Longlegs, 2024.
Written and Directed by Osgood Perkins.
Starring Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby, Lauren Acala, Kiernan Shipka, Lisa Chandler, Maïla Hosie, Carmel Amit, Scott Nicholson, Malcolm Masters, and Ava Kelders.
SYNOPSIS:
In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying killing spree.
Ice-blooded and enveloped in literal and figurative darkness, writer/director Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs is a tense serial killer thriller smart enough to hold that suspense, refusing to allow viewers to question the logic behind everything that unfolds. This means that the more one thinks about the film when it’s over, especially some of the sure-to-be divisive revelations, the cracks are as visible as the creepy makeup Nicolas Cage is smothered in as the titular killer.
Centered on half-psychic Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), her increasing success locating and catching prolific murderers has got her assigned to the ongoing Longlegs case. It’s a series of murders starting in the 1970s and continuing well into the present-day 1990s, with noteworthy commonalities such as the deaths are always of a Christian family resembling a triple homicide and a suicide, presumably meaning that the father kills himself after gruesomely dispatching of his loved ones. More mysteriously, a letter is left behind from Longlegs written in cryptic coding, with no traces of breaking in or participating in the violence. There is also always a young girl among the victims with a birthday landing on a specific date. Coincidentally, Lee’s superior, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), has a daughter about to turn nine that day. So, if you have ever seen a horror movie before (or a movie in general), you now know where the climax will take place and what it might entail.
Predictability isn’t necessarily an issue with Longlegs, though. Not considering the film is this technically sound, elevating the bleak and cold atmospheric attention with several tricks ranging from ominous slow zooms, sharp framing (courtesy of Andres Arochi) that expertly knows how to set up a sudden shock (not the same thing as a jump scare), and unnerving performances from an ensemble that have thrown themselves into these psychologically damaged characters. Osgood Perkins isn’t setting out to reinvent the genre but rather emulate the conventions of a solid and slick procedural cat-and-mouse serial killer game while also incorporating some other subgenre ideas that, again, will make or break the film for some.
It’s effective enough but disappointing; that’s all Longlegs has going for it. This is an otherwise hollow exercise frustratingly doing nothing with its Satanic Panic/Christianity juxtaposition. It has no interest in diving into the mind of the killer himself beyond the fact that he is one psychotic dollmaker played by Nicolas Cage (mostly unsettling, sometimes miscalculating the performance and slipping into his comical over-the-top mode), and also doesn’t take advantage of Lee’s unique ability. Certain situations trigger perspective shifts to Longlegs and his misdeeds over the years or her past (the latter typically shot in a Polaroid box frame as if it’s a nightmare memory), but there’s never a sense that her psychic ability is key to cracking an aspect of the case. A significant chunk of the film seems rushed to ensure the mind doesn’t linger too far into questions of motive, characterization, logistics, and contrivances.
With that said, there is no denying that at roughly the mark of the second half, this is an overwhelmingly suffocating experience if one can go along with what else Osgood Perkins has in store. Similarly, Maika Monroe, who is already excellent here portraying a character seemingly perpetually rattled from childhood (she gave up dreams of becoming an actress to do important things utilizing her psychic abilities), has at least one chilling back-and-forth with Longlegs. Nicolas Cage himself also registers as fairly sinister, especially when his body language is doing the work rather than his voice; at one point, video footage is put on pause, remaining visible in the background, frozen on a mentally disturbed smile that, in a film that does have numerous striking visuals, will surely linger.
As an experience, Longlegs is compelling, quickly passes the time, and is devilishly startling in a manner that continuously resounds throughout. However, there simply isn’t much to interrogate beyond the creepy performances (one of which comes from Alicia Witt playing a character I won’t say much about) and proficient craftsmanship.
Longlegs feels destined to be remembered for its creative marketing campaign more than anything within the actual movie. It started with an elaborate, fully interactive website with victim’s lore, and Neon even put out a clip parading around Maika Monroe’s quickening and high heartbeat rate the first time she saw Nicolas Cage in makeup; are we taking questions a journalist might ask the cast and crew and turning them into buzzy advertisements? The marketing tactics are going to be studied years into the future more than anyone will be analyzing the film itself. That’s the only longevity for Longlegs, a solid but otherwise empty thriller.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
