Principal photography was expected to begin on July 30, 2018, and last until September 14, 2018, in Toronto, Ontario. On July 24, 2018, it was reported that a dilapidated church set had been constructed for the film on a rural road in Perth South, Ontario. On September 20, 2018, filming took place outside of a bowling alley in Elmira, Ontario. The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 20, 2019. On October 4, 2019, the film was available to stream on Netflix. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 36%, based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 5.16/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "A potentially intriguing premise is rapidly lost in the weeds during "In the Tall Grass" which struggles to stretch its slim source material to feature length." On Metacritic, the film has an aggregated score of 46 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".