In the Tall Grass (2019) User Reviews

From creepy and interesting to bizarre.

[paulclaassen · 4/10 · 2 February 2021]

Ok, this was different. Ah, and there's a pregnant woman, which immediately elevates the suspense level. The film features good performances from the small cast, and has a constant foreboding atmosphere.

However, as with most Stephen King penned stories, 'In the tall grass' went from creepy and interesting, to weird and mysterious, to bizarre. It's going to be really hard describing this movie to someone. Although it will be best to see it for yourself, I honestly can't really recommend the film. There are some genuinely creepy moments with effective jump scares, but ultimately the payoff just wasn't worth it.

If you're into this sort of confusing storyline, rather watch the 2009 film 'Triangle', which was similar themed but far better.

Would I watch it again? No.

I got trapped into this purgatory only after seeing Patrick Wilson in the trailer. Weak plot stretched unnecessary into 101 mins of boring grasses n wtf stone.

[Fella_shibby · 4/10 · 5 October 2019]

The trailer is enticing, the names associated is even more enticing. I saw this only cos of Patrick Wilson. Stephen King's name wasn't suffice to pull me into this purgatory. It is directed by Vincenzo Natali, the guy who gave us Cube, an awesome thriller. In this film he takes the similar concept from his previous movie Haunter which is decent compared to this.

There is unnecessary repetitive scenes of a pregnant woman screaming, irritating scenes of blurred visions, 101 mins of jus grass swaying which gets repetitive n boring. Ther is absolutely no explanation. I used to think that only Victor Crowley cud smash a person's face/head with bare hands but u have to check out a scene in this film. In some scenes, the child's acting is weak. He is seen trying to control his laughter. Mayb he was laughing at the lousy plot.

Better films on similar concept : Farmhouse, Triangle (Melissa George) n Haunter.

The Intriguing Supernatural Field

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 11 October 2019]

While traveling to San Diego, Cal DeMuth (Avery Whitted) stops the car nearby a tall grass field since his pregnant sister Becky (Laysla De Oliveira) is sick and need to vomit. They overhear the cry for help from a young boy and decide to look for the boy in the field. Soon they realize the field is a supernatural place that manipulates time and space and there is no way out from the tall grass.

"In the Tall Grass" is an intriguing supernatural horror movie with a story based on a novel of Stephen King that recalls a creepy episode of The Twilight Zone. The conclusion is open to interpretation but if the boy succeeds to stop Cal and Becky, Travis will probably never look for them and consequently would be also saved. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Campo do Medo" ("Field of the Fear")

A lot of grass, and screaming.

[skamt-ml · 3/10 · 5 October 2019]

So this was a utter disappointment. It kinda starts out interesting, for the first 5 or 10 minutes or so. And then the screaming starts. And then the shots of the grass starts. There's so much annoying footage of the goddamn grass and I kept asking myself why is this so important to the plot? I cried inside and begged to the gods, please stop this screaming and yelling and stop feeding me all this grass. By now you might ask yourself why I just didn't turn it of? I don't know, it became about prestige I guess. To sum it up, it reminded me so much of all the pointless and bad Stephen King adaptions from the 90s. Trust me I'm a big genre fan and this is just a waste of your time.

Don't go in there

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 7 March 2020]

Stephen King - I should have known. All the ingredients are there. So as you can guess then, I have not read the novel this is based on. But I did like the basic idea/theme this is build upon. Actually the very beginning is very strong and that carries throughout the movie.

While it does that, the movie itself feels like it loses a bit of traction, once every character and piece is introduced. I can only imagine (no pun intended), how this is written and how much plays in the mind of the reader. As a movie there are limitations, especially when it comes to one dimensional portrayals - or what feels like paper thin motivation at least. Still enough suspense here and overall a good horror movie.

No. Just No.

[Lucystone91 · 1/10 · 16 October 2019]

I don't write reviews. This one made me. I cannot in good conscience allow any coherent individual to suffer through this hot mess. Sometimes you read a review of a movie that is so bad, you want to watch it to see just how bad it is. Please don't with this one. Grass. Yelling. Grass. Screaming. Cal. Becky. Travis. A rock. Darkness. Chanting. There. That's it. You're welcome.

