Note: This review may contain spoilers for the film “Longlegs”. Please read at your own discretion.
“Longlegs” is a horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins, starring Maika Monroe (“It Follows”) as FBI Agent Lee Harker, and Nicholas Cage as the mysterious titular serial killer. The story follows Agent Harker as she is assigned to the case of the mysterious Longlegs killer and begins to unravel that there may be more than meets the eye with this case.
Maika Monroe as Harker is one of the best parts of this film. Throughout its runtime, her deductive mind and emotional depth reminded me of Jodie Foster’s powerhouse performance in “The Silence Of The Lambs”. She’s strong, smart, and has actual stakes in this game. Her mother, played by Alicia Witt (“I Care A Lot”), deals with addiction, is a hoarder, and frequently spouts deluges at Harker fueled by religious trauma, such as insisting that Harker still says her “prayers”. Harker struggles to deal with all of this as she’s pursuing Longlegs, and the film allows us to explore that part of her life with her, which lets us have a deeper connection with her.
Of course, though, you can’t talk about Longlegs without talking about Nicholas Cage’s performance as the titular killer. In an interview with IndieWire, director Osgood Perkins told them about how they wanted to hold off on showing Cage’s face to further push the horror mystery of just who this bizarre killer was, “We don’t need to see him, that’s the oldest trick in the book, the audience’s imagination will provide better than you can. The idea ultimately was to say, ‘Hey, this guy is obviously something you don’t want to see.’” That notion completely pays off, because when we see Longlegs’ face finally, the build-up has made us almost fear seeing the real him. Cage is flat-out bizarre in this role, in a great way. His unnerving speech patterns and repetition of musical lyrics make him feel like something out of a twisted David Bowie music video. Every frame is haunted by his presence; he feels like a wild animal about to attack the next unlucky person.
With themes of the occult mixed with serial killer traits, the villain of Longlegs makes the audience guess if he really is that powerful, or just that insane. The movie starts off with him approaching a little girl alone, already creating an uncomfortable atmosphere as the wrongness of the moment is starkly contrasted by the purity of the surrounding snow. But, as the movie progresses and devil horns can be seen lurking in many background shots, the audience realizes that maybe this man is insane, as well as dabbling in the occult.
While the subject of Longlegs himself is tricky, the one certainty about him is his tie to the occult. The Sentinel’s speculations regarding his motives have led us in many directions. In various scenes, Longlegs is seen taking painstaking care in crafting dolls to take the likeness of the various victims. However, during one scene, a doll’s face is shown very close up with a gradual fade into Longlegs own face. This implies that he is them, and they are (at least parts of) him.
This begs the question of how, though. If he creates the dolls and places a bit of himself into each one, the audience could suppose that this is a way of showing that. However, throughout the movie, Longlegs features change in subtle ways. In some shots, his nose seems more flat, while in others it is more pronounced. Perhaps he is interchangeable in features?
Another amazing part of “Longlegs” was the cinematography. The film makes excellent use of color theory at multiple points, and also multiple aspect ratios to emphasize past or present events. For example, the film opens in a slim, boxy, super 8mm style aspect ratio as the first scene takes place in the past, but when the opening credits hit, the film slowly stretches out to classic cinemascope aspect ratio. All of that opening sequence is accompanied by a hard rock and roll song which gives the film a ‘70’s satanic panic’ aesthetic.
Tying it all together is the color scheme of the movie. From the very beginning, the color red was the defining color for trailers and marketing. As the movie begins, red writing shows across the screen. Throughout the movie, scenes bathed in red, as well as flashing red images during Maika Monroe’s scenes create a guttural reaction. The color is so stark, reminiscent of blood, anger, and other violent ideas. As mentioned before, contrasting this with snow, or even pairing it with dark rooms adds to the suspense.
In the months leading up to the film, NEON (the film’s distribution company) began releasing short videos less than a minute long. These videos conveyed various cryptic scenes of murder and supernatural forces, all tied together with an intense series of noises that acted as a soundtrack.
You can imagine the delight of those who had been following the release when a full-length trailer dropped roughly two months before the movie’s release. However, as one of those followers, my confusion was certainly not relieved as a plot was unveiled but the details were only made more confusing. Maika Monroe’s role was portrayed as the wary FBI agent investigating a killer, but various images from Super 8 film flash and the soundtrack becomes more muddled and fear inducing.
With all this being said, walking into the theater with no idea of what was going on was a success. Immediately, jumpscares and a disturbing atmosphere worked to make the hour-and-forty-one-minute-long film uncomfortable. However, there was almost no point where you could calmly take a break and perhaps relieve yourself since the plot moved along with haste.
“Longlegs” is a film that needs to be seen to be experienced. Perkins’ horror is like slow-boiling tar that leaves you casting sweaty palmed looks over your shoulder. While not as strong as his directorial debut, “Longlegs” still is full of atmosphere, disturbing moments, and horror elements that the modern-day horror zeitgeist needed. It’s a visually stunning, aesthetically dreadful investigation into the darkest parts of the human mind.
“Longlegs” is out now on VOD and Blu-ray.
