Movie Review: Tall Men (2016)

Synopsis: After declaring bankruptcy, Terrence Mackleby is thrilled when he receives an offer for a new credit card and is accepted. Shortly after using it to buy a new car, however, Terrence realizes he is being followed by three men in black suits and he should have read the card's fine print.

Who's in it? The movie stars Dan Crisafulli, Kay Whitney, Richard Garcia, Pat Cashman and Jennifer Angelucci-Medina.

Review: My wife and I cam across this movie a couple days ago and, while the description was a bit vague, thought it looked interesting so I added it to our library. To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from the film when we watched it last night but, at minimum, I hoped it wouldn't turn out to be yet another soft core porn film posing as a horror movie. As it turns out, it was a better movie than expected.

I, personally, would not describe this as a horror movie. Yeah, some of the scenes were a little creepy but there wasn't anything overly scary in my opinion. However, I did think this ended up being a halfway decent mystery.

I think the thing I liked most about this movie was the way it gradually revealed what was happening rather than showing it all at once. There were obvious clues something was going on, starting with Terrence (Crisafulli) receiving a seemingly perfect credit card after declaring bankruptcy and including his boss (Jeff Barber) showing up to work with bruises on his face shortly before firing Terrence.

Adding to the mystery were Terrence's obvious mental issues and the fact he seemed to live in one of the weirdest towns in history with plenty of people who didn't seem like they were normal. This made my wife and I wonder if this would all turn out to be some sort of hallucination on his part or if maybe he was supposed to be dead and was in Hell or Purgatory.

There was also the mystery about what happened in the very beginning of the movie, when his younger self is shown alone with a young woman (Rachelle Henry) only to have the movie hint something bad occurred. I figured it tied into the rest of the film somehow but the movie does a good job of keeping that event a secret until the end.

I was a bit mixed about the ending to this film. I thought it did a good job of subtly revealing the truth about what was happening to Terrence but, at the same time, while the ending shows the "how," it doesn't really explain the "why." While the latter wasn't completely necessary, I do feel like it would have made the ending a little better.

Final Opinion: Again, I don't think this movie qualifies as a horror film and the first 30 minutes or so do drag on a bit. However, the overall mystery about what is happening to Terrence does make it worth taking the time to watch and, at minimum, it wasn't a soft core snuff film.

My Grade: B