Why You Need To Watch ‘In The Tall Grass’ Even If You’re Not A Horror Fan
Based on a Stephen King Novella, It’s a Must-Watch! Don’t Worry, No Spoilers!
In The Tall Grass is a movie directed by Vincenzo Natali based on a Stephen King Novella by the same name that you can find on Netflix. I have not read the novella so my review shall be based solely on what I’ve seen in the movie.
The movie begins with a pregnant lady (Becky) and her brother (Cal) on a road trip, they stop on the side of the road (a premise we are all too familiar with as horror fans, but surprise, surprise, it was actually daytime for once) due to her morning sickness. Whilst stopped, they hear a young boy calling from the tall field of grass in front of them, he sounds so close, that they can’t help but go venturing in to look for him. Another movie premise that could have been completely avoided had they called the police to begin with.
They encounter a family in there, Tobin the young boy who called them, his father and later on his mother — plus the family dog Freddy. Sinister things take place, and somehow, they find themselves in a repeating time loop that causes them all to repeatedly be drawn into the grass field by each other. At some point throughout this, the father (Travis) of the pregnant lady’s baby gets ensnared in all of this as he comes looking for them.
Most Memorable Quote:
“Don’t worry son, it’s just flesh. And all flesh is grass.”
— Tobin’s Dad
I think this is a great “gateway” horror movie for non-horror fans. It’s not a jump scare type of movie, nor is it excessively gory, which I know is something that deters a lot of people from horror movies. In my opinion, it’s not that far a step up from a thriller movie. The plot was more fleshed out and the characters did feel adequately fully dimensional. Yes, it’s always nice to know more about character motivations, but then again there is only so much character depth that can occur when you’re running for your lives in a grass field. You can’t exactly have a soliloquy on your passions in life in a situation like that, can you?
I do find the prospect of the nuclear family versus the more modern-day progressive unwed family to be an interesting take. Especially, with how it ended, I wonder if there’s an underlying message that we can extrapolate from that.
There were also some wonderful cinematography moments where they played with effects over the blades of glass which was cool too. That moment where the water droplet curled off the blade of glass and fell on his eye was a really well-done shot.
All in all, this is a movie that I would show to friends that can handle a bloody crime show’s level of gore and would enjoy a mysterious plot that always comes full circle. I think I would have liked more grass lore on how or why the place was created, but maybe I‘ll just read the novella to find that out. Overall, I rate it a 9/10 and a must-watch even if you’re not a horror fan. Check out the trailer for yourself below.
