Director Report Card: Vincenzo Natali (2019)

6. In the Tall Grass

Early in his career, Vincenzo Natali directed a few stray episodes of Canadian-produced TV shows like “PSI Factor,” “Earth: Final Conflict,” or “Space Cases.”  Around 2013, after “Haunter” came and went without making much of an impact, Natali started to work in television a lot more. He did a run of episodes of “Hannibal” and also worked on “Orphan Black,” “Wayward Pines,” “The Strain,” “Westworld,” and “American Gods.” He's also done some work for Netflix, the modern equivalent to low-budget Canadian television. He worked on “Hemlock Grove,” one of their earliest original series, and partnered with the streaming service again to make episodes of “Luke Cage” and the new “Lost in Space.” So it was really only a matter of time before Natali directed a movie for Netflix. That time would come in 2019, when he made “In the Tall Grass” for the streaming giant. 

Becky and her older brother Cal are driving across country. She is six months pregnant and they are traveling to meet the foster family she plans on giving the baby too. After stopping in an abandoned church parking lot, they notice the voice of a child calling to them from the field of tall grass across the street. They decide to head in and help the kid out. Soon, both Cal and Becky become lost in the grass. They soon observe that the field doesn't seem to follow any observable logic, their position in the grass shifting randomly. It's not long before it becomes clear that time works differently in the grass as well, events reoccurring and tracing back over each other. Cal and Becky – accompanied by the father of Becky's child as well as the family of the lost boy – uncover even more disturbing secrets in the tall grass. 

“In the Tall Grass” is adapted from a novella by Stephen King and Joe Hill, the eldest son of the beloved author and a successful horror writer in his own right. It's basically a running gag at this point that King will wrote a scary story about literally anything, no matter how ridiculous it may seem on its face. This is the man who wrote on topics like an evil laundry press, a creepy lawnmower, spooky corn, ominous cellphones, and two separate novels about demonic cars. And because King's name really is that profitable, a lot of those questionable premises were made into movies. When I heard that a Stephen King movie about grass was coming out, it sounded almost like a parody. Was the most successful horror author of our time truly trying to mine scares from the most commonplace of plant life?

As utterly absurd as a horror movie about grass may seem, “In the Tall Grass” actually has a premise with potential. The idea of tall grass blowing in the wind could produce a potentially spooky soundscape. (As evident in “Onibaba,” an obvious influence on this one.) Moreover, the idea of being lost in a maze that can never be escaped brings with it a degree of existential horror. There's a degree of cosmic horror here too, as the grass is seemingly a living organism with plans beyond the scope of human understanding. Some have suggested H.P. Lovecraft's “In the Walls of Eryx” was an influence on the story, which would make the degree of cosmic horror in the movie seem like an even more deliberate choice.

If nothing else, it's easy to see why this idea appealed to this director. As in “Cube” and “Nothing” this is another Vincenzo Natali movie that takes place in a limited location. An inescapable field of grass is not that different from an endless void of white. Characters getting trapped in this situation isn't too different, in the abstract anyway, from being lost in a maze of interconnected cubes. Both the idea behind “In the Tall Grass” and “Cube” tap into similar threads of existential dread. You can also see how the story's eventual time-loop shenanigans and mind-bending twists would appeal to the director who made “Cypher” and “Haunter.” If Natali was going to adapt a King story, this one definitely has his vibe.

Despite that, I still found myself loosing patience with “In the Tall Grass” quickly. Getting lost in an inescapable field, that constantly shifts your location around so you can never gain your bearings? Sure, that's pretty scary. Once the idea of a time loop enters the story, it starts to feel like “In the Tall Grass” is grasping at straws for a way to expand its limited premise to feature length. This is furthered by the movie never once attempting to explain what the hell, exactly, is happening here. There's no logic inside the grass, time going back and forth in random ways. This might've made the idea scarier but, in execution, it just feels like nobody put much thought into the film's interior logic. Stuff just happens in the foreboding field for no reason. 

Eventually, some sort of half-assed explanation for these mysterious events is provided. A large, magical rock lies in the center of the grass. This seems connected to the church on the opposite end of the road. Those who touch the rock develop a cult-like obsession with it and the grass. There are implications that this is not the first batch of people to become enthralled to the rock and the grass. Again, this feels like a desperate attempt to expand a premise that might've made an okay ten-pager or a half-hour anthology episode but feels seriously stretched-out at novel/feature length. I don't mind suggestions or mystery – least of all in a Vincenzo Natali movie – but this stuff does not make the movie feel more intriguing. It just feels sweaty.