For those confused....

[Craigelink · 7/10 · 7 October 2019]

Basically 6 people are stuck in a time loop that lures them into a field. For those that watched this thinking what the hell did i watch, i'm so confused, the best i can offer is this.

The grass is in front of the church, thus the grass is pergatory, the rock is the is the judge of who is a sinner and who is not. The grass is punishing you for your sins, and then only releasing those that pass its judgement.

By travis admitting his sins he was granted a second chance at life and saved along with those he loved. Tobin is either an innocent and was spared, or he was kept there also after being judged by the stone as his parents talk about how he is badly behaved early on. The church is where those that absolve their sins are sent to move on. Tobin's dad continued to sin whilst being judged, and is doomed to live in pergatory. Animals arent supposed to have souls in some religions, and thus couldn't leave. Tobin's mum isnt explained but i assume she too failed the sinning test since she also can't leave. The tree people are tortured souls unable to move on due to continued sin, and are driven mad from eating grass seeds for sustainance. Becky is forced to eat her child as punishment for considering aborting it and having it out of wedlock.

The cars at the church of the cars of those that didnt past the test in the field saying this has been happening for ages and is unstoppable. The dude crushing his wife's head?!! No idea, Im guessing perhaps a glimmer of the suffering that will await you if you are judged to be evil? The phone call to herself was to show her you can't change fate, this has been planned all along and is not stoppable. The scenes with multiple bodies of themselves dead is to show how many times they have failed and force them to see or a punishment for each sin.

All i got. If I'm wrong, someone please explain it!!!

Worse than titanic 2

[leahjabrown · 1/10 · 5 October 2019]

This really is a terrible film and so boring. Spoiler alert: the script throughout the entire thing consists only of

"Becky?!" "Travis! You there?!" "Becky ... Where are you?!.... Becky ?! Becky?!" "Travis I'm here! I'm scared!" "Becky, where are you?" "Cal?!?!" "Becky! Follow my voice!"

I liked it !

[bsamad-50088 · 7/10 · 22 November 2019]

I almost didn't watch this movie because of the low ratings here but i decided to give it a chance and definitely not as bad as some people here claim , this movie first of all get you think what's going on and start analyzing things and i like that , so here is what i think about the movie , so i guess the whole point is that the grass is punishing people with sins by trapping them into a time loops where the same thing happen to them over and over endlessly! However, if you finally admit your wrongdoings and decide to change that the rock is giving you another chance and a way out , for ross he was a lier ! That's why when he touched the rock he was corrupted, he was trying to sell lies and tell them that by touching the rock you will be redeemed! Tobin touched the rock but nothing happened to him because he is a child and didn't have any sins !! Travis touched it but because he admit that he was wrong about leaving becky and that he was a jerk by doing that the rock gave him a chance to save becky and his own son , this means that travis was able to break the loop , as a result becky changed her mind about giving her child to that family and decided to go back and not go into the grass , this means also that travis doesn't have to come to look for them in the first place because they are not lost ( the loop is broken ) and becky and travis will be together again and maybe live together!

It's a field and, um, I, hmm

[referencegirl · 3/10 · 6 October 2019]

So, it's a field. What else? Time travel? Portals into alternate dimensions? Crazy white male controlling Christian nuts? Rape? Murderous cult? Death? Miscarriage? How about evil masquerading under the cover of childhood innocence? All of these possibilities show up in glimpses but none are completely fleshed out. Along the way there are dead things, flies, maggots, mud, and screaming - lots and lots of screaming. The screaming was scary the first couple of times and then I stopped caring. What am I supposed to be afraid of? I have no idea.

The Tall Grass, The Giant Rick,The Church= The Redeemer

[thebahrams · 8/10 · 6 October 2019]

This is one of those movies, if you fail to miss a small scene, then it will really confuse the hell out of you. My understanding of this movie is that the big giant rock in the centre of the field is linked to the church. In the bible, the New Testament the redemption word group is used to refer both to deliverance from sin and to freedom from captivity. The two main characters story is that Becky is leaving to give her child away to another family and leaving her husband. When they both hear a voice of a child calling for help. Both go into the field searching for him.

