THE HEIGHT OF FRIGHT
July 19, 2012 
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THE HEIGHT OF FRIGHT
Martyrs director Pascal Laugier’s first English-language film THE TALL MAN
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As steeped as Pascal Laugier’s earlier films Martyrs and St Ange were in neurotic Victorian-influenced beliefs, so The Tall Man is his unique take on dark Americana. In his first film since 2008’s audience-dividing Martyrs, Laugier fashions his own rural boogeyman who steals away with the local children, leaving the town of Cold Rock, Washington (actually British Columbia) a desolate shell of a once-vibrant community, almost like a horror counterpart to Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter. The town is so thick with dread that births are carried out in secret, and a young nurse (Jessica Biel) is driven to find the source of the legend – with the help of creepy teenager Jodelle Ferland, who also voices a character in this year’s ParaNorman – when her own child disappears.
Laugier proved himself a risk-taker with the heady excess of Martyrs and here he again takes a risk in abandoning the intense bloodshed that made his name on the international circuit in favour of a subtle mystery that will sideswipe audiences expecting more of the red stuff. The solid cast consist of some familiar Canuck faces, not only in the aforementioned Jodelle Ferland (Cabin in the Woods, Terry Gilliam’s Tideland), but also veteran character actors Stephen McHattie (Pontypool, Tomorrow Never Comes) and William B. Davis (The X-Files’ cigarette-smoking man).
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THE TALL MAN has its Canadian Premiere on Thursday, July 19 at 7:00pm and screens again on August 1 at 1pm, both in the Salle JA DeSeve. More information on the film page HERE.
