In the Tall Grass (2019)

Director: Vincenzo Natali
Writer(s): Natali, from a short story by Stephen King and Joe Hill
Starring: Laysla De Oliveiri, Avery Whitted, Patrick Wilson and Will Buie Jr.

Usually, the movies my wife and I watch are carefully and meticulously chosen, sometimes too much so. We’ll spend several minutes switching between several different streaming services, until we finally find something that tickles our fancy. In a best case scenario, we will choose 3-5 movies and have the other person narrow it down to one. In almost all cases, the process takes way longer than it should. 

In the Tall Grass, however, was different in that it's one of the few movies that we just blindly picked. We knew nothing about it going in, but all it took was one view of the trailer to suck us in.  It's a horror tale written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill that takes place in the titular setting: A seemingly neverending field of tall grass. 

The plot finds Becky, a pregnant woman who's traveling to San Diego with her nerdy brother, Cal. It is unclear at first why they're traveling such great distance, but becomes one of many revelations throughout the film. They are traveling through the fields of Kansas when Becky starts to feel sick. Naturally, Cal starts the car to give her time to recover. As they’re getting ready to continue their trek, they hear a voice calling out for help from inside the tall weeds. 

It sounds like a young boy who is trapped in there and begging for help. Cal seems slightly unfazed - “annoyed” might be a more appropriate term -  and wants to continue on but Becky decides that they should stay and help. She is pregnant, after all, so presumably the thought of abandoning a child is too much for her. In an effort to find the lost child, they enter the grass.

In case you weren't already clued in, the grass isn't all that it appears to be. It's an almost shape-shifting world that seems to decide the fates of those inside it. If it wants you to find someone, you will find them. If it wants you to get separated from someone, you'll get separated. It’s like it controls the motions and actions of everyone trapped inside. It sounds kind of stupid, but it's pulled off fairly well, for the most part.

It doesn’t take long for things to go awry: Becky and Cal are separated almost immediately, and are unable to find each other. He stumbles onto Tobin, the boy whose cries for help are the ones that lured them out in the first place; he’s a creepy-looking, ominous child who seems to be hiding more than he’s letting on. Meanwhile, Becky stumbles onto Ross, Tobin’s father, who has also been separated from Natalie, his wife. He promises Becky to help her find a way out.

Since this is based on a story co-written by Stephen King, we know things can’t just be this straightforward. As if the setting wasn’t strong enough, we’re introduced to a magical fucking rock that has some sort of weird powers. Alright, whatever. I’m a big fan of ambiguity, which the film already had in spades, so to place some of the outcome of the story on a magical rock just kind of ruined some of the momentum for me. Sure, it’s mysterious, as well, but come on…it’s a magical fucking rock. 

Aside from the setting, the best feature of In the Tall Grass is the way it plays with time: We already know things aren’t what they seem inside the grass, but the scope of it slowly becomes evident. I’ll admit the “twist”, where we start to understand what’s going on, is appropriately trippy and also adds to the cryptic feel. Eventually, it breaks down into a hallucinatory nightmare that reminded me a lot of the excellent horror film The Dark and the Wicked. The line between fantasy and reality blurs, leaving not only the characters confused as to what’s going on, but the viewers as well. 

I’ve not read the short story by King and Hill, but turning any novel into a film is hard work; stretching a short story into a feature length film might be even harder. Personally, I felt like there’s too much going on, especially when the setting itself is strong enough to stand out on its own. It’s like the chef who ruins a perfect dish by adding too many spices. The villain is rather ho-hum and, admittedly, doesn’t really feel necessary to the story; after all, it’s more or less the grass who’s the main antagonist. And by the time the magical rock was introduced, I'll admit I partially lost interest in the story.

It doesn't always entirely work, and it leads up to a predictable and slightly corny finish, but overall, In the Tall Grass makes just enough use of its setting to deliver a creepy enough atmosphere that limps across the finish line. It won't top any lists of noteworthy horror films - not even for the year it was made - but it’s not one that should top your list of regrets.

RATING: 5.5/10

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Carrie (1976)

Director: Brian De Palma
Writer(s): Lawrence D. Cohen, based on the novel by Stephen King
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, and William Katt

For some reason I've never really been keen on seeing Carrie. Part of it no doubt has to do with the fact that I have a problem with most films that have been relegated to the status of “classic”, because I find most of them undeserving of the title; it's like they are passed down from generation-to-generation, much like a family heirloom, with no one daring to question their appeal, or to critique them with an open mind. In my mind, for a film to truly be a classic, it must stand up to the times; such a film must age with grace, and stay relevant decades after its release.