What happens next they are all lost and searching for one another. Why I say the Rock is the redeemer, you touch it and it shows you the way back out? Simple- Ross has touched it and instead he turned into a greed man, who wanted nothing but to keep selling the idea of touching the rock is amazing- resembling a liar of a salesman; at the beginning of the story you see him on the phone talking to a member of staff regarding being untruthful, deceptive. That's why he would never show others the way around as he just wanted other to buy the idea of touching the rock.

Tobin touched it; he was a child and said he knew the way out at the beginning- told Travis to touch it but he didn't. Tobin was free of sin and that's why nothing had happened to him.

Becky; didn't touch the rock but the rock showed her a big lesson- of not giving the child away by feeding her the child, one flesh.

Cal touched it; he Continued to die every-time, why because loved his sister more then he should, he kept telling her to continue the journey it giving your child away and leaving the father, he pushed Travis- attempted murder and continued to sin.

Travis touching the rock- killed Ross first who was a man of sin to save himself and the rest. By touching the rock he did find the way out, sent the child back to stop Becky and Cal every entering the grass and stopping Travis every coming to search for them. The boy turns up in the church a person free of sin to send a message to Becky that taking the child away from his father is a bad idea, so she decided to return and stop by the police station to help the child as his parents are dead, dad being a sinner and killing his wife.

It is a moving maze with only one way out, touch the rock and if you are sin free you are redeemed back into the church.

Not as bad as people are making it out to be

[apommermstore · 7/10 · 5 October 2019]

So, this is not by any means a ground breaking piece of cinema. That being said I found it to be rather enjoyable. I put it on at 11:30 at night thinking it would be something to fall asleep to. Let's face it, most unknown films you find randomly scrolling through netflix usually are good for a snooze and that's about it. I ended up engrossed in the film and watched it all the way to the end feeling rather involved in the story. I see a lot of people complaining about how the characters made bad decisions. This is a horror film people, horror wouldn't exist if it weren't for people making bad decisions. If characters did the smart thing in any horror film it would be about 5 minutes long. Secondly the film's ending is quite easily understood ad long as you dont need your plots soon fed to you. Solid acting, good atmosphere and an amusing if not horribly original plot. You could definitely find worse things to watch.

This movie can kiss my grass

[aray-hicks · 1/10 · 7 October 2019]

I tried, but it's bad. I had to fast forward through some parts because I was just looking at grass. CG grass, moving grass, dark grass.

A stupid story with bland characters and nothing to redeem it

[jtindahouse · 4/10 · 9 October 2019]

I remember 'Family Guy' once making a joke about how Stephen King just looks at an item in the room (in their example a desk lamp) and decides that will be the topic of his next book. It's kind of hard to argue with that when he starts writing about grass. At least when he wrote about corn back in the day he threw some evil children into the mix as well. The result is a pretty unwatchable film on this occasion.

These are the laziest types of stories in existence. Nothing is explained and of course anything that you need to drive your story forward can and will happen. Time travel? Sure. Teleportation? Why not. And if a character dies in one scene, don't worry they'll likely be back in the next. Add in that the characters were about as bland as they ever come and you have yourself a pretty unenjoyable movie. In fact it is almost impossible to root for or care about a single character in this movie because less than zero time is spent building them up as characters.

Even Patrick Wilson, one of my favourite actors working today, couldn't save this mess unfortunately - although I'll give him credit, he did try valiantly. There's just nothing good here. It's a movie that repeats itself over and over and has nothing to say about anything. It is as pointless as films come. I'm very glad this one came to Netflix, because I'm the sucker who probably would've paid to see it in cinemas and been very disappointed. Avoid this one.

Technically Impressive, Narratively Lacking - It's an Enjoyable Mixed Bag

[TwistedContent · 7/10 · 4 October 2019]

This is the 3rd Netflix feature film Stephen King adaptation (Gerald's Game, 1922) and, for what it's worth, I think they can surely make some more. "In the Tall Grass" is not flawless, but it's entertaining, aesthetically pleasing & there's great bits in an otherwise mixed bag.

