Longlegs

I have to give credit to the guerilla marketing of this movie. We’ve seen this tactic used several times before in the world of horror movies. Sometimes it works well and other times it falls flat. I think because they went to such great lengths to conceal so many elements of the film in general that this style of promotion did really work in their favor. From my personal perspective, it pulled me in more than Barbarian did last year. To be fair, it did take me a full year to finally break down and see the film. I had to look up the release date to realize it came out in September of 2022 and I finally gave it a watch last Halloween season. While Longlegs had a little bit of an earlier jump coming out in July of this year, it was only a few short months before this one was revving up in my 4K player. So I’ll give them kudos as they sucked me in on this one and I have to say I’m really not disappointed.

I will admit that I liked the movie. I didn’t love it. I’m not crazy for it or anything. But I also don’t regret the purchase. I have to say first and foremost that the tone of the movie is ominous from the opening sequences. There’s no point that you get to settle into any part of this movie. But it’s not got you on edge the entire time either. I think that’s what I liked about it. It moves along relatively steadily and keeps you in flux but it’s not a sharp poking and prodding that keeps you engaged. There’s some films that won’t let you settle into any kind of groove because they just refuse to let you emotionally integrate into the flow of the film. I think that’s one of the things this movie does well. You have this reserved energy all throughout the film. But at the same time, you’re not overtly aware that you can’t settle in to the plot of the film. I think it’s a very significant accomplishment because you’re not comfortable but you’re also not uncomfortable. It’s a weird sort of limbo that keeps you engaged but not alert. It’s a really meaningful dichotomy that I think Oz Perkins, the director, does really well. It wasn’t until after I was doing some investigating into the film that I found the man at the helm of this film’s execution was the son of legendary “Psycho” star, Anthony Perkins. It’s not hard to see where he gets a good portion of his inspiration from in a film like this.

The other element that I really like about how this film is assembled is the spatial construct. There are parts of this film wrapped up in the background and foreground of scenes while the dialogue is being poured out over them. There’s secretive elements of the looming darkness over the case represented physically on screen in the persona of a goat horned demon. There are hints and clues along the way that help you unfold the plot and give you the markers you need to follow along and work the case with fledgling FBI agent Lee Harker. The comparison to Silence of the Lambs is notable. There are definitely carryover elements to this film from the former. But this is very much still it’s own movie. There’s inspiration from a number of other places but it never feels like this movie retreats into an amalgamation of other movies put on a plate like some sort of cinematic buffet simply regurgitated for your viewing pleasure. There’s a very modern feel to the film while still having this dated sort of quality to it as well. It’s a very interesting delivery on screen throughout most of the film.

The last thing I’ll bring up, though there could easily be many more, is the performance of Nicolas Cage. I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I note his presence in the case, especially as the terribly off putting titular character, Longlegs. He’s introduced almost immediately in the film and his presence on screen is haunting. Though I won’t say it’s represented in a traditional sort of fashion. There are elements of his physicality that make him abnormal but not in a terrifically distinct way. It’s not offensive to the senses like there’s something legitimately wrong with him in that sense. He’s quite pale. Some of his features are emphasized semi-dramatically. But what’s far more notable about him is his persona. He’s clearly a not well person on screen. He really nails the character because he is creepy as anything. It’s one of those performances where I do not envy whatever headspace Cage had to enter to bring this character to life because it’s not a good place filled with happiness and birthday cake. He went somewhere dark and came out a little crazier than Cage normally does. I know from reading about the film that he does not intend to portray any more serial killers like the one that he plays in this movie. It’s not a role he will get type cast in by any means. But his certainly makes it his own and even with minimal on screen time, he gets the job done immensely.

Even though this is a well crafted story with a lot of really compelling elements, it does not get everything right. I think there’s some elements of the investigative effort that could have been delivered a little more tightly. I think the criminality of the work could have been a little more cryptic. There was definitely a psychological or perhaps even parapsychological element to the detective side of things that I think would have gone better had it been reserved for either a later point in the film or maybe to a lesser degree. There were times the criminality was directed and methodical. But other times it felt secondary to a more supernature reasoning for why they were on the tail of the killer. I definitely feel like there was room for both and the plot did not need to sway one way or the other. While I don’t feel like this overtly detracts from the overall production, in my estimation I would have liked to see things come together more judiciously in that right. The police work seems like it could have been a really significant way to help lead the audience through the plot and into the supernatural phenomenon that resided in the culmination of the story. There seemed to be a very deliberate positioning of the evidence so that it pointed towards a Zodiac killer type of property which at times shone through in Harker’s investigation but was less of a driver and more of a coincidence in a lot of ways. There was real detective work happening but many times it seemed to taper off into luck or some other reasoning by which our protagonists would land at a next step in the case. It wasn’t sloppy and it wasn’t a detractor. It’s just something I would have personally liked to see be a bit more prominent in the narrative ultimately.

This is a genuinely good movie, probably bordering on great. It may take another watch to make that decisive or not. But I can easily stand behind it and recommend it. Even if I hadn’t already purchased the movie, I think I’d definitely be leaning in that direction now. Which is why I think I can easily give this movie a B+. I know it was billed as the scariest movie in a decade, which I think could be a little excessive. But it’s still a really enjoyable and well made horror flick. It’s funny because this movie doesn’t benefit from significant star power, outside of the Nicolas Cage name recognition. And even that doesn’t carry a standard benefit. Cage has spread himself so thin over the last couple of decades that it’s really a coin toss whether or not the film is any good. This is fortunately one of the better ones he’s been in and his efforts were quite good. I’d say for most folks you can probably stand to wait until this one does hit a streaming service. While I got a decent price on my physical copy, if I didn’t have the motivation of the 31 Days of Horror behind me, I might not have taken such significant action to be able to watch the film. I know it’s recently been on sale digitally so that may sway more people. I know a $10 price point on the digital scale is usually a pretty solid discount and having that level of ownership seems to be enough for most folks. So that may be the gateway for anyone really looking to check this one out in the Halloween season. Watch it now or watch it later, if you’ve got this one on your radar I don’t think you’ll be disappointed in it. I rarely like to overhype a lot of things because tastes run so independently these days. But I do feel fairly confident that this one will continue to reverberate rather significantly in the hallows of the horror community. So with all that said, I think we can bring Longlegs to a finish. Until next time, I’ll catch you on the flip side.