In the Tall Grass Review (Film, 2019)
When I briefly taught film to high school students, we would have healthy discussions about low concept versus high concept films. Different genres play well with different levels of concept. Horror is a genre that thrives in high concept, meaning a very simple idea that is easy to understand, explain, and market.
The back to back success of A Quiet Place and Bird Box helped usher in a new wave of high concept horror. You take a simple but unexpected idea, create some simple rules, then twist them over and over as you ratchet up the complexity. What started as “you talk, you die” turns into “except for the following circumstances: a, b, c…y, z.” Create the concept to sell the story, then tell the story you want to tell.
In the Tall Grass is playing on a similar idea. If you enter the tall grass, you can’t leave. The world shifts around you, voices echo from the wrong direction, and you will never find your way to the road again. It’s also adapted from a novella by Stephen King and Joe Hill by writer/director Vincenzo Natali, the director responsible for Cube, one of the greatest high-to-low concept horror films of all time. The film is full of potential and there are some great moments.
Perhaps the most admirable element of the entire film is the opening few minutes. Natali sets up the characters, their general personality traits, and the trouble they’ll face in one clear scene. You wind up trapped in the tall grass with the cast in under five minutes. We’re in literary horror territory here, where it’s better to light a match on the first page than save the spark for the climax.
The film does step outside of the grass soon enough, which is a mixed bag. The clarity of the initial concept isn’t abandoned so much as needlessly muddied. Becky, a pregnant woman, is traveling with her brother Cal. They stop on the side of the road and hear a child, Tobin, calling for help. They decide to enter the tall grass to find him, only to get lost themselves. Becky was trying to get away from someone, though the details were intentionally left ambiguous to justify more characters joining the fray.
Rotating through casts in a horror film is only truly effective if the new characters are as interesting as the old ones. Becky and Cal are likable protagonists with clear stories; many of the other characters are not. Lost child who talks to grass, father who swears he knows his way out, and stranger searching for Becky aren’t as easy to connect with. It’s misplaced expectations more reminiscent of the random victims of a 70s British slasher (just kill anyone because why not?) than the intended series of reveals linking everyone together here. It doesn’t matter how well planned your film is if you risk a more J-horror approach in a Western horror and don’t present dynamic, independently interesting characters.
The J-horror approach is a generalization, of course, but it feels like a fair comparison here. Think of films like The Grudge or The Ring. There’s a concept that connects the horror more than a cast. There doesn’t need to be a rhyme or reason to seeing a cursed tape or encountering the spirit of a haunted house; it happens to who it happens to. Relationships, even time, are immaterial to a horror concept built on fatal interaction with chance. If the concept is strong enough, that disconnection can be terrifying. It’s a more universal sense of horror because it could happen to anyone.
In the Tall Grass has a great atmosphere. The design of the field works surprisingly well. I mean, human sized grass is terrifying to me because of my allergies, but that’s not going to work on everyone. It’s an incredibly disorienting set that justifies the concept. There are moments where it feels like you could see the road through the grass, but you never get quite close enough to prove it. The disorientation really elevates the concept.
Adaptation or not, I think In the Tall Grass loses itself in its own twists and turns. What could be a devastatingly simple horror concept goes needlessly fast and loose with space, time, and coincidence. The film is effective in each moment, but the moments don’t actually come together like they should. There’s not enough substance to justify the shift away from an effective low concept. It’s incredibly well shot with great editing, but the overall story is a little underwhelming.
In the Tall Grass is currently streaming on Netflix.
