After hearing a young boy’s cry for help, a sister and brother venture into a vast field of tall grass in Kansas but soon discover there may be no way out…and that something evil lurks within.
Rated 5.4/10 on IMDB
(L-R) Rachel Wilson (Natalie, Wife), Will Buie Jr. (Tobin, Son), Patrick Wilson (Ross, Husband), Laysla De Oliveira (Becky, Sister) and Avery Whitted (Cal, Brother)
Whenever you watch a film that has been based on a book you always go in with apprehension, I mean what will they change, will they cast it right, will they do that scene? So going into this film, I found I had no idea who would be cast because we have no descriptions of anyone in the book, yes they made changes and to be honest I think on the whole they worked….and yes they kept that scene!!!!!!!!!!!! It was bone-crunchingly worse than I thought it would be.
The film opens with some horrifying music to set the tone, this film won’t be nice at all. The grass won’t be nice, the people won’t be nice but I strapped in for the ride. It starts off the same, girl and boy in a car travelling, they hear a cry for help but then there are slight changes. It is hard to always move from a book to film and to keep the audience interested. You also find that people who read the books before the film will pick holes and say, “Well that didn’t happen in the book” and yes I did that!
So what worked, well the introduction to Travis allowed us to play with the story more, it introduced a new element to film, it allowed for us to see a time-bending theory which was interesting. When Travis enters the grass Becky and Cal have been gone months…yes months!! But they only got into the grass 10 minutes ago, what the heck is going on!!
I did find it more chilling in the film when we hear Tobin crying for help but what was added this time was the fear in the mother’s voice. It is hard to convey that in a book, in the book you think that there is something wrong with the mother but here you wonder what is wrong with Tobin.
I must admit watching this film on my phone with headphones amplified the creepiness, with the chanting, the seemingly innocent sounds of walking through the grass and the terror in the voices of all the characters. I will also say Patrick Wilson was cast perfectly, although it did worry me knowing what was coming whether he could be the one to pull it off but phew he does! He is also incredibly suave, so you do instantly feel safe with him on your side! Tobin was cast brilliantly, I mean he was creepy just like the book but then the second half of the film his character was changed and I am not sure how I felt about that because he was quite pivotal in the book
Things progress quickly in the film and with an hour and 22 minutes to go we had reached the end of the book pretty much bar a few scenes, so I was interested to see how the rest was played out. I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had some goosebumps but mainly from the chanting. I mean that was freaky!!!
I will tell you now though, this film will completely mess with your head with the time element, especially as Travis enters the fray. I think it all helps with the way we are manipulated in the grass because when we see Cal and Becky shouting for each other, they sound close but they are so far away.
There are a few hints in this film to the final outcome into the characters, the explanation of why certain things do not move was fascinating but then when you sat back and thought about it, it was a what the hell moment for sure!
The added scenes were grim, so grim, and it was a case of showing the unknown and it left me gasping in shock. Plus that scene…. was much more graphic in the book but I will say well played here it is a difficult scene to and it still turned my stomach!!
Not going to lie, I was disappointed by the ending as I felt it was more Hollywood than the the dark ending of the book but reading an interview with the director, he felt he had to change it to give us some hope for the characters we had been following…..me I wanted the dark ending *evil laugh*
Overall I thought this was worth the watch, although I will NEVER EVER go into the long grass and sorry if any kids are crying for help I am not stopping for you!
See you next time…or will I?! xxx
It can be a little hard to hear but if you listen carefully you can hear chanting, it sounds like ‘we are the grass’. It happens around 73 minutes and other times through the movie.
Patrick Wilson stepped in for James Marsden, who departed the project to do Sonic the Hedgehog (2019).
Joe Hill is the pen name of Joseph H. King who is author Stephen King’s son and is also a successful author in his own right.
Vincenzo Natali has directed a few horror films such as Cube and Splice. He has also directed Stephen King/Joe Hill books adaptations. All of which will feature on The Horror Within.
Director Vincenzo Natali wanted to do a film adaptation of In The Tall Grass as early as 2015 when he announced: “Who would think that grass could be frightening? Trust Stephen King and Joe Hill to find a way. They have transformed an otherwise innocuous Kansas field into a stage for some of the most disturbing horror fiction I have ever read.”
De Oliveira, who actually got hypothermia while filming the scene where Becky delivers her baby—a stillborn—in the rain. “She didn’t need to go to the hospital, but she needed to leave the set because her body was shutting down,”
Filming took place in and around Toronto from July to September 2018. The field was located alongside a rural road in Perth South, Ontario. “People would get lost in the field all the time,” director Vincenzo Natali admitted in an interview with Daily Dead. “We had whistles so we could call to each other.”
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Kelly says
The only vegetation creepier than tall grass is a cornfield ?