Tall Men (2016) User Reviews

Long, painful, and nothing happens

[religioneliminator · 4/10 · 10 May 2017]

What a waste of time. I watch B movies, even C movies but this should get a "Z" for zero. The main actor is very good but the movie lacks content, action, dialogue, it's like watching one of those teen log on Facebook or YouTube. Someone THOUGHT this would be interesting, it is a sleeper. I had to convince myself to stay awake that something should happen, but nope, nothing much.

If you like to watch teens do nothing and have no life, this is a movie for you, otherwise stay away, you will want to destroy your TV!

Once again the main actor is great, if he is not mentally challenged then he is a very good actor.

Some people might "get" this movie, well I did NOT! I got the twist but I mean I don't get the waste of time and money to create such a flick that could have been a short on any channel.

A paranoid schizophrenic's spiral into oblivion.

[Jetsetcat · 5/10 · 6 June 2020]

This is a low budget unconventional movie with an atmosphere of the creepy, the bizarre and the disturbing. I am surprised at the bad reviews as it certainly isn't perfect, but it makes a nice change from the endless rollout of cookie cutter samey samey horror movie fare. I liked it and savoured observing the predictable decline of the principal character, his delusions masking the true horror of what was really happening. A mild twist at the end perhaps slightly tongue in cheek. Definitely not for everyone, but comfortably occupies its niche.

The strangest of films

[wbafanclub12 · 3/10 · 1 July 2021]

Well, there is a plot. There is a beginning, middle and end. And if you had to pick a genre, you would call it a horror.

Only its not scary. I'm not even sure it was trying to be. By the acting, the directing and the cinematography, you almost feel like you are watching some sort of dream. But not quite. And if the makers could have pulled that bit off properly, then it might have been a decent flick. But they didn't, and it wasn't.

It just could have been so much better. I actually like the idea, but poorly executed.

Can't describe much further without giving spoilers so will leave this review as vague as the film.

Oh My God....

[umjetnik_david-1 · 2/10 · 13 May 2017]

So... what can you say about this one.... OMG what a movie... It was terrible... Acting was OK for a low budget movie but everything else just terrible. I rated only one other movie with 2 (Monsters in the woods) and thought I'll never see one as bad as that, but boy was I wrong. Plot is interesting for about 20 minutes, but then you realize nothing happens, and that's it for you. Nothing happens. I don't write reviews that much but I am so angry right now for losing more than two hours on this... not much more to say about it really...

P.S. It's not a Slenderman movie as it looks by the cover

Wtf

[thelyndzz · 2/10 · 10 May 2017]

I was very bummed after watching this. It had good reviews and I thought I'd be like Slender Man. It was boring and it dragged out. My husband fell asleep. Some of the images were a little creepy which is why I have it a 2. It's about a kid that has mental disorders. Near the beginning you see him filing for bankruptcy. Like a few weeks later or something he gets a black credit card in the mail. Maybe it was apart of his mental disorder but he ended up activating it (compulsion? ?). Never said why he did after he was just bank robbed. Then these Tall Men was following him and his friends around, I guess to gather up information about him? His boss ended up getting beat up and let him go so he had no money to make a payment. To cut to the chase the tall men broke his fingers and beat him up and killed his friends and made it look like he did it. At the very end the lawyer who did his bankruptcy was the boss of the tall men and would send out credit cards out to people he knew wouldn't be able to pay....It really made no sense. I guess he bugged his phone and the detectives that were at his house also worked for him... there was just a lot unexplained. Wasn't worth the rental.

OMG I want my 2 hours back

[nowego · 1/10 · 9 May 2017]

I actually sat through this movie (hard to call it that). Completely unsure why, but here is my review and warning to avoid it.

The first thing you will notice is the weird camera angles and complete lack of movement thereof where the characters move in and out of the shot. It is like they are on fixed tripods with no operator. Security camera footage comes to mind all the way through the movie.

Nothing much really happens and if these are professional actors and film makers, they must have second jobs, no way they could make a living as actors. I have seen better home videos than this.

A rule of thumb I tend to stick to, if a movie is longer than 80 minutes it is usually worth watching. This one breaks that rule with ease.

This is not worth watching, it is just boring.

