Comments on: Review: Pascal Laugier’s ‘The Tall Man’ An Unfocused & Silly Horror Tale

By: James

James — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

I agree with the review of the movie, but I think it was much better than Martyrs. If you view the ending as the film maker inverting morality by getting you to cheer for the bad guy, and them becoming introspective after you eventually understand the "bad guy" (We'll call him the Canucknapper for clarity without spoiler) was in fact a bad guy, it could be viewed as a kind of ingenious way of messing with the audience's morals. Still not a great movie, but not as horrible as other films of the 'French Wave' (Haute Tension, Ils, ect).

On a related note, I'm still amazed people think Martyrs was a good film, much less a smart one. Aside from being disjointed and boring, it was well….dumb.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

This reviewer's appraisal of Martyrs makes no sense at all. Two of the new French horror movies from the past decade that did have a ton of very deliberate riffs/outright ripoff scenes from '70s American classics were Frontiere(s) and Calvaire. Beyond that it's a matter of opinion, but I felt that Martrys is far and away the most original, intelligent and exciting of all these movies, by far. Most of the rest of them aren't worth much. The Tall Man was flawed, but brave and interesting.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

I agree that THE TALL MAN has problems, including tonal inconsistency and Jessica Biel's flat performance (Stephen McHattie is, as always, excellent), but it deserves credit for zigging when most horror movies have conditioned us to expect a zag. That, I think, is Laugier's major strength as a storyteller, and in that regard you really missed the boat here. 'Fess up — did you really see MARTYRS, or are you faking it?

By: luis

luis — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

i just say i slept more than 20 mins all the three times i tried patiently to sit through the vision of THE TALL MAN. everytime Jodelle Farlene appears and start being spooky I already fell asleep. And its incredible because she was amazing both in TIDELAND and in SILENT HILL (right?). anyways this TALL MAN is super boring and pretty silly minute after minute. the central part just made me wonder is this going to be really in cinemas?

By: Vern

Vern — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

I disagree with the review and won't bother with the "did we even see the same movie?" cliche, but wanted to post to agree with the above poster who believes you're mixing up MARTYRS with a different movie. MARTYRS is not full of references, is not paying any obvious homage to CHAINSAW or HILLS HAVE EYES, is clearly political in its treatment of class and exploitation, and most of all I can't imagine anyone who has seen it ever even thinking of describing it as "winky." My guess is you're thinking of FRONTIER(S), since it's pretty much an update of TEXAS CHAIN SAW and has the nice hunchback girl who's kinda like Ruby in HILLS HAVE EYES (although some of the other stuff doesn't really fit).

By: LJH

LJH — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

I Agree with this entirely, its definately a marmite film due to what you expect and what you get. I generally love this type of thing but i think i didnt enjoy it due to just expecting (in a good way) a straight forward myth driven monster flick. that is all

By: Liam

Liam — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

Wow, i'm a bit upset you didn't mention any of the social commentary that was in both Martyrs AND The Tall Man.
How high were your expectations going into this film? I really enjoyed it, and to each his own, etc..but I loved how the trailer misled me and how both of Pacal's story structure in both films, kinda take a complete U-turn.

By: Terry Grant

Terry Grant — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

– "The result was less a film than a laborious game of spot-the-reference ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre"! "The Hills Have Eyes"!)"

What part of Martyrs reminded you of either of those two films? Frontier(s), on the other hand, is a direct rip off of those two, as well as a few other american horror classics. Waaaaay overrated.

Maybe you're confusing the two?

By: Jorge

Jorge — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

The trailer is misleading. I believe they tried to sell the movie in a cheap way to protect the secret/twist. And yes. It's political, but in a universal way.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

Gonna have to disagree. Martyrs, brought something new to a dying genre, and Tall Man does the same. It might not be as good, but its far better then alot of the crap that makes it to theaters.Anyone that says they saw the twist coming is lying, and the guy that wrote this article just pointed out a bunch of useless stuff. (Canadian woods, wigs, etc.)

By: KES

KES — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

I'm going to confess to liking Martyrs and hoping for more out of the Tall Man. I agree with the assessment that it's muddled and has a third act that is bizarre and unsatisfying. The film is, also, horribly classist in its fairly simple-minded solution to the horrors of a poor white trash town. I couldn't help thinking that Laugier's film is a mini-meditation on what a French person thinks is wrong with the U.S.: we are a country composed of too many uneducated hicks. Meh.

By: jingmei

jingmei — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

Personally thinking this is not a really bad suspense film, since it added something else besides the twist.

By: CRM 114

CRM 114 — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

Please, stop writing and get back to your day job, whatever that is.

By: Anonymouse

Anonymouse — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

agree that this film is weak and with a third act so ludicrous it begs amnesia. however, i disagree with Martyrs being the weakest of the french horror renaissance. them and high tension were simply awful films. Martyrs stayed with me long after those films did. it did what many, many horror films fail to do: it got under my skin.

By: WRT

WRT — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:39:42 +0000

I'm curious to know the development history of this project and how it parallels the rise of the Slender Man mythos online. Marble Hornets, at least for its first twenty or so episodes, was incredibly effective, though now it's just dragging a la Lost, surely leading nowhere but to (more) deferral and disappointment. I want to believe this prefigures the Slender Man stuff, as it seems to have so much less imagination and intrigue; it seems more to be a schematic reworking of the tall, skeletal child murderer myths from Germany, but the timing is coincidental. I imagine this went into production in 2010 or 2011 right as Marble Hornets was picking up steam. The "Tall Man" conceit also reminds one of Phantasm: "…we're gonna snag that tall dude…!" It's nothing new as an idea, but the elemental terror of Slender Man as a specific figuration, especially as dramatically elaborated by Marble Hornets, has put it on the map, I think