I finally caved in, though, because I was going through a Brian De Palma phase, and what examination of the director would be complete without including Carrie? It's arguably the film that put him on the map, at least for good, and is an adaptation of a Stephen King novel that even the legendary author himself approves of (to put this comment in perspective, and to buck popular opinion, he has been a vocal opponent The Shining ever since it was released); to ignore this would be to ignore perhaps the biggest reason for his success.

Sure enough, I am baffled as to the following that it still has today. It's a good film, don't get me wrong, but it's too patchy and uneven to be considered a great one; the first feeling that I had after the viewing was over was just how pointless the entire thing felt. It's basically a high school melodrama for three-quarters of its length, with batshit religious saga filling up most of the rest; then, there's the ending. The ending that gets all of the attention, and rightfully so, because it's the only point in the film that anything actually happens. The rest just feels like a big lead-up to that climactic scene, chugging along at just the right pace to keep you from falling asleep, just so it can finally unleash Carrie's unbridled fury.

Carrie White is played by Sissy Spacek, in the role that helped to launch her career; just that she manages to keep a straight-face in scenes involving her mother should have been enough to earn an Academy Award nomination. She would be your typical high school teenager were it not for her religiously-obsessed mother, who refuses to at least warn her of things that pubescent girls go through...like getting their periods, for example. Imagine the terror Carrie faces when, in the shower after gym class, she starts bleeding from her crotch. And then just imagine the bemusement the other girls in the class must feel, when she emerges from the shower, in a fit of hysteria, believing that something is wrong with her and that she is dying. Already the awkward, bullied social outcast, this outburst certainly doesn't help matters any, and she finds herself to be the butt of jokes even more frequently.

She does have some allies, most notably in gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), who feels sorry for her and takes her under her wing. She gives Carrie an entire week off from gym, and spends that time punishing the girls of the class with strenuous exercises. Most of the class slowly starts to understand the error of their ways (or at least pretend to, for the sake of getting off easier), but not Chris (Nancy Allen), a cocky little wench who has always hated Carrie for no reasons specified, and vows to make Carrie's life a living hell. As if it isn't already.

Sue (Amy Irving), a popular girl and one of the students in Miss Collin's class, has a change of heart, and decides to have her popular boyfriend Tommy (William Katt) take Carrie to the prom. While this can be seen as a genuine act of kindness—and that is how it's meant—it's also preposterous and, in a way, even kind of evil. So this popular guy is going to take Carrie out for a good time, be nice to her, shower her with attention, after which she'll inevitably have feelings for him since she's so sheltered and has no other male contacts, and then he'll just dump her and go back to Sue like nothing happened?  Sounds like just the thing she needs.

Carrie reluctantly accepts Tommy's invitation—she's been bullied long enough to know that it's probably just a setup to a cruel joke, but her mother's coming toward the door, and Carrie doesn't want her mother to even see a boy anywhere near the house. You see, her mother, known as Margaret, has some pretty extreme religious leanings and tends to treat her only daughter as a prisoner, moreso than a daughter.  She also believes any form of sex is a sin, even during marriage...we're talking a class-A nutcase right here.

At first, her mother refuses to let her go to the prom. Carrie expected this, and cements her opinion by using her telekinetic powers to slam all of the windows in the house shut. This mainly just convinces her mother that she's a witch, but also gets her to back off enough to let her go, finally realizing that her influence can only go so far. Before we know it, it's the night of the prom...

Margaret's religious ramblings do tend to border on the comical, so much so that even the actress that portrayed her, Piper Laurie, thought that she was too over-the-top fanatical to be taken seriously. These scenes, while not laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes succeed in diluting the mother-daughter relationship: we are supposed to feel pity for the way Carrie is constantly bullied, but hearing Margaret regale Carrie with the story of the night of her conception is more awkward than anything else, and kind of helps to undermine some of the terror we are supposed to feel from her.

As I alluded to earlier, the pacing is somewhat an issue, with large fragments of the movie focusing on people other than Carrie, to the point that I would sometimes forget that she was even the focal point. I did appreciate that her telepathic powers are kept to a bare minimum, as we only get a few glimpses of them leading up to the finale. Most of them used in just an innocuous kind of way (flipping over an ashtray, or breaking a mirror, for examples), so we really don't understand the true extent that she is capable of until she can no longer hold it in, which is a nice little touch.

But take out the telekinesis angle and you're left with a relatively uneventful, slow-moving coming-of-age tale, though one that's thankfully helped along by great performances and earnest direction by De Palma. The strength of its reputation no doubt hinges on that final sequence, and as brilliantly-executed as it is, it just isn't quite enough to absolve the remainder of the film completely of its sins.

RATING: 6.5/10

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