Final three words or warning, AVOID AVOID AVOID.

so so bad i turned it off

[jonerogers · 1/10 · 22 June 2017]

What can i say? well in my 53 years alive i have only ever turned off a film 3 times and this is the third. i got to the last 15 minutes and could bear it no more. i am a film fanatic of most genre and watch a great deal in a week. This film let me down, how this even made it onto a film reel and not on the cutting room floor i don't know. it made no sense at all, was like a groundhog day in a continuous loop of around 3 minutes. i tried and tried to look at it in any light but the only light i think it would look good in is with the projector off and the lights up. I cannot even tell you what was so bad as it has warped my mind and left me in a totally comatose state of not knowing if i actually dreamed this whole foul episode or an alien ship landed and the little green men strapped me into a chair and sucked my brains out through my nose and left a huge void and then made me watch it. basically steer clear of this, i fear for your life should you succumb to watch it to see what was so bad.. Don't DO IT!!!

Unremarkable

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 21 September 2018]

TALL MEN is another cheap and digital indie horror/thriller with a slant towards the generic. It does have a bit more promise than some in terms of plot development and the like but it's still very unremarkable and hackneyed. An ordinary guy takes out a credit loan but soon discovers that his creditors are none other than sinister and suited 'slender man' types designed to menace him. This offers a very mundane depiction of suburban life. It's overlong and has way too little suspense to recommend it.

Sustained hypnotic weirdness

[Mikelikesnotlikes · 6/10 · 9 May 2017]

TALL MEN is strange and atmospheric from start to finish. It is extremely well produced and show-cases just what can be done on a tight budget.

You don't notice the budgetary constraints as the film tightly focuses on what a strange and timid creature Terence is. His disturbing mannerisms fixate us as we anxiously anticipate the next unusual visual and wonder if Terence's problems are real or all in his head. The constant background tones are very unnerving and supposedly this is an irritant schizophrenics must deal with every day.

They certainly could have ended the film without the last 5 minutes but people seem to demand some sort of closure. Either that or the writer despises people who don't pay their debts and was determined to hammer this hate home. If so, the punishments don't fit the 'crime'.

TALL MEN isn't for everyone. Especially not a horror traditionalist. I thought it was worth more than 5 stars though.

would be better as a series

[businmotion · 4/10 · 28 October 2017]

it could be trimmed down a lot in time, some scenes could be cut; That being said I'd like to see this turned into a series. Pat Cashman needed more screen time as he is the Voice of Seattle. Some really great parts in the movie though. As is I give it a 4, but with some work it can be a Ten.........

A little slow but horrifying thriller

[littlenibedita · 8/10 · 28 May 2017]

This movie starts slow but it is pretty good psychological thriller among the recent thriller movies i watch. 2 hrs might be a bit too much but it is good enough with the concept and acting of the main character. Well gave it a 8 stars for its concept and wonderfully displayed low budget movie.

Horror with a difference

[aldiboronti · 7/10 · 10 May 2017]

A young boy invites his friend, a girl, over to his house. His mother smilingly watches them going upstairs but when they are out of sight the smile disappears and her face becomes troubled. Something happens, although we're not told what. Flash forward to when the boy is a young man, living in the same house. His mother has died and he lives there alone. Or so it would seem. We see him seated at a table. Behind him on the wall is a very strange picture, the strangeness of which alerts us that something is very wrong in this house.

First let me say that I enjoyed the film. Some might think it boring but if you just let the weirdness envelop you it becomes, as another reviewer said, hypnotic.

It's obvious the director has been heavily influenced by early David Lynch, the whole movie recycles Eraserhead right down to the same sort of background music. Clearly the Lynchian genius is missing but if you enjoy Lynch I think you'll enjoy this.

A director to watch.

Slender meets it follows meets birdemic (in all the wrong ways) (spoiler)

[foxythemanfoxrobot · 2/10 · 17 September 2017]

When I saw "Gravitas Ventures" come forward from the darkness I knew this wasn't going to be fun. This movie is a two hour long garbage fire. The camera work and acting remind me of "birdemic". It has great characters like, awkward main guy, crazy chick, and asshole best friend. "The tall men" on the poster are a rip-off of "the Slender man" which was a character that was known for his pale, featureless face and exaggerated height. "The Tall Men" in the actual movie aren't supernatural, in fact they aren't even that tall at the uncommon height of about 6'3 and don't do ANYTHING until the 1:20 mark. The "It Follows" comparison comes from "the tall men" as well because they truly start to do stuff after the main guy gets a new credit card, kinda like how the demon in "It Follows" starts to follow after sex. I can say one thing about this movie, there is not a good shot in this movie, and that is somewhat impressive. This movie is one of the worst bad movies I've ever seen. It's not funny. Don't Watch This Movie.

