Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
FirstWitch
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Alan Smithee Esq.
Starts with a fresh and unique premise but slowly...It's clever and it's horrific but the outcome is not the best pay off that it could have been. Jessica Biel who I would say is a very so-so actress is rather good in her performance. I really liked the first half of the movie and didn't see many of the twists coming but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed once I'd reached the conclusion. It's overall a better than average horror flick but there's lots of better ones out there (and even more that are worse).
Nigel P
Cold Rock is an aptly named town. Jobs have evaporated, and the people live an isolated existence where they take the law into their own hands. It is a town that has died – everywhere is streaked with rain and oil, the townsfolk are permanently bedraggled, their faces bleached of colour. Sometimes children are born in Cold Rock that are not wanted; often, these youngsters simply disappear. Someone is taking them.In young David, we have a genuinely appealing child. With a head full of crayons and castles, he is ripe for kidnap by the fabled Tall Man. Julia (Jessica Biel), who looks after him, has a bloodied confrontation with the indistinguishable figure – despite my initial thoughts, The Tall Man is not a spectral, superhuman figure, but a real, physical threat. And yet when Julia is brought to the café which seems to be a meeting point for the locals, their hostilities are directed towards her.Rather than a full-blooded horror, this film is about a handful of people who make the most extraordinary sacrifices to remove the many children from their stultifying life in Cold Rock – or presumably any other similarly perverse and hopeless community – in order to place them in surroundings with a better future, or any future at all. I would have preferred it if the writing had not been quite so oblique concerning this fairly important revelation. In view of the extraordinary sacrifice this handful of people make in delivering children with no future into the hands of The Tall Man, the reality of what they are doing might have been more clearly defined. As it is, the brow-beaten, teary-eyed staring into space from characters like Julia could have been better explained.Do money and respectability necessarily ensure a child has a better life? That seems to be the message here. Social commentary given the trappings of a potential horror film – beautifully told and acted, incredibly well directed. At its core, the story itself seems judgemental.
chun li
From a technical standpoint, its professionally made. Audio sounds particularly impressive. That said, the story is a whole load of nothing. Jessica Biel is attractive.*warning, massive spoiler alert coming up* The most unexpected member of the community, an attractive nurse (Jessica Biel) is involved in the taking of children from underprivileged families and allowing them to lead a better life with wealthy people. All the while, the families of the missing children put the disappearances down to a mystery character called the Tall Man, who is believed to live in the woods. The nurse believes, by doing what she is doing, she is breaking the cycle of white trash having children only for them to grow up and turn into white trash and have children.How this film got the green light remains a mystery. It's estimated budget was $18,200,000. A figure obtained from IMDb. There's no way this film could have made it's money back.2/10
Brett Robson
Major Spoiler Alert - Yes I'm giving the whole plot away.First, this film was marketed in a way to lead the innocent viewer/purchaser to believe it was somehow related to/inspired by events in Phantasm (1979). Simply not true. Phantasm (Never Dead in Australia) was an entertaining B horror film with some interesting scenes and ideas. Lots of fun in a brainless way - the main hero is an ice cream man.Secondly, this films basic premise is extremely offensive. We are treated to scenes where the mother of an abducted child is comforted by the person committing the abduction. The reason for the abduction - the mother is too poor to raise the child properly. You can't not find this offensive.The attempts at "mystery" by deliberately obfuscating plot points is just annoying. The Tall Man is (maybe) 6 feet 2.While technically competent it is basically a waste of your time. I'm giving it a one because you can see and hear what's going on although for much of the movie you wish you didn't.
