The small town of Cold Rock, Washington, is struggling with economic hardships and growing class differences as the prospect for the town's recidents is slowly diminishing when the mine that has been the main source of employment has shut down. In the midst of battling poverty and lack of resources, the adults in Cold Rock are one by one experiencing yet another heartbreaking tragedy; the children keep disappearing from their playgrounds, their schools and even from inside their homes.
Rumours surrounding the circumstances of the disappearances are widely spread; some believe it's a local child molester. Some say it's the Devil himself. Some talk about the town's own urban legend figure; The Tall Man - a mysterious man abducting children into the woods, after which they're never seen again.
One who's never fallen for the urban legend is the town nurse Julia Denning (Jessica Biel). Being the only medical practicioner in the area since her (doctor) husband died several years earlier, Julia Denning has become the antithesis of Cold Rock - the heroic baby deliverer, the house warming care taker and the loving mother. Naturally, as a counterpart to the social downward spiral, her son goes missing.
What starts out as a mother giving chase builds up in an intricate and inscrutable pattern, where The Tall Man's mysterious role decreases and the hidden role of nurse Denning slowly increases. The Tall Man is a heart-wrenching, shocking thriller that never fails to turn corners. We learn that the kidnapper is someone far less legendary than The Tall Man and that the urban legend figure himself exists in a whole other way than we are first to believe. The underlying supernatural prescence and the mythical references are soon diminished by the stereotype small town tropes being skillfully demolished into the heartbreaking conclusions of today; how a national economy crises always hits the hardest against small towns. The defiance and suspicion exuding from small town folks towards the outside world. The iron fist of distant and anonomous governments. The brutal consequences of class differences and the limited means of those less fortunate. The Tall Man is a provocative end twister that gives food for thought by putting an edge to the horror genre and leaves the viewer with more than one moral reflection.
