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The Tall Man | 2012 | R | - 3.7.6

A remote community is plagued by a series of kidnappings by a mysterious figure. When a local woman is accused of being the source of the kidnappings, we see the town turn on her immediately. With Jessica Biel, Jodelle Ferland, William B. Davis, Samantha Ferris, Stephen McHattie and Katherine Ramdeen. Directed by Pascal Laugier. [1:46]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - After a female doctor asks a woman to report a teen girl's pregnancy to the authorities, a woman implies to a doctor that her teenage daughter had been molested but she would not pursue legal action; we then hear a teen girl's voiceover imply that she had been molested but her mother was not taking action.
 A woman tells another woman that she believes a man had impregnated her teen daughter, saying that if she had known he was "fooling around" she would have "popped him."
 We see a teen girl hold up her nude newborn baby. A woman pulls off her shirt and we see her bare back (she is wearing a bra).

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A woman searches for a boy in a house where we see a shadowy figure appear in the kitchen, she runs after the figure, the figure drives away in a truck, she grabs the handle on the back of the truck, the truck drives erratically, she falls off the back, she hides under the truck as the driver walks around to the back, and a giant dog leaps from the truck and attacks the woman, who smashes the dog in the face with a rock (we later see the dog unharmed) and the mysterious figure then hits the woman on the head and she appears to be unconscious; she then wakes up with a start (we see a bloody cut on her chin and temple and her arms are bound), grabs the mysterious figure and pulls it away from the steering wheel, she attempts to drive the truck but the dog bites her ankles, she screams as the truck swerves, a sleeping boy in the back wakes up and screams as the truck jumps over a pile of rocks, she loses control, the truck crashes on its side, the boy climbs from the wreckage and we see the mysterious figure pick him up and carry him away (we later see the injured woman with a bloody cut on her chin and temple break through the back doors of the truck and wander down the street).
 A shadowy figure attacks a woman, knocking her unconscious and moments later we see her wake up, tied to a chair. An injured woman (there's a cut on the forehead) sneaks out of the back of a police cruiser, she hides in fear and then walks into a dark building and as she explores she finds a shadowy figure running from room to room. A man grabs a woman's neck, throws her against a car and shoves her to the ground; the woman's teenage daughter leaps onto the man's back, he flings her into a car, she lands on the ground with a thud, the woman stands up, hits the man in the head with a bottle and we see a splash of blood on the man's hand as both the man and the woman begin to laugh.
 A woman stumbles through a dark forest screaming for a missing boy, she trips and falls into a muddy pit, she pulls herself out and examines the cuts and bruises on her arms and legs; she lies down on an empty street, a car drives up and the driver wakes her and helps her into a diner where she collapses (she appears injured and in shock).
 A woman screams at another woman, shouting that she had kidnapped her son and brainwashed him, then accuses the woman of kidnapping multiple children and shoves her to the ground as she says that she has kidnapped other children and given them to "the tall man"; one woman kicks the other woman, pushing her against a table and knocking her unconscious and a boy watches and runs away (we see him hide in a cabinet). A mysterious figure grabs a teen girl and carries her rapidly through a forest, throwing her into the back of a car, under the seat, and driving away. A teen girl coaxes a hiding boy into coming with her and we hear the boy scream as a woman scoops him up and the teen girl, the woman and the boy drive away; the boy cries and struggles in her arms.
 As a handcuffed woman is lead out of her house by the police, we see another woman hanging in the corner and it is implied that the woman killed herself (no blood is visible).
 A crowd of people scream at a handcuffed woman as she is led from her home; they scream threats at her and we see a man throw a rock through the back windshield of the police car she is placed in, narrowly missing the woman. As a female prisoner is led to her cell, we hear other female prisoners screaming at her, calling her names and threatening her. Several men and women panic after a man tries to find a woman and one of the men shouts and throws himself against a locked bathroom stall. A woman is startled when she is awakened by the sound of breaking glass as a crowd outside throws bricks through the windows of her home. A woman wakes up when she hears shouting and breaking glass; she walks downstairs to investigate, turns off a radio and we hear stirring in the woods outside the window.
 A man gets in a woman's face, vaguely threatening her after she implies that a teen girl's daughter had given birth the previous night to the man's child. A woman shouts at another woman through a closed door, slamming her hand against the door. We hear men shouting at a woman through the door, and they pound and warn the woman that the police are coming. A woman shouts at a teen girl as the teen girl cries.
 We see a teen girl in active labor and she screams in pain as the child is delivered (no nudity is visible); we see a nurse trying to revive the lifeless infant and we then hear a whimper and cry as the baby stirs. A teen girl screams in pain as she gets out of a car that a woman was seen driving erratically and we see that the teen girl is pregnant and it is understood that she is in labor. A boy cries out as a woman injects him with a syringe (it is implied to be a sleeping medicine).
 A nurse pulls broken glass from a woman's face as the woman cries and we see bloody cuts covering her face and her eyes are swollen; we later see the same scene with more detail (a close-up of her cut face is visible) and the woman is later seen with stitches in her forehead and chin. A woman discovers another woman with her hands tied behind her back and mouth gagged (blood is seen coming from her nose). An older man asks a woman what had happened to her as the woman cries and gasps in fear; we see the woman washing herself and we see blood on her forehead and chin run off as she washes her face.
 During a police interrogation, a woman admits to a man that she had kidnapped children in a community after she was unable to have children and then remains silent when the police officer asks the woman if the children are dead and we see flashes of multiple children as the woman remains quiet. An older man tells a woman that her teenage daughter had run away and that a woman was not responsible for her death; the man adds that the woman had been charged with a death sentence, but that it was then waived so the police could find "more bodies" (the children had not been killed). A police officer instructs a woman to talk to a prisoner about missing children, saying that the bodies of 18 missing children had not been found and they needed the prisoner's cooperation. A police operator asks a man if a person had been murdered while looking for a suspect in a kidnapping case and the man does not respond. A man tells an older woman that a woman had died trying to save a teen girl and another woman would be going to jail for the rest of her life. We see multiple television reports of women crying, saying that their children had gone missing and we see footage of people saying that a mysterious creature called "tall man" has been kidnapping children in a community. As we see missing children signs on a board, a teen girl's voiceover explains that children frequently go missing from a community. A woman warns a teen girl that a mysterious "tall man" will "do things to her that she cannot even imagine." We hear a teen girl narrate that 18 children were missing and they were searching for their bodies. A woman says that she "cannot live" without knowing where her missing son has gone. Two men discuss multiple kidnappings in a town and one man remarks that he believes the kidnapper is a "child molester." A teen girl's voice over explains that a community believed that a mysterious "tall man" would kidnap people's children. A woman tells another woman that her teenage daughter that had given birth the night before was sent away and the woman warns her that she was not safe to travel. A woman tells another woman that she "would die" for her son.
 A car is seen being driven erratically down a street.

LANGUAGE 6 - About 10 F-words and its derivatives, 8 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, name calling (cynical [mild obscenity deleted], moron, stupid, cocky, lousy), 3 religious profanities, 8 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A woman pours another woman liquor from a shaker and we later see the woman appear to be intoxicated, a group of men and women are seen drinking beer at a restaurant, and a man jokes that he "blacked out" the previous night from celebrating.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Kidnapping, declining communities, dignity, taking judgment into your own hands.

MESSAGE - Sometimes a bad situation can just be a cover-up for a greater good.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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