Movie Review: ‘Longlegs’

An unrecognizable Nicolas Cage descends into Satanic evil and takes us with him in director Osgood Perkins’ disquieting, thoroughly creepy ‘Longlegs.’

(L to R) Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe in 'Longlegs'. Photo: Neon.

Opening in theaters July 12th is ‘Longlegs,’ directed by Osgood Perkins and starring Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, and Kiernan Shipka.

Initial Thoughts

Writer-director Osgood Perkins has staked out his own personal corner of the horror genre with his first three films, merging elements of fantasy, fairy tales, and the Gothic into the feverish narratives of ‘The Blackcoat’s Daughter,’ ‘I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House,’ and ‘Gretel & Hansel.’ His unsettling new film, ‘Longlegs,’ still has some of that fairy tale flavor: its protagonist lives in a log cabin in the woods and some of the action centers around a mother and daughter living in a remote house like two characters out of the Brothers Grimm.

But ‘Longlegs’ also channels the Satanic Panic horror movies of the 1970s (more effectively, perhaps, than Ti West does with the films of the ‘80s in ‘MaXXXine’), as well as more recent psychological mind-benders like ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and the underseen Japanese shocker ‘Cure,’ while giving us less of a fractured fairy tale and more of a waking nightmare. Set in rural 1990s locales that seem both drained of life and susceptible to sudden, ugly violence, while featuring a performance from Nicolas Cage that worms its way into your brain, ‘Longlegs’ is perhaps not outright scary – but genuinely unnerving.

Story and Direction

(L to R) Cinematographer Andrés Arochi and director Osgood Perkins on the set of 'Longlegs'. Photo: Neon.

10 families die under frighteningly similar circumstances over 30 years: a seemingly normal, family-values dad gruesomely slaughters his wife and family before killing himself. Two clues tie the scenes together: at each is left a card written in Zodiac-like ciphers from a person calling themselves ‘Longlegs,’ and each family has a daughter whose birthday falls on the 14th of that month. But there is no indication – indeed no evidence at all – that Longlegs physically participates in the crimes.

Enter socially awkward, super-repressed FBI Special Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), whose seeming flashes of intuition – or perhaps something more paranormal – about serial killings gets her assigned to the case while also marking her as a cross between Clarice Starling from ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and Will Graham of ‘Red Dragon/Manhunter.’ Overseeing her is Special Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), a decent family man with whom she strikes up a mentor/mentee relationship. The case quickly turns personal for Lee when Longlegs leaves one of his cards at her house, as the clock ticks down toward the 14th of the month when another slaughter is all but assured.

Blair Underwood in 'Longlegs'. Photo: Neon.

That’s all we’ll say about the plot of ‘Longlegs,’ save for the fact that the movie is less about the narrative and more about the creeping, oozing sense of dread that permeates every frame, whether it’s the widescreen present-day shots that make the viewer acutely uncomfortable about all that empty space encroaching on the characters, or the square-framed, faded, home movie-style flashbacks that become ever more claustrophobic. Perkins also lets sound designer Eugenio Battaglia rip with a mosaic of static-haunted phone lines, strange thumps and creaks, and random scratching noises, occasionally punctuated by a rock song.

The end result of all this is a constant feeling that something is way, way off, that the movie is observing its characters as if they’re trapped in a dream and don’t know it, all while ominous forces build up just outside their – and our – line of sight. When the revelations about what it all means do come in the third act, explained as if in a fairy tale, they come a little too thick and fast, stretching credibility and perhaps not quite living up to the sense of malevolence that preceded them. But Perkins also leaves the film just open-ended enough at the end to let the viewer walk out feeling off-balance and still unsettled.

The Cast

Maika Monroe in 'Longlegs'. Photo: Neon.

Maika Monroe has become something of a genre queen thanks to her roles in films like ‘The Guest,’ ‘Watcher,’ and of course her breakthrough horror outing ‘It Follows.’ As Lee Harker, she’s clearly paying homage to Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling, right down to the color of her hair and her dynamic with Blair Underwood’s empathetic Agent Carter. But Harker is more repressed and unable to interact normally with people than Clarice ever was; she can barely make small talk with a little girl who’s clearly impressed with her FBI credentials. Monroe ably portrays a woman who is driven to succeed as a law enforcement agent while not quite able to leave her childhood behind or understand her full talents.

(L to R) Lauren Acala and Alicia Witt in 'Longlegs'. Photo: Neon.

A lot of this becomes clearer when we meet Ruth, Harker’s mother, played by a startling (and underseen in recent years) Alicia Witt. Her hair long and flat, her expression both wide-eyed and vacant, Ruth drifts through her crammed hoarder house like a ghost, repeatedly telling Lee to say her prayers because they “protect us from the Devil.” Witt is excellent, with she and Monroe developing a credibly sympathetic yet clearly damaged mother-daughter relationship that gets more layers peeled away as the film progresses.

(L to R) Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage in 'Longlegs'. Photo: Neon.

And then there’s Nicolas Cage as Longlegs. The film almost sets up expectations by telling you in the opening credits that he’s playing the title role, and Cage – in his own distinctive way – doesn’t disappoint. His own hair colorless and stringy, his face buried in prosthetics and pale white makeup, Cage is like a bizarre cross between Jame Gumb and Pennywise. His voice climbing into higher pitches as he speaks, bursting either into song or a cackling laugh, and his hands continually framing his own face with seemingly a will of their own, Cage’s Longlegs is a highly original creation. The fact that Cage is more or less acting in his own movie only makes his appearances in the film more dream-like and surreal. Best of all, Perkins knows that the best horror is left unexplained: while Longlegs’ own scheme does get eventually revealed, we are thankfully left without a tiresome backstory of how he got there. He just exists.

Final Thoughts

Lauren Acala in 'Longlegs'. Photo: Neon.

With his four efforts to date, Osgood Perkins has clearly shown a passion for and knowledge of horror that puts him at the forefront of the current crop of genre filmmakers. He has yet to make a truly great horror film, but his work shows ambition even with its flaws and sticking points (next for him is an adaptation – his first – of the Stephen King story ‘The Monkey’).

‘Longlegs’ may be his best-realized creation to date, and even as it references other films and eras, it remixes them into something weird, personal, and original. It’s not the scariest movie ever made (as some advance hype has ludicrously suggested) and it doesn’t pay off as successfully as we’d like, but the nightmarish ‘Longlegs’ will still have you looking over your shoulder, into the dark spaces where repressed memories, religious mania, and the otherworldly all meet.

‘Longlegs’ receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.

Longlegs

"Say your prayers."

R1 hr 41 minJul 12th, 2024

Showtimes & Tickets

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What is the plot of ‘Longlegs’?

In the 1990s, new FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) was assigned to an unsolved case involving the Satanic serial killer known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). As the investigation becomes more complicated with occult evidence uncovered, Harker realizes a personal link to the killer and must act quickly to prevent another family murder.