The Tall Man

Collective Nightmares – The Tall Man (2012) (2008)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/collective-nightmares/id1323255235

We continue April-Laugier with a discussion of the film The Tall Man (2012). This is Pascal Laugier’s film subsequent to Martyrs (2008). We recorded this episode prior to the Martyrs episode. In fact, this film inspired us to watch Martyrs again. We wanted to post our discussions in order that Laugier created the films.

Laugier’s newest film Ghostland (2018) is being released this coming Thursday April 18th, 2018! We are excited, optimistic, and hopeful for this film! We will post our discussion of Ghostland just as soon as we are able to see it. However, I have yet to see it listed as showing in Denver theaters. So we will return to April-Laugier as soon as possible.

SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE FOR BOTH THE TALL MAN (2018) AND MARTYRS (2012)

As always, thanks for listening (we hope someone is listening). Please let us know if you are!

“Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Robin Wood.

SPOILERS BELOW

The Tall Man – Topic Index

4:59 – Laura begins our critique

8:49 – Unconvincing bleakness and lacking characters

13:27 – About that voice-over

16:03 – Ambition and pacing

16:44 – Music

17:50 – Similarities to Martyrs

20:11 – Emotional investment in characters and character motivations

23:02 – Gender politics?

25:06 – Provoking questions in Tall Man

27:28 – Compare to provoking questions in Martyrs

31:08 – What would have been interesting

33:03 – Emotional struggle

36:56 – The Tall Man as advocating a neoliberal argument

38:08 – The UN comes to the US to highlight our extreme inequality and poverty

As the UN special rapporteur himself put it: “Washington is very keen for me to point out the poverty and human rights failings in other countries. This time I’m in the US.”'”

39:35 – Colonial concerns about removing kids from homes as evidenced by U.S. history of removing Native American children from homes. Some more info here.

40:05 – A note on human “instincts”

44:52 – The acting vs the writing

45:51 – How would we have improved the film?

50:05 – Ghostland

50:19 – The Odyssey

52:21 Compare to Beware the Slenderman (2016)