A lot of people are and will call "In the Tall Grass" pointless or empty, and it's true that its biggest flaw is the near miniature plot. The story never leads to anything shocking, huge or, well, to nothing quite satisfying enough. The shallowness of the main story line is compensated with shabby side plots of some of the characters. Sadly, I have not expierenced the novella and can't do any comparisons. I've read a LOT of King though. Besides the story, there were other aspects that kept me watching & engaged. Compliments to the cinematographer and camera & sound crews - technically "In the Tall Grass" is a treat, the stylistic solutions add a lot to the atmosphere & the sound design is the kind that can give you goosebumps given that you have the hardware of a melomaniac. Besides the technical side of the movie the acting's also top level, as much as it could be taking into account the script & characters. You'll probably find yourself not caring for one or few of them, but if one thing's for sure it's that Patrick Wilson most definitely doesn't fail to entertain. The pacing is quite fine - the middle part might get slower but it picks up again.

Overall "In the Tall Grass" is a mood piece, if you're not looking for a lot of substance, this is a good horror movie to watch loudly & in the darkness. I'll eat up any Stephen King adaptation and this one's grantedly above average. My rating: 7/10.

Another Netflix stinker.....

[mme3924-1 · 1/10 · 18 October 2019]

Which should be better, considering it is based on a Stephen King novella and features Patrick Wilson.

But no. There's nothing here worth watching unless tall grass, lost people (in more ways than one), a lot of screaming, boring characters, and garbled themes of personal choice, responsibility, redemption and evil are your thing, and you crave a story with no point and worse denouement.

Here's the plot, such as it is. A young pregnant woman and her brother, driving to San Diego, stop by a field of tall grass because she has a bout of nausea. While stopped they hear a child calling for help from the grass. Instead of calling 911 and staying put as any sensible person would, they walk into the grass, which is over their heads, to rescue the child, and are soon lost themselves. The first 15 minutes are fairly intriguing, but it rapidly deteriorates into ....well, a field of grass, calling one another's names, time shifts, and confusion.

It occurs to me that Stephen King may have had his tongue in his cheek, writing about "grass" and getting lost in it, unable to find a way out. Or maybe he was quite seriously using "grass" as a metaphor for making bad choices (like everyone who goes into the field), and then being literally "lost". Or not. Whatever his motivation or the actual novella, this film is a waste of time. Instead of watching it, go mow the grass; you'll have spent your time better and feel greater satisfaction.

Religious symbols abound

[nloddo-09125 · 7/10 · 7 October 2019]

Interesting enough, I have found very few reviews online (outside IMBD) regarding the heavy religious symbolism here. King often pits good vs. evil with religious symbolism. So, as soon as I saw the church and the rock, I looked up the biblical references.

Each of the characters' names contains religious significance. The name meanings put together as follows: Christmas & God is Good (Natalie & Tobin) and Virgin to join crossroads (Virginia/Becky/Travis).

Cal-check out the history of John Calvin and the Calvinist movement/protestant reformation/predestination/control over one's destiny, etc.

Ross- Check out James Francis Ross, famous philosopher of, among other things, religion, including Renaissance/enlightened thought.

The church & rock: Jesus built his church on the rock. Many believe Peter was the rock. There's also a bible quote about the gates of Hades not prevailing against the rock. Though we see what appears to be some sort of possible gateway to hell open beneath Becky. Also, check out the Catholic ideas about those who may create doctrine, etc, which originates with the story of Peter and the rock. All befitting since Ross keeps trying to force his beliefs upon the rest of the characters.

The 2 families. Ross/Natalie/Tobin Travis/Becky/Virginia: Both mothers wearing blue like Mary in the nativity. There's even a scene when Becky gives birth and Cal is telling her about wise men bringing them gifts.

