Popular reviews

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  Review by Harlequin ★★★★ 14

  Have you ever had one of those experiences where you hear things about a movie, you see the poster and the title, read the plot, take things in. You think about those things for a while, and decide that it's not for you, but you end up watching it anyway because you have to know.
  You learn how incredibly wrong you were about everything.

  Have you ever been lost for words when trying to explain a plot?
  Because no matter how hard you try, you know you can't get around all the plot twists, and you know you'll somehow end up spoiling it?

  Rated R for violence and terror, and for language.

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  Review by 1313: Tony the Terror🌨️ ★★★½ 2

  I love that this whole movie seems like somebody told Jessica Biel she couldn’t act and she was like “bitch, not only are you gonna learn today, but ima produce this shit as well so you can have a sat down.”

  The rest of the movie is pretty good, but my attention wandered once In a while. I’d honestly rate it higher if it wasn’t such a massive downer.

  Also, I love these small town movies with pretty people. Like I lived in a small town for 2 years and there was no Jessica Biel or Jodelle Ferland or Samantha Ferris anywhere. In fact, I’m quite sure I was the prettiest person there but then that’s the case for me in a lot of places so ya know...

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  Review by HorrorSage ½ 10

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Good night and welcome fellow Children of Chaos.

  FUCK THIS FUCKING MOVIE!

  Honestly I didn't even mind it that much. I was interested in who the fall man was. And when the reveal that Biel kidnapped the little boy appeared I was super into it.

  Then I realized we are just over half way done. You know what that means? DOUBLE TWIST.

  Turns out she was kidnapping poor kids so rich people could "raise them right." And you know what, FUCK YOU MOVIE. ARGH. This fucking plutocratic bullshit! I wish Biel was just a villain. Even if nothing changed if she was framed a villain. Like these rich people were framed as collecting poor kids as some kind of status.…

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  Review by {Todd} ★★

  "Breathe... you can do this... c'mon you can make it" -Julia,

  - FC Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: boxd.it/7uQXe
  "Watch a movie that was filmed in Saskatchewan, Land of Living Skies. (Sheldon)"

  I blame Canada.

  I found this film a little difficult to get through because of what I found to be a pretty boring plot and stale, one-dimensional characters. Jessica Biel acts like she is going for an Oscar but this film feels way too generic and consistently dour that I found it hard to even focus on it for long periods of time. I suppose the direction is a bit flashy and fun so it has that going for it but I'll stop thinking about this movie the second I press save.

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  Review by evilbjork ★½ 2

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  A movie about how poor people are bad parents and should have their kids taken away. Mainly it's bad because of how cheesy it is and how dumb the plot ends up being. It's not a horror movie and barely a thriller.

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  Review by DirkH ★★★½ 2

  I guess I'm a fan.
  While I still haven't seen his debut, Laugier impresses me as a director. Martyrs is perhaps the only horror film in recent years that managed to shake me to my core. His follow up suffers from (intentionally?) misleading marketing and a tiny identity crisis, but does what it needs to do. It is different and managed to keep me intrigued for its runnig time.

  If you go looking for another Martyrs, you'll be sorely disappointed. There is no gore here. None whatsoever. And it isn't disturbing at all. What it is is a thriler with a central mystery that needs to be solved. This sounds a dime a dozen, but trust me it isn't. If…

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  Review by Patrick Lohmeier ★★★★ 12

  Handwerklich hervorragender Thriller, der immer wieder überrascht. Dass dabei nicht jede Überraschung gefällt, stört nicht weiter. Laugier bestätigt seinen Ruf als einer der besten und wichtigsten zeitgenössischen Filmemacher.

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  Review by Kandi ★★★

  At first it started off really well and eerie and it definitely had me questioning a lot of things that happened in the beginning but then it led me astray where I found it confusing and misleading at times. I found that at times it was to stalling to get to the point of the matter. Like it was sloppy and the plot was all over the place. It wasn’t until nearly the end did I start to understand & grasp the concept behind the tall man. The ending literally saved this movie from getting a 1 star. I wasn’t sure where this movie was going at first but now I definitely see the big picture & I appreciate it a lot…

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  Review by Zero Ena ★★★½ 5

  Nicht mit "Martyrs" vergleichbar. Aber muss er das? Kann dieser Film nicht für sich selbst stehen? Man muss aber auch zugeben, dass hier einige Parallelen zu "Martyrs" existieren. Minimal aber vorhanden.

  Pascal Laugier versteht es genau wie bei "Martyrs" seine Darsteller zu führen und alles aus ihnen rauszuholen. Was deutlich bei Jessica Biel erkennbar ist, die glaubhaft und überragend spielt. Ebenso die kleine Jodelle Ferland, die ihr in nichts nachsteht.

  So herausragend ich "The Tall Man" aber auch finde, muss ich leider auch sagen, dass er nach hinten heraus nicht ganz das Niveau halten kann. Denn zwei Punkte, von denen mich nur einer etwas stört, schaden dem Gesamtwerk.
  Zum einen sind die ersten zwei Drittel intensiv und Spannung pur, mit…

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  Review by Onno ★★★ 1

  Angst hat viele Gesichter, wie z.B. die eines großen Mannes. Dieser wird für die Entführung mehrerer Kinder in dem heruntergekommenen Nest Cold Rock verantwortlich gemacht. Doch auch Filme haben verschiedene Gesichter und so inszeniert Pascal Laugier mit seinem ersten englischsprachigen Film einen Mystery-Thriller, der sein wahres Gesicht nicht gleich Preis gibt. Das macht den großen Reiz des Kinderentführungsdramas aus, welches auch mit seiner dichten Atmosphäre und Handlung Spannung erzeugt.

  Befeuert wird das Ganze mit den Entwicklungen und Auflösungen rund um den schwarzen Mann, mit welchen der Zuschauer mal frontal und mal subtil konfrontiert wird. Das hat auch zur Folge, dass das Spannungspulver ziemlich schnell verschossen wird und die Luft im letzten Drittel größtenteils raus ist. Dem schleichenden Prozess der vollständigen…

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  Review by André Hecker ★★★½

  <English version below>

  Pascal Laugier kreiert gerne Filme, in denen nichts so ist, wie es zunächst scheint. Da bildet auch The Tall Man keine Ausnahme und treibt ein perfides Verwirrspiel mit dem Zuschauer, um dann Stück für Stück seine Wahrheit ans Tageslicht zu befördern.

  Dabei kommt die Erzählstruktur doch sehr langsam daher und der Film setzt eher auf Eindringlichkeit statt Tempo. Und auch irgendwie ohne Aufregung. Plottwist kommen nicht mit einem Knall, sondern werden einfach durch den Verlauf der Geschichte auserzählt und manchmal merkt man erst fünf Minuten später, dass es gerade eine komplette Kehrtwende gab. Das ist für den einen geschickt, für den anderen vielleicht belanglos erzählt. In jedem Fall stellt The Tall Man eine große Frage an die…

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  Review by mosquitodragon ★★ 14

  Yes, OK - that was a movie, sort of...

  Although not being one of those who drank the Martyrs kool-aid (I thought it was flattering to deceive in its so-called profundity and bothered me more with its third act tedium than its obscenity, which I was kind of enjoying up to that point), I've been genuinely interested to see what else Pascal Laugier might have in him.

  Turns out that one of the things he had in him was The Tall Man. I resisted instantly dismissing it as a derivative cash-in of that whole Slenderman trope, and it's not that at all... but now I wish it was that. Something that straightforward and maybe even a bit fun.

  Laugier isn't…