Based on the 2012 book of the same name by Stephen King and Joe Hill, In The Tall Grass is the latest from Netflix and writer/director, Vincenzo Natali, which follows Becky (Laysla De Oliveira) and her brother, Cal (Avery Whitted), who hear cries for help from a young boy in a massive field saying he can’t find his way back to the road. They both enter the field, hoping to help the boy, Tobin (Will Buie Jr.), but they soon realize that the field seems to operate with its own rules of time and space, making them stuck and unable to find their way out.
Leave it to King (and his son) to try and make something as innocuous as grass scary, but given the right execution, it can work. And for the most part, that is the case with In The Tall Grass. Having someone like Natali (of Cube and Splice fame) take the helm of a simple premise like this allows for some fascinating and beautiful stylistic flourishes that gives the film a surreal and sinister vibe, which is enhanced by the score from Mark Korven, which leans heavily on primal and hissy chant-like sounds. The work put in by the filmmakers do a lot in elevating the material.
The film operates on a fine tightrope walk for the first 50 minutes or so. Much of that time is spent following the various characters as they wander lost and confused, yelling out each other’s names. Under less delicate hands, this could easily become tedious, and to less patient viewers, I imagine it probably still will. However, there’s enough fun and creepy details and moments thrown around during this section that I didn’t mind the buildup, especially considering how much weirder and gruesome it ultimately gets in the latter half of the story.
The problems mostly arise when it comes to the characters themselves. They aren’t particularly compelling, and most of them are thinly drawn. There appears to be a slight thread with Becky’s character, where she is pregnant, and she’s making her way to San Diego to give her child to a family. Through the course of the film, she talks about her doubts, especially when her boyfriend, Travis (Harrison Gilbertson), enters the picture, and given the way it concludes, it seems like it’s about a woman coming to terms with her own maternal instincts, which – if that was the intention – is a bit sloppily realized.
The one aspect that helps keep things really engaging is Patrick Wilson, who shows up as Tobin’s father, Ross, who has clearly been affected by whatever otherworldly force that resides in the grass. Naturally, being the one veteran performer in the cast, he brings the most personality to the table, which is clearly evident when he bursts onto the screen seemingly as a helpful guy, but soon revealing to be something far more dangerous, in a way that reminds me of his performance from Insidious: Chapter 2. Whenever he is actively a part of the film, he brings a kooky deranged energy to the proceedings.
In The Tall Grass is an effectively creepy film with bursts of disturbing gruesomeness. Had the characters been more fully realized, it might have been far more memorable and interesting, but as is, it’s perfectly serviceable horror fare that doesn’t overstay its welcome. When it focuses on the unknowing, Lovecraftian horror, it works, and it manages to lean on that for most of the film while not spoon-feeding too many answers as to what is going on. Vincenzo Natali’s approach to the material is smart and visceral and largely unnerving, and while there are elements here and there that could have been improved upon, it’s still a solid watch.