Stephen King is especially good at crafting haunting nightmares in one setting. Be it a bedroom a woman can’t leave due to handcuffs or a grocery store surrounded by monsters and mist, King is just as deft with his intimate settings as he is with his more sprawling epics. In the Tall Grass, the latest adaptation of one of King’s novellas that he co-wrote with son Joe Hill, looks haunting based on the first trailer. It features a fascinating single set: a field of tall grass that appears to be haunted. Check out the trailer below.
This looks like the best kind of Halloween watch. There’s something very folktale-ish about the idea of tall grass containing some sort of evil, which I’m 100% here for. The haunting image of an old church at the edge of the grass gives it a very middle America feel as well, which is, again, something I’m here for. King really can get to the heart of American terror with his imagery.
The film, written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, looks to capture some strong visuals, which is key to King’s horror. When you read a King novel, the visuals leap off the page as strongly as the characters do, sliding into your mind and staying there. Natali’s visual language already seems striking, with the grass looming high over the heads of the unsuspecting cast. I’m also already fascinated by the sound work, with the wind whistling through the grass or, at key moments, falling deadly silent.
Adaptations of King’s work can be hit or miss, and this year has seen division over whether big adaptations like Pet Sematary or IT Chapter Two were standout works or flat out terrible. A good trailer does not always a good movie make, so we can only hope that the final product lives up to the hype. Still, I’ll probably be waiting up until midnight to catch this the second it’s released, as I love a good (or bad) King adaptation and this looks decidedly and wickedly delightful and nightmarish. I’ll be avoiding any large fields of grass for the foreseeable future.
(image: Netflix)
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