The Tall Man (2012)
In the small rural former mining town of Cold Rock, local children are going missing, seemingly just disappearing. The locals attribute it to the local legend of the Tall Man. When a recently widowed doctor's (played by Jessica Biel) child goes missing she vows to find the truth.
I loved this thriller from Martyrs director Pascal Laugier. Note i said thriller. The Tall Man is not a horror film. At its heart its a mystery thriller with themes of horror. The film has a wonderful twisty turny plot and nothing is as it first seems. Unpredictable is the word i would use as i had no idea how the story would unfold. The film has a terrific cast including Biel, who i have never seen better, Stephen McHattie and X-Files regular William B. Davis. In fact all the cast give fine performances which made them possible suspects in my eyes, giving the film swathes of tension no matter who was on screen. I liked the way Laugier used the theme of child abduction, thankfully never venturing into the graphic torture of his earlier Martyrs, but treating a serious subject with finesse and care whilst keeping the viewer glued to their seat.
Laugier's location filming and use of the old mining community and its surrounding area was a high point of the film for me. The camera often giving us birds eye views of the bleak woodland scenery before sweeping the area and giving the viewer a grand sense of scale not to mention a lovely gothic atmosphere. It's this skillfull cinematography that made me wonder why it never achieved more than a limited theatrical release.
I can understand if some people come away from this scratching their heads suggesting the plot twists to be implausible, but it worked for me and i for one really enjoyed it and look forward to revisiting it again in 2014.
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