So I wasn't the only one...

[odst-74290 · 3/10 · 10 February 2018]

I just saw thia movie 2 days ago, and what started as a thriller somehow ended up as a comedy for me and my wife, I was going to just fall asleep but some of the bad acting and just the way the movie was got to me. It became so funny I ended up making my wife have a laughing attack. Anyway about the movie? I could not makes most sense of the plot at all, sure I could tell he was broke and made some bankrupcy deal( which looks more like he's making a deal with the devil) but there's no explanation as to what's going on with the grandma or the house, it looks like he killed a girl in the beggining... No light shed on that, lack of suspenseful music even, among many many other things. One good thing, it teched me not to grab a credit card or at least read the fine print. But to connect money and horror in a movie? There's definitely a way, I've seen some really good ones, like 13 Sins for example. But this is not the way. Good laugh, credit lesson learned, bad horror..

Made little sense

[cloudcrunch · 1/10 · 27 June 2021]

This film seemed to have no premise, understanding of filmmaking or acting.

The 2.25 hours was filled mainly with long pauses and random scenery shots and it is hard to believe the characters are acrual human beings sometimes let alone the characters they are supposed to be

This does not stop the film being entertaining, but not for the reason I imagine it was intended to.

Amateur

[adamsceurope · 1/10 · 24 August 2017]

This movie screams extremely limited budget, from the bad camera angles and positioning to the sound seeming like it's being recorded from a different microphone on every shot

Now the actors... Wow could they be more out of drama school if they tried, the acting is just so basic and bad the scenarios ridiculously over acted (in a bad way) especially the main male actor

I don't know who cast these people but they need to seriously be fired along with the director and the makeup artists

Everything about this movie is just atrocious, if you've ever watched a first year drama students movie imagine that but 10x worse

I seriously don't understand how a movie company would accept to have this on there books obviously they didn't watch it before saying yes or they took it on for charity

All in all this is one of the worst movies I have ever had the displeasure of watching

My mind has run away and won't come back!

[wizziemobile · 1/10 · 5 July 2018]

What a load of dung... very very bad slow and mind numbing!!! The worst film I've seen...

Amateur film

[mikehillpropertymanager · 1/10 · 16 July 2017]

Bad dialog, bad lighting, fair sound, terrible acting and too political! This movie is proof that Hollywood actors and film peeps have mental disorder. Don't waste your time/money. This garbage would would be very useful to students of the film arts to see so that they can learn what NOT to do. From now on I know to check for the name Jonathan Hollbrook BEFORE viewing it to make sure I don't waste my time and money.

Could've stepped up a few stars with more selective editing

[tbeuackerilc · 6/10 · 22 May 2017]

There's a good movie in here, somewhere. Unfortunately, it's shown in fits and starts between a few too many stretches of nothing. I get it, I think. The director uses pacing to try to draw us into the lead character's mundane world, adding exclamation points to all of the insanity that starts to take hold. Maybe the editor did too good a job at accentuating the mundane aspects though, since the pacing is likely to test a lot of viewers' patience.

I noticed from the crew list that the writer/director is also, yes, you guessed it, the editor. Might be a problem of wearing one too many creative hats, without another keen eye to help point out the faults. The old writer cliché of "kill your babies" when they don't work applies. Shame, since there's a lot to like here. The director's eye is interesting, with bizarre and often witty visual imagery. The story is odd and at times engrossing, when it's not left to simmer three days too long.

The cast is great too, surprisingly, for the budget of the film. They all play in an intentionally over-the-top manner that works very well. The lead, who's in almost every shot, and the rest of the bizarre characters really lift the film up, which might be easier if the editor could slice off a few hundred pounds.

I enjoyed the film since quite honestly I like weird crap. But it's not for everyone and it has nothing to do with slender-men, despite the misleading cover. I really hope the film gets another cut. Without the bloat it could maybe even be a modern cult classic. As for now, it hovers at a 6/10. Very flawed, but very interesting.

