10/15: In the Tall Grass

Yep. Still be catchin' up. Yesterday's movie:

10/15: For today's movie we go to our ol' pal Netflix and its incredibly mixed bag of original horror movies: In the Tall Grass. Based on a Stephen King novella, In the Tall Grass is a great showcase of all the best that King has to offer. But, in typical King, fashion, it's also a stellar showcase for the worst of King-isms. Perhaps that's the best way to divide up this review.

The Best: If there's one thing Stephen King is good at, it's making strange, supernatural-infused horror stories. The weird thing is that some of his best stories don't have a supernatural element. I mean, look at his best book, Misery (I guess that's just my opinion, but c'mon, I'm right): not a singular supernatural element and it's King at his most horrifying. But I digress; being Stephen King, he's all about the supernatural stuff (more on how that's also his biggest weakness later), something that is on full display in In the Tall Grass. 

A man and his pregnant sister are driving down a rural road when they hear a young boy's voice calling for their help from... get this... the tall grass. The two head into the grass only to find a weird, time-bendy mess that they can't escape, all seemingly controlled by a large, evil, black rock dead in the center. Maybe this movie is just an elaborate PSA concocted by the anti-corn maze lobby? I dunno, makes sense to me.

The twists and turns of time and logic that In the Tall Grass takes is actually pretty engaging. It leaves you wondering just what the hell is going on and can be actually genuinely unsettling at parts; a character is dead one moment and back the next, all while the grass twists reality. That's pretty cool. Now, if only it led to something good...

Which brings me to my next point: 

The Worst: Yeah, ok, let's talk for a second about Stephen King and his endings. The man can't write a damn ending to save his life. There's many prime examples of this, but I think the most glaring of which has to be The Stand. A 50-some-odd hour audio book that ended so atrociously I returned it. Yep. 50 hours of my life I'll never get back. You owe me, Stephen. 

Now, as far as King endings go, is In the Tall Grass at the top of the turdpile?

No, it isn't. It's not good by any means, but it's not awful to the point where I wanted to find King and stab him in the eye. Then again, I wonder if I've just been so desensitized by King's endings that I've just come to expect it. Maybe this one was godawful, but I've been burned too many times to know the difference anymore. What I do know though is that this ending leaves In the Tall Grass with a pretty generic forgetability, which, seeing as how I've never heard of the novella, probably makes sense. 

Ultimately there's probably worse ways to spend a dark and chilly night during October (or, if you're me, an 8 AM in October), but don't expect to remember this movie much after the runtime is up.

7/10