#31 - In the Tall Grass (2019)

In the Tall Grass (2019)

(dir. Vincenzo Natali)

While traveling cross-country through a remote rural area, Becky and her brother Cal pull over to the side of the road and hear a young boy shouting for help from a field of very dense tall grass. He is lost and cannot find his way out, so they enter the grass to help him, but end up lost themselves. They soon realize that something - maybe the field itself - is trying to keep them separated and stop them from escaping.

This has some issues but I did enjoy it, mostly thanks to Patrick Wilson's scenery-chewing performance. He strikes a good balance between hammy and threatening, and he seems to be having a lot of fun with the role. I also really like the premise, it's a cool and creepy idea.

Overall though, much of this movie felt flat to me in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Wilson is on screen enough to keep it from being boring, but there aren't much in the way of real scares and I didn't really care what happened to the characters. There is one scene (which I won't spoil here, but if you've seen it you'll know what I'm referring to) that should've been really fucked up and disturbing, but it felt weirdly toothless.

I enjoyed this, but not enough to give it a very strong recommendation. It's on Netflix, so if it sounds interesting to you it's probably worth checking out - maybe just go in with muted expectations.