This movie stinks

[aieshagadd · 1/10 · 28 September 2018]

I watched for 5 muniutes and immediately clicked off because it looks like it was filmed with one camera and the storyline doesn't add up

Mysterious Tense

[MikeMvrd · 8/10 · 10 August 2020]

Jonathan Holbrook being famed for Beloved Beast he gives a different and more awkward vision to see, almost as if we are visiting the other side of Sleuth Town where time has stopped and this misery or unjust feeling to the people in Tall Men simply accept it and carry on their lives.

The story adds some tense feeling of the main character who we clearly see is not right. I enjoy the "what's lurking in the shadows" vibe of the film.

You don't always need car chases and a series of violence to get a reaction you need.

The Babylonian Brotherhood

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 5 July 2017]

Terrance (Dan Crisafulli) does an unknown horrible deed as a child and we now see him as an adult. He works at a warehouse and lives in a house that is paid for, yet has gross financial troubles. He is haunted by "tall men" who may or may not be real as we see Terrance is on medication. He is socially awkward and twitchy. Lucy (Kay Whitney) likes him. Edith (Jennifer Angelucci-Medina) gives us a clue as to what is happening in Terrance's world that ties into a theme that the men in charge and Republicans are shape shifting alien reptiles that will use unscrupulous means to take all of our money. This film is a dark satire.

The movie is long. It has scenes that move slow and downright stand still, yet still hold an interest. The bad part of the film is that you wait for a payoff in the end and it was a bit under whelming. People are caricatures by design. The production also holds clues that you don't know are clues, like the tub in the yard. A lot of thought went into the film which is slightly more art house than entertaining. Clearly this film is not for everyone.

Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.

Tall Men is a good view

[deefaah · 6/10 · 22 May 2017]

The title "Tall Men," seems to direct a viewer to the idea to expect to see similarities of a "Slender Man," theme. The description of the movie, tells the viewer that the man is "challenged," mentally or has a disability. In some of the scenes, the main character as well as his friends, were all taking psychological "meds." These actors were excellent at the task to act as "challenged characters". This did not look easy. The actors' emotions, speech and facial expressions were "very," credible. There was some humor, when adults argue like children. This movie is like an "Alfred Hitchcock," style end result for making a bad decision. Today's world, take advantage of the elderly, handicapped, disabled, and mentally challenged people. This movie is a fine example of it. Watch this movie to see, who would you believe?

A movie to watch when you're high

[IndridC0ld · 8/10 · 25 May 2018]

This film was not meant to viewed when one is not high. To do so misses the point of this genera of film. This is the kind of film you watch after cruising around with your friends in a beater car smoking a couple of bowls. You can't expect to be entertained by a 3D movie if you won't put on the silly glasses. Similarly, this will only be wildly entertaining to any stoner. A similar film would be the old Chuck Norris film, Silent Rage. The acting in that film was over the top, and the plot was quite silly. BUT, smoke a bone, and you will laugh so hard you'll hurt the next day.

Recommended.

[parry_na · 7/10 · 21 June 2018]

Director and writer Jonathan Holbrook's very slow, colour-drained, experiment in minimalism is probably an acquired taste. I really like it. At 2hrs and 13 minutes, chances are it goes on too long, but I don't find that a huge problem. It isn't an ordinary story and it doesn't feature ordinary people. Sometimes the relentless turnaround of eccentric characters gets a little much, but this approach eases us into a world seen through the eyes of main character, paranoid schizophrenic Terrence Mackleby (Dan Crisafulli).

The style is unmistakably 1950s in flavour and throughout the moments not graced by the soundtrack, there is a feint hollow sound, like a breeze or an echo, barely perceptible, but enough to add to the mysterious David Lynch-type atmosphere.

Other sound effects are used very effectively also. Floorboard creaks, footsteps are matched with very occasional images of the Tall Men of the title - blurred, reflected, half seen behind doors. There is a genuinely unnerving style of story-telling here. And things get progressively nasty and perverse - this, on top an already skewed canvas, becomes enthralling.

Terrance is difficult to get close to as a character. That's nothing to do with Crisafulli's acting, which is excellent. His condition causes him to get into monetary difficulties again and again. The latest credit card company seems to offer him a way out from his troubles but the price to pay for non-repayment is nightmarish, and naturally he soon finds himself in a deadly situation. Odd, slow-burning and very powerful, 233 minutes nevertheless goes by surprisingly quickly. Recommended.