Cal also feeds her the flesh of her child-like how Mary sacrificed her son/Jesus who later fed others his flesh-the host in Catholicism. Ross refers to touching the rock as being like taking in the host - almost foreshadowing this moment that resembles taking in the host - or flashing back if you consider the time loop isues. Note,in the story, it's Cal feeding her. In the film, it starts as Cal and turns out to be Ross. Both individuals whose names represent different religious philosophies.

7 people in the field: Rebecca, in the Talmud and Bible, met Isaac in fields of beer sheba. Beersheba means the Well of Seven. Isaac built 7 wells in beersheba. 7 lambs sealed oath of Abraham (Isaac's father) in those fields. Also the site of religious wars.

Also, couldn't help thinking about the Jewish people being lost in the desert while watching these characters constantly make the wrong choices while lost in the grass/ "wilderness." Also, the version of Midnight Special they sing refers to prison which can be linked to the King concepts of how being trapped and isolated can turn people into monsters but, redemption is also possible (Shawshank Redemption/Castle Rock series kind of themes).

Becky: Check out Rebecca's story in the bible. There's even a moment when her husband pretends she's his sister to avoid her being taken and raped.

And, of course, this reminded me of Children of the Corn, a story about a cult devoted to the blue boy, but originating with the idea of worshipping the Greek goddess Artemis (I think). The beginning of Children of the Corn has a boy coming out of the field (already dead, unbeknownst to the couple who thinks they his him). It's the boy being thrown out of the field that lures the couple into the field. Also, all the mud and the blood scenes appear reminiscent of Children of the Corn with the field being fed by the dead.

Anyways, that's all I can think about for now. As for my review, if you like King and you enjoy something thought provoking,you'll enjoy it. If you're looking for a typical, shallow horror flick (which I also happen to thoroughly enjoy), this is not it. All in all, I really liked this film. But that's primarily because I believe there's a lot more than what's on the surface.

Intentions Are Good, But Fails...

[mirwais-orbit · 4/10 · 15 October 2019]

When we think about Vincenzo Natali, we think about Cube. When we think about Cube we expect that Vincenzo would be the perfect one to direct and adapt In The Tall Grass coz the feeling that the characters are trapped forever in a loop is the same. So, the deja vu is pretty clear and obvious.

Vincenzo would have been still the perfect one, but the problem about this production is that it probably takes the metaphors not too seriouly to a point that audience never gets the references because, like the characters, they get trapped in a loop of trying to understand things and solve mysteries that are pretty unimportant at first.

For those who are already familiar to Stephen King's writing will know that religion, faith, mental and physical violence, family concepts and social issues regarding those references are the base of most of his creative process, bringing them to life as disturbing fantasy and horrifying icons.

The church is there to represent heaven, the field of tall grass the purgatory, and the characters the sinners that get far away from their faith as deeper they dive in the grass, while they must discover by themselves what could finally bring them to a spiritual freedom. That's the basics, and the nuances lies among those major metaphors.

The problem is that the movie never creates an honest dialog with the audience to make references clear. It tries hard to make it a tortuous gore flick instead. Vicenzo is too worried to impress the audience with horror elements instead of creating a relevant journey to a self redeeming conscious.

The screenplay gets lost in itself like the characters in the grass. The icons, the metaphors and allegories are there all the time, but we never feel them and neither get connected to them.

That's a shame because 1922, also based on a King's novel and also filled with the same elements, does it amazingly well. The director's intentions were good, but he loses the connection when he forgets that Stephen King is much more subtle and delicate constructing an entire ecosystem on his writing than Vincenzo does on the screen. And the most important thing, King always create a dialog with his readers.

Think twilight zone and you'll get through it.

[just_in_case · 7/10 · 11 October 2019]

I liked it. It was on the level of a really well adapted Stephen King TV movie. It's horror with a dash of science fiction. I can't think of anything more descriptive than that. It gets a 7 out of 10 because it doesn't really follow its own rules and the ending is one of those "Because I believe in love" magic endings rather than something that felt really earned. Then and the dialog is hit and miss.

Wicker Man meets Groundhog Day

[ianbhunter-22967 · 1/10 · 9 October 2019]

It does feel like you've watched every blade of grass grow ten feet by the time this film ends, the biggest problem is trying to maintain any interest in this patchy and unfathomable story, to which, you just seem to give up on.

