The Stephen King Surreal Thriller On Netflix That Will Destroy Your Mind
It was only a matter of time before horror maestro Stephen King teamed up with his son, Joe Hill, to produce something too terrifying for either of them to birth alone. Eerie horror mystery In the Tall Grass—streaming right now on Netflix—is the result of that nightmare collaboration. When Maine’s favorite scare-meisters get together, they don’t mess around.
In the Tall Grass began life in 2012 as a novella written by the father and son duo. Director Vincenzo Natali (Cube) took Stephen King’s and Joe Hill’s frightful short story and adapted it for the screen in 2018 when Netflix purchased the movie rights to the novella. The movie stars Patrick Wilson (Watchmen), and Laysla De Oliveira, best known for Joe Hill’s Netflix series Locke & Key.
James Marsden (Sonic the Hedgehog) was in negotiations to play the lead role but, due to scheduling conflicts, had to bow out and allow Patrick Wilson to take his place.
The movie revolves around siblings Becky and Cal DeMuth, two siblings on their way to San Diego. On the way, they hear a boy screaming for help. The screams seem to be coming from a field full of tall grass. The brother and sister enter the grass to investigate and immediately get separated.
What follows is a creepy, twisty ride involving time loops, babies, and lots of murder. Director Vincenzo Natali was so taken with the story when he read it in 2015 that he immediately wanted to adapt it into a movie. Natali has stated that only Stephen King and Joe Hill could find a way to make grass scary.
Natali hired manga artist Shintaro Kago to design the concept art for the film. Initially, James Marsden (Sonic the Hedgehog) was in negotiations to play the lead role but, due to scheduling conflicts, had to bow out and allow Patrick Wilson to take his place. In the Tall Grass required a whole church to be built for certain scenes, while other scenes took place outside of a bowling alley in Ontario.
The movie was released directly to streaming in October of 2019—a year that should be known as the “Year of King.” Not only was It: Chapter 2 released the month before In the Tall Grass premiered, but in November of that year, another Stephen King adaptation, Doctor Sleep, was released to theaters. 2019 also saw an abysmal remake of King’s Pet Sematary as well as a second season of the King-centric show Castle Rock.
What Critics And Audiences Have To Say About The Movie
In the Tall Grass received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, scoring a measly 36 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus on the site reads, “A potentially intriguing premise is rapidly lost in the weeds during In the Tall Grass which struggles to stretch its slim source material to feature length.” Ironic since the problem with a lot of the previous Stephen King movie adaptations was all the material that had to be left out in order to fit the story into a single film.
Usually, a relatively low critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is contrasted with a much more forgiving audience score, but not in this case. In the Tall Grass is one of the few movies on Rotten Tomatoes to have an audience score lower than its critic score. Only 32 percent of the audience for the 2019 Stephen King movie gave it a positive review.
The movie has a better reputation on IMDb, where users have given In the Tall Grass an average of 5.5 out of 10 stars. Not exactly a glowing recommendation, but it’s better than the movie fared on Rotten Tomatoes. Stephen King adaptations have a history of being all over the place, with classics like The Shining and Carrie on one side and stinkers like Maximum Overdrive—directed by King himself in a self-confessed cocaine stupor—on the other.
Stephen King and Joe Hill’s novella was adapted into a film, and you can stream In the Tall Grass on Netflix.
Oddly enough, despite being seen as one of the most important figures in the history of the horror genre, Stephen King’s most successful movie adaptations haven’t been scary in the slightest. Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are all considered some of the best adaptations of King’s work, and none of them could be considered horror, no matter how broad of a definition you used.
If you don’t have access to any of those movies and you’re really curious to see how Stephen King and Joe Hill’s styles go together, give In the Tall Grass a shot. It’s streaming right now on Netflix.
