In The Tall Grass

Based on a novella by Stephen King and Joe Hill, In The Tall Grass follows several strangers (including Laysla De Oliveira’s Becky and Patrick Wilson’s Ross) as they find themselves trapped within a supernatural field of tall grass. Filmmaker Vincenzo Natali kicks In The Tall Grass off with a tense, stirring opening stretch that seems to hold a fair degree of promise, as the emphasis is placed on two characters’ initial arrival at the creepy field and the manner by which they’re lured into its endless boundaries. It’s equally clear, however, that the picture, beyond that point, segues into a midsection that slowly-but-surely alienates the viewer, as Natali delivers an often egregiously repetitive second act that contains far too many sequences of protagonists exploring their seemingly inescapable environs – with the padded-out atmosphere sporadically alleviated by a series of revelations and character interactions. Such respites are hardly enough to compensate for a narrative that’s predominantly spinning its wheels, however, and there’s little doubt that the picture’s somewhat interminable third act ensures it ends on as anticlimactic a note as one could envision – with the end result an overlong mess that might’ve worked as a short but has virtually no business running 101 minutes.

*1/2 out of ****