In the Tall Grass (2019)
Directed by Vincenzo Natali
After hearing a child screaming for help from the green depths of a vast field of tall grass, Becky, a pregnant woman, and Cal, her brother, park their car near a mysterious abandoned church and enter the field, discovering that they are not alone and, for some reason, they are unable to escape a completely inextricable vegetable labyrinth.
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3 films that influenced In the Tall Grass
What critics say influenced In the Tall Grass
Once the element of time was introduced into the story, I was reminded of Mike Flanagan’s directing style, most notably in Oculus , where he tied past and present events together into one narrative string.
Using plenty of stunning aerial footage of the tall grass, Natali makes great use of the setting, managing to keep what amounts to a bunch of people running around some grass aesthetically interesting, not unlike what he did with Cube, a film with a similar hook but a far better outcome.
Natali’s adaptation differs from the novella in some details, but as he demonstrated in his first film feature Cube in 1997, Natali is a master of mazes.
The adaptation comes from Vincenzo Natali, who has built up enough goodwill in the horror fan community with Cube (1997) and Cypher (2002), both of which have become something of a cult favorite.
He’s already covered a similar beat with the “people trapped in an unimaginable prison of which they can’t escape” epic, Cube, and he knows how to bring distinct shades of menace to a claustrophobic, repetitious setting.
Natali has proven adept at both the unconventional and the unpleasant in the past; his science-fiction oddity “Cube” is close to brilliant, and his skin-crawling “Splice” is an underappreciated gem.
It was a mesmerizing, memorable piece of writing, and so King fans have hotly anticipated its film adaptation since Netflix announced it, especially with a director like Vincenzo Natali (known for films like Cube and Splice) attached.
Becky Demuth (Laysla De Oliveira) and her noxious older brother Cal (Avery Whitted) are speeding their way through some “Jeepers Creepers” territory when we first catch up with them.