​I recently watched the Netflix Original, In the Tall Grass which was based on a short story written by Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill. After I finished viewing the film, I decided to catch up on the story since I had never read it. In this blog post, I will give a review of both the film and the story, as well as offer some comparisons. We will get into spoilers, but I’ll let you know when those are coming so you can veer away if spoilers aren’t your thang.
 
Let’s dive into the film since I watched it first. The basic premise is that Becky and Cal DeMuth (siblings) are traveling across country on their way to San Diego. Becky is pregnant and she is giving her child up for adoption to a family there. On the way, they stop along the side of the road because Becky gets nauseous and has to throw up. While parked, they hear the voice of a child in the nearby field of tall grass crying for help. They decide to go after the boy and find that getting out of the tall grass is much more than it seems. 

While they are in the field, they eventually meet up with Tobin, a small boy who called them in, his mother, Natalie, and the boy’s father, Ross. The field seems to move things around, making navigation quite difficult. In the center of the field (and quite frankly, the center of everything) is a large standing rock with strange carvings on it.
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I can’t get into much more without spoilers, so I’ll just give you my spoiler-free review on the film. I give it 3.5/5 stars overall. It was a fun premise, it was shot well, and there were some fairly horrifying scenes. Patrick Wilson plays the father of Tobin and does a bang-up job. I like him in almost everything he plays in and he didn’t disappoint in this film. However, it was confusing (more on that below) and I was distracted trying to figure some things out. 

I read the short story hoping it would explain some things, but it didn’t. As I first started reading the short story, I felt as if it were rushing through things too fast and not spending much time with the characters and after reading the first third, I thought the movie was better than the story.
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However, once I finished reading the story, I definitely enjoyed reading it more than I did watching it. It was shorter than the movie (of course) and only took about 20 minutes to read. I can’t tell you how many pages it was, as I read it on my Kindle. However, King and Hill didn’t mess around with the convoluted plot that the film introduced, and instead get right to the root of it all and offer up an extremely horrifying tale. For the short story, I give it a 4/5. There were some very disturbing scenes in the story. I would have given it a full five stars, but I subtracted one mainly because I wanted a little more and I think it could have been made into a novella easily. 

To compare the two, the premise of the story is the same as the movie, and the movie did a good job following the story in the beginning. However, after about 30 minutes, the movie goes off the rails into its own territory and even introduces characters that didn’t appear in the short story. If you like King or Hill’s stories, give the film a watch. I found it enjoyable despite some of the confusion. It’s kind of creepy and has some Lovecraftian/Cosmic vibes.
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Now, let’s get into some nitty-gritty details. WARNING! Spoilers ahead.

Okay, so in the movie, we have Becky and Cal going into the tall grass to look for Tobin. They get separated fairly quickly and the grass doesn’t let them come back together for a while. Meanwhile, Cal finds Tobin, or I should say, Tobin finds Cal. The boy is burying a dead bird and mentions something that the grass doesn’t move dead things and it’s easier to find dead things and all that creepy lore. The statement adds flavor to both the short story and the movie. Although in the short story, Tobin states that the birds stay away and must talk to each other, except the crows, as he finds more crows than any other bird.

Tobin says that to find Becky, Cal will have to follow him to the rock. Once he touches the rock he can see and find her easily because basically the rock knows everything. The same thing happens in the short story.

While Becky is trying to link up with Cal, she runs into Ross, Tobin’s father. He’s acting kind of strange but seems somewhat helpful. Long story short, Ross is linked with the rock and wants to bring Becky and everyone there so they can touch it too. Obviously, Becky doesn’t want to, which I don’t blame her.

Here’s where some confusion sets in. In the movie, we see Tobin touching the rock, which means he should be crazy like Ross. However, later on, Ross acts like Tobin never touched the thing and we gloss over the earlier scene like it was a figment. Also, later on, Becky’s ex-boyfriend, Travis shows up and ends up touching the rock to save her, because apparently once you touch the rock you know all the things, including how to get out of the grass. But instead of going full dark side, he helps her and gets her out. Are we to believe that he fought the influence long enough to save his love? Who knows?
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Small details I suppose, but I kept wondering what the hell was going on? They play with time loops, so perhaps there was a loop where Tobin touched the rock and another one where he doesn’t? I dunno. Anyway, it’s worth a watch, and for sure worth a read. 

I finally finished drafting Alpha Protocol, and I have to say, thank the gods! It's with the editor and a couple beta readers at the moment, but we're on track for a February release. However, once I finished and could release my brain from scramble and write mode, I started daydreaming. What if I had the ability to pick the cast for the hypothetical movie version of Alpha Protocol? Any else ever do that with their books? Anyway, here's who I chose for the main characters:

Captain Thulisile. Lupita Nyong'o. Thuli is the leader of the Alpha Team and has supernatural powers, but she's fighting a shadowy spirit that wants her to give in to her dark urges.

I've seen Lupita Nyong'o in various films and she's awesome in everything she does. I think she could portray Thuli very well and bring a lot to the movie.

Following Thuli, we have everyone's favorite, Special Agent Doyle Johnson. He's appeared in the other two Dark Tyrant books. I needed someone who was older and could play both action and comedy well. I wracked my brain thinking about this for awhile, but then my wife said, Woody Harrelson. It was perfect!

Think of Special Agent Johnson as a Deadpool-esque character that is equal parts badass and insane. 

Next, we have the rest of the Alpha Team. Here we have Sergeant Fergus. A large man with ginger hair. He's quick to anger but takes care of his friends. I picked Kristofer Hivju, or as many of you know him, Tormund from Game of Thrones. 

For the team's sniper, we have Kenshin. He's quiet, funny, and is very into origami. I chose Hiroyuki Sanda. He always shines in everything he's ever been in.

For the team's medic, let me introduce Hanna. As a former Navy corpsman, she brings a lot to the table. I needed a strong actress to play her, so I chose Jessica Chastain. She's amazingly talented. 

Finishing up the team, we have Cheryl, a Crow woman who is also a demolitions expert. She's not one to trifle with so I needed an actress that could bring that kind of seriousness. I chose Native actress, Devery Jacobs.

Next, we have Frank and Holly Phister. They are siblings and lead the Phister & Phister Paranormal Research Squad, or PPRS. I needed another strong actress and someone who could play a funny sidekick. So I chose Brie Larson and Josh Gad.

There are more characters in the book, but these are the ones that get most of the spotlight. For those of you who have read my books, who would you cast for the role of Special Agent Johnson?