Into the Tall Grass
starring Harrison Gilbertson, Laysla De Oliveira, Avery Whitted, Will Buie, Jr., Rachel Wilson and Patrick Wilson
screenplay by Vincenzo Natalie
directed by Vincenzo Natalie
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
Based on Into the Tall Grass (2012) by Stephen King and Joe Hill, Into the Tall Grass is a Canadian supernatural horror film. It was largely filmed in southern Ontario featuring Canadian, Australian and New Zealander actors.
Brother and sister Cal and Becky Demuth (Becky is pregnant by her estranged boyfriend) are driving across country to visit their aunt and uncle until Becky’s baby is born. Along the way, they stop for a break alongside a field of tall grass. They hear a young boy’s voice calling from inside the field. 11-year-old Tobin is lost in the grass and can’t find his way out. So, Cal and Becky step off the shoulder of the road and enter the tall grass to find and help him. That was a mistake.
I was soundly reminded of the second Jurassic Park movie, The Lost World (1997) when the dinosaur hunters are fleeing the pursuing predators and want to make a shortcut through the long grass to an abandoned park building. Roland Tembo’s hunting partner, Ajay Sidhu (Harvey Jason), pleads with them, “Don’t go into the long grass! Not into the long grass!” Because, we know, that’s where the dreaded velociraptors are lurking.
That’s not the case in Into the Tall Grass. Instead, Cal and Becky discover that the field is some kind of inescapable hell. Those who enter never leave. Things are really weird in there. Panic, hallucinations, paradoxical time shifting, some kind of mysterious alien rock in the middle of it.
It’s okay.