Directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Patrick Wilson (“The Conjuring“), the latest Netflix supernatural thriller ‘In the Tall Grass’ is based on a novella by father and son Stephen King and Joe Hill.
While Stephen King is considered as the king of horror, somehow this story, in particular, does not deliver horror in the traditional sense but makes it intriguing enough to provoke our thoughts on the essence of life and the choices.
The film is not that scary but twisted to the core to keep our heads rolling. Nevertheless, the whole idea of getting lost in a maze-like place (here inside the dense field of tall grass), without knowing an exact way out, is terrifying.
If you plan to watch ‘In the Tall Grass’, here is the official trailer.
“In the Tall Grass” follows a pregnant woman Becky and her brother Cal who on their way home stop on the side of the road as Becky was feeling sick. She starts hearing a boy crying for help from the dense field of grass by the road. They both try to find the boy but soon get lost inside the vast field of grass. As time goes on, weird things start happening and they end up only going around in circles, not finding a way out.
Soon the story brings in more characters, including the family of the boy, who also seems to be trapped in the place. The tall grass plays the mysterious force that draws its victim and plays in their mind to trick them to do something weird. The timeline of the storyline also gets overlapped as characters get confused, even die, and then come alive again in a cycle of life and death.
The premise of the film is very interesting but never goes deep into explaining the things happening on screen. The writing tries to keep it simple, yet there are emotional and psychological elements that would keep us thinking and prompt us to relate certain things in our lives in general.
The reference can be life, the purpose, the path we choose or the decisions we take that affect others. Moreover, while the continuous time-loop in the film probably suggests that there seems to be no way out of what we’ve been destined to experience, the whole essence of life choices and the actions we take somehow open possibilities.
Here the tall grass can be referred to as the evil force that often tries to trick us to commit things for which we may not even get a chance for redemption. Well, the film never directly tries to refer to anything as such, however, in a premise like this, we can certainly think of dreams, nightmares, coincidence, or any such things in our lives that many times direct us towards better ways to go. It is up to us whether we listen to the voices or follow the forces of nature.
In the end, ‘In the Tall Grass’ might not be scary as the average horror film, but it has its claustrophobic environment and a mysterious setup that makes it an interesting watch. The performance of its cast is also good to keep the flow of the situations while delivering a mixture of mind-boggling thriller and horror.
Movie Details: In the Tall Grass, Based on the novella by Stephen King and Joe Hill
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Laysla De Oliveira, Avery Whitted, Harrison Gilbertson, Rachel Wilson, Will Buie Jr.
Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Genres: Films Based on Books, Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Horror Films
Release Date/Year: September 20, 2019 (Fantastic Fest), October 4, 2019 (United States)
Streaming Platform: Now streaming on Netflix.
Where to watch In the Tall Grass (2019)
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