In hopes of stretching this idea out long enough to occupy an entire movie, “In the Tall Grass” has to indulge in one of my least favorite genre tropes. That would be characters, trapped in an isolated locations and a perilous situation, beginning to bicker and fight among themselves. You see this happen a lot in zombie movies and I hate it every single time. It's always just an excuse to add more tension to the scenario and it never feels natural. This is exactly how it plays out here. Cal and Becky's baby daddy get into a fight, arguing about who has purer intentions towards Becky, while standing around inside a bowling alley. Presumably, there's an abandoned bowling alley in the middle of the field specifically to set up this bit of meaningless drama. When we are preoccupied with the mystery of what the hell exactly is happening here, it's very difficult indeed to care about insignificant in-fights like this.

Maybe this wouldn't be the case if we were invested in “In the Tall Grass'” characters but, I'm sad to say, this is not the case. Becky is defined solely by her status as a pregnant woman. Cal is just her weird brother, who may or may not have inappropriate feelings towards her. We do learn that Travis, her boyfriend, has a band and that lack of a future is why Cal ostensibly dislikes him so much. That's still not enough to care about him. Tobin, the little boy, varies between being a creepy horror movie child and a naïve kid protagonist. And his mom is only in two scenes. None of the actors bring any particular depth to these roles, with Will Bule Jr. actually being quite tone-deaf as the little boy.

The only character in the movie that made much of an impression on me was Ross, the boy's father. He becomes a fanatical devotee to the rock and field a second after touching it. It's not long before he shifts into a dangerous psychopath who is murdering people on behalf of the strange power behind this eldritch location. On paper, this is another standard Stephen King villain type: The evil religious fanatic. (Ross even clarifies that he used to play in a Christian rock group, confirming he's trading one evil cult for another.) Thanks to star Patrick Wilson, Ross becomes an amusingly hammy bad guy. Despite his depraved acts, Wilson plays Ross as an incessantly upbeat man. He maintains this unhinged energy even when crushing heads in his bare hands or performing profane rituals before his new god.

“In the Tall Grass” continues to run out of ideas the longer it goes on. A grass field that looses people, a magical rock with uncertain purposes, and weirdo time travel malarkey was, I guess, not enough to sustain this story. In its second half, “In the Tall Grass” gets increasingly weird and goofy.  Humanoid creatures with faces made of grass appear. Becky's unborn child is seemingly absorbed by the grass. Screaming infants made out of tangled tree roots appear. There's even a suggestion of infanticide and cannibalism. Where the fuck any of this stuff fits into the film's weirdo cosmology, or what any of it even means, is left for the audience to interpret. Personally, I just think it all looks really silly. 

If I can pay “In the Tall Grass” no other compliment, it's that it looks really nice. Vincenzo Natali does create some cool looking images. Some of the weird grass rituals are depicted through a burst of visuals: Of a crow flying and cawing, of grass growing and tangling up into knots, of blood-like capillaries. In its final act, we even see red veins of light flowing through the field, recalling these body-like images from earlier. In the final, we get a peek at the inside of a church. The interior is very boxy – which feels like an intentional homage to “Cube” – and is accented all in green. It's good to know that, even when working with subpar material, Natali still makes sure things look nice.

“In the Tall Grass” was one of several Stephen King adaptations to debut in 2019. The same year also saw the release of “IT: Chapter Two,” “Doctor Sleep,” the remake of “Pet Semetary,” and the second season of “Castle Rock.” This isn't even the last King property Natali would be involved with, as he also directed two episodes of the new “The Stand” streaming series. While mediocre King stories have been turned into decent movies before, in this case it really feels like the material could not sustain a feature length run time. Despite the best efforts of its director and crew, “In the Tall Grass” is ultimately a meandering and goofy motion picture. [Grade: C]

It seems television is where most of Vincenzo Natali's future credits will be, for the time being. I guess this is the fate of many interesting indie filmmakers who had a few buzzy titles a while ago but never quite crossed over into the mainstream. Considering Natali has been attached to a number of high-profile TV shows, I guess there's certainly worst outcomes. Hopefully, he's able to make more features at some point in the future. And hopefully they are closer to the quality of “Cube” or 'Splice,” clever genre films that mixed deeper idea with effective shocks. I'll always like the guy.