Longlegs (2024, dir. Osgood Perkins)

by Jack Martin | Jul 14, 2024

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 101 mins

UK Distributor: Black Bear Films

UK Release Date: 12 July 2024

WHO’S IN LONGLEGS?

Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood, Kiernan Shipka, Dakota Daulby, Lisa Chandler, Erin Boyes, Rryla McIntosh, Charles Jarman, Lauren Acala

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Osgood Perkins (director, writer), Nicolas Cage, Dave Caplan, Chris Ferguson, Dan Kagan and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (producers), Andrés Arochi (cinematographer), Graham Fortin and Greg Ng (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

An FBI agent (Monroe) pursues an evasive serial killer (Cage)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON LONGLEGS?

A lot of people tend to label Silence of the Lambs as a horror film, but I tend to disagree. While there is certainly some disturbing stuff that happens in it, and characters like Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill are definitely creepy figures, the Oscar-winning classic never felt particularly scary to me, at least in the traditional horror sense. I always found it to be much more of an unsettling thriller instead, since I felt more thrilled during it than scared, which feels appropriate given its procedural nature along with the way that it’s so intensely shot and performed. It’s a great movie, don’t get me wrong, but Silence of the Lambs is not, in my mind, a horror film.

Longlegs, on the other hand, most certainly is a horror film. While writer-director Osgood Perkins’ film shares a number of similarities, from its own procedural narrative to a sinister dynamic between its lead law enforcement officer and a deranged serial killer, what this film has that Silence of the Lambs does not is an unmistakable sense of fear throughout its entire runtime. This is a movie that establishes a terrifying mood from the very first frame, and never lets go until its equally horrifying conclusion, with plenty of dark and chilling stuff in between that will have you frozen in your seat from how uncompromisingly scary it is.

Whoever else like myself never viewed Silence of the Lambs as a horror film, you now have something which fills that particular hole. And it is a truly scary, and indeed excellent, hole-filler.

Taking place in the 90s – and you know this by the handy picture of then-President Bill Clinton on the walls – Longlegs centres around Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), a rookie FBI agent with an unusually disconnected attitude, and an even more unusual psychic ability to feel the presence of perpetrators. She is assigned to the case of an evasive serial killer known only as “Longlegs” (Nicolas Cage), whose M.O. is to somehow manipulate the murders of numerous families from within, leaving behind intricately coded letters that point toward Satanic occultism. Harker, of course, dives deep into the case by deciphering the letters and figuring out his pattern, before then… well, that’s all I’m going to say about the plot.

That’s because there are narrative aspects of Longlegs that I’m not sure I even want to describe in this review, as this is a film which works best when you go in knowing very little beyond the basic plot. It doesn’t necessarily go into outlandish territory (though, without giving anything away, it might dabble in one or two supernatural horror elements), but it is something that should be experienced with as fresh a mind as possible, since little can truly prepare you for the absolute unsettlement that you will feel with this film.

From the start, Perkins creates a chilling atmosphere – and not just because the majority of it takes place during the winter – with a series of eerily empty wide shots that fill the space with unpredictable dread. The filmmaker, along with cinematographer Andrés Arochi, plays around with what the viewer can and cannot see, particularly via aspect ratio shifts and intricately blocked and edited scenes where, for a good while, you barely see Cage’s face as Longlegs himself. This creates a creeping sense of terror where you’re never certain what’s going to be coming right around the corner, even in scenes that end up being particularly normal, and it’s shot so intensely that you’re half-expecting everything within this oddly observant world to leap out at the screen towards you.

Luckily, Perkins has more respect for his audience than to just simply fill his film with cheap jump-scares. Instead, he lets the atmosphere and the horrifying reveals that are uncovered throughout to speak for themselves, for they alone provide an exceptionally haunting experience that is particularly boosted by its performances. Maika Monroe is excellent as a character who’s very emotionally withdrawn, like if Clarice Starling took a whole bunch of Xanax before confronting Dr. Lecter, but never to a point where it feels like she is simply giving a dry performance, for the actor taps into some dark and traumatic areas to deliver a turn that’s perfectly understated for this type of character. Look out also for memorable supporting turns from the likes of Alicia Witt, as Lee’s rather unnerving mother, and a one-scene appearance by Kiernan Shipka as the sole survivor of Longlegs and his manipulative game.

Speaking of, there’s also Nicolas Cage. In the wrong hands, the kind of character he is playing would be hammed up so much that he’s practically oinking, and in some respects, Cage does go over-the-top here in his usual Cage manner. However, what he quite brilliantly does is go the full Nicolas Cage in ways that have never been seen before, with outbursts that instil endless fear rather than unintentional laughter, with a whitened and puckered-up design that makes him look like the ghost of Benedict Cumberbatch performing as Widow Twankey in the Christmas pantomime. Once you see him in action, though, any mockery simply goes straight out the window. He has never been more legitimately terrifying than he is as the titular Longlegs, and you are seriously not ready to see what he brings to this intimidating role.

Of course, Longlegs is much more than its memorable performances. It is excellently shot, neatly paced, unafraid to explore some depraved and bleak areas, and most of it all it is unbelievably scary. This is true horror filmmaking at its finest, and deserves to be recognised as a much more terrifying successor to Silence of the Lambs, which comparatively speaking has the scare factor of an actual lamb.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Longlegs is a truly terrifying procedural that outdoes even Silence of the Lambs with its unhinged levels of horror, and with excellently unnerving filmmaking and fantastic performances, particularly from Nicolas Cage as the titular serial killer, it creates a sinister atmosphere that you’re unlikely to forget any time soon.