I have only just finished watching this on Netflix. Maybe I should have watched Emoji the movie instead? I just can't begin the explain what I watched, it seemed the film was only meant to be 45 minutes and they packed it out with random ideas.

I gave this film the score of one because I was happy it ended.

Good! But Prepare For Subtleties.

[brkamp · 8/10 · 7 December 2019]

The problem seems to be that some people can't handle the delightful subtlety of some of King's work. Light on plot, sure, but that's not the point. There's a single POINT of plot and everything else is only there to frame it and illustrate it. King thrives in a terrible sense of wrong. Disjointed, twisted, tied-in-knots, all of it ...wrong-but-real. Especially in the short-stories and novellas, King hyper-focuses on a POINT of something terrible and wraps detail around it.

Some adaptations are better than others. This one is really not bad. It's pretty good. The sense of wrong is prevalent, but not insistent. I love the concept of knotted, non-linear time. But even that isn't all of it. (And if you want to look, there ARE sub-plots in the relationships between the characters. But they aren't the point!)

I'm a country-boy. I grew up in farm country. And not even truly LARGE farms, by national standards! As a kid with wide freedom to roam, (free-range, as they say) there was a fear, a wariness of things like the wide corn fields. They are so huge, so endless. Half-way through you start to wonder if you are lost, how you might get out; the doubts begin to creep-in and fear takes root. Things turn sinister as the leaves of the corn give you sharp, paper-cut-like pain, drawing blood as you run through it. ...And that's in the day-time. Try it at night... and the Unknown can grow to fill the edges of the whole world. I know it. I loved it. And I carried a cheap samurai sword everytime I went out to the woods or the fields after dark.

There's some of that in this movie. And with an actor that makes a really good bad-guy. And special effects that do very well to portray a terrible, amorphous, unnameable concept.

This is a well done move. Salute to the director, who took a short novella of treacherous ideas and made a decent 90+ minutes.

Keeps you interested, enjoyable...

[rita_c-12170 · 7/10 · 4 October 2019]

Well, this is one of those films that will be like marmite, you'll love it or you'll hate it. Stephen King is unpredictable at best and he delivers again with this movie. I would love to say that you will watch it from start to end and know and understand the story line and meaning of the film but I'd be lying. It keeps you wondering and guessing throughout and gets weirder as it progresses. Yet, I was compelled to keep watching. I think it's interesting and has a deeper connection and meaning to life and the choices we make or should have made. Watch it and make up your own mind, but I loved it! My other half however, was asleep within the first 45 minutes. Like I said Marmite.... enjoy!

Just don't

[rambo-ramon-de · 2/10 · 4 October 2019]

The first 15min you are tempted to believe that the tall gras has an interesting plot. If it was a film of overall 30min, it could actually be watchable. The rest is utter crap.

nice intense slow burn mysterious thrilling film

[kaintrust · 4 October 2019]

First of all i didnt read the book. so if you wanna read a review that based on the book my review is not for you. second, i saw lots of negative comments and when i checked those writers some of them never wrote a review before and they created accounts recently. it is like they are anti marketing the movie.

In the Tall Grass starts pretty quick and leaves no time for audience to get bore. the movie grows more and more after each twisted turning point of events. it had suspense, mystery and twists. i like the acting from everyone and generally child actors at horror movies annoys me but Tobin (Will Buie Jr. ) did nice job for a child actor.

Lightning and effects were good so you see some mysteries. the movie doesnt have a gore fest but i felt like im in the edge to see whats going on, and each time some twist happens. i love that affect on me.

the movie is not a cheap gore fest it just builds a mysterious events and goes from there, and like many Stephen King novels the ending wont explain you so much either. so it was not a surprise for me.

i would highly recommend to mystery-thriller fans this movie but as i said earlier i didnt read the book so i cant compare with the source material. so maybe my review also not that suitable for some

Awful

[ndague-53329 · 1/10 · 2 December 2019]

The negative reviews on here are actually better than the movie