Just to clear things up this is not about the dude from Phantasm played by Angus Scrimm. Although that would be cool if he got his own
devoted movie.
Anyway, if you haven’t seen The Tall Man and don’t want to read the spoiler filled paragraphs
below then I guess I recommend it. I’m
really on the fence about it though.
Once you finally get the full picture it’s kinda disappointing but the
journey there is interesting. I like to
think of it more as an experiment in storytelling. It’ll hopefully make for some good
conversation between you and your buds.
Spoilers from here on
Still here? Ok. The payoff doesn’t make sense. The idea is to take children away from their
shitty homes and parents and give them better lives, right? As Jessica Biel puts it: to “break the
cycle”. But what couple or adult would
go with this program? Why not adopt a
kid from an orphanage? I mean it’s not
like they’re living the sweet life over there.
But then I know you’re gonna say, “well maybe the people who applied got
rejected and couldn’t adopt so they had to go this other route”. I think that’s bullshit though. If an adoption agency thinks a couple or a
person’s home is unsuitable for a child then why would this secret organization
give them a kid either? The point is to
greatly improve the child’s situation and not just transfer him/her from one
shitty family to another. This
underground group has dignity. They
don’t steal children and give them new lives for money. It’s a cause for them. But how could you look at adopting a child
from an orphanage as not helping? Those
kids need good homes too. So I don’t get
it. Who the fuck would use this secret
society?
Laugier certainly tried to make something different here and
he succeeded even if it doesn’t quite add up.
He labors so hard to make you think you’re watching a typical
horror/thriller picture but then when he turns the tables on you and you see it
from this different angle it doesn’t really work. It’s too messy. Like one mother convinces half the town that
Jessica Biel stole her child even though she has no proof and Biel seems like a
nice and very pleasant person, the kid that Biel steals seems really happy and
doesn’t appear to be frightened or confused which you would think would be the
case ‘cause he was like taken from his mother and home, and why did Biel feel
she needed to stay behind and take the heat?
She could’ve disappeared with her husband and be off in some other part
of the country continuing this kidnapping gig which she believes strongly in. She had plenty of time to get away.
I think the thing I found most disappointing was that this
isn’t a horror movie. Once the twist was
revealed I thought Biel was the one chopping these kids up. And I think I would’ve found that more
satisfying than this convoluted adoption scheme.
Like I said, if anything this one makes for some interesting
conversation. If this was reworked and simplified
it has the potential to be a masterpiece, Hitchockian in its inventiveness with
the thriller genre.
Well I look forward to Pascal Laugier’s next movie. He’s got some good ideas on how to freshen
things up in these typical ol’ stories.
He just needs to give the secret society thing a rest for a while.
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