patrick Wilson gives a crazy manic performance that needs to be seen, it's worth the price of admission alone. Wilson being so great also makes the supporting actors seem all the weaker though, it's easy to tell who's been doing it longer.
Overall In the Tall Grass isn't the worst Stephen King story ever adapted, for that check out "Thinner", but it's certainly not the best. The writers bit off way more than they could chew and stretch a very short story into a feature length and it feels as much, especially towards the convoluted ending. But the premise is intriguing enough, and before the third act there's some really solid idea floating around there, it's just not as tight as it should be. Patrick Wilson really is the reason to see this one, he's simply marvelous as the antagonist, I'll watch whatever he does. So, with some great ideas that are executed in a not so great way, and fantastic lead performance, In the Tall Grass is definitely not the worst way to kill two hours this Halloween season.
I give In the Tall Grass 3 stars out of 5
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