From the moment Oz Perkins’ terrifying new psychological horror thriller Longlegs begins its credits with a reddish glow on the screen, you start to realize the physiological hold and effect this movie has on you. Your heart begins to race. The fight-or-flight response is triggered as your pulse feels like it will burst through your neck and wrist like the Kool-Aid man.
Longlegs possesses a raw and unusual power we haven’t experienced since Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs. Oz Perkins masterfully builds and layers tension, mood, and pace that leave you in a psychological catatonic state, afraid to move. A throwback to great 90s thrillers, pulling back the curtain on religion’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with more on its mind than gutless jump scares.
Longlegs will leave you breathless.
Longlegs’s Review and Synopsis
Perkins’s script is set in the mid-90s and follows a new FBI agent in the field, Lee Harker (Maika Monroe of It Follows and The Watcher fame), as she and her partner, Fisk (Shogun’s Dakota Daulby from Shogun), canvas a neighborhood for the first time. Harker immediately senses the killer they’re searching for is in a home across the way. She wants to call it in, but Fisk laughs her off.
However, her new boss, Carter (Blair Underwood), is impressed with what he equates to a sixth sense on such matters. Carter brings her in on the Longlegs case, a serial killer who manipulates families into murdering each other around their child’s birthday.
He gives her the file and demonstrates impressive inductive thinking, spotting patterns and cracking data on even the most deranged minds. As she delves into the Longlegs case, she discovers occult evidence from the flamboyant serial and may have a personal connection to the case dating back to her childhood.
Longlegs is a New Horror Classic!
Oz Perkins has gained a cult following since The Blackcoat’s Daughter and the Netflix film I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House but has created a new horror classic with Longlegs. Here, Perkins weaves in subtle occult subplots, focusing on supernatural beliefs such as satanic black magic grounded in the killer’s psyche. This brings a frightening psychological resonance that gets under your skin fast and stays there.
There’s been much talk about the film being so dreadful and scary it will “ruin your life.” I am here to tell you I’m almost certain Eli Roth and Ari Aster have made home movies more disturbing. That’s not to say there are no gruesome images, such as the uncovering of a murdered family who have been under bed sheets for months (a critic at my screening momentarily left the theater).
However, the killer is presented as grotesque in a way that feels grounded, making the experience even more frightening. This brings me to Nicolas Cage, who portrays Longlegs like what the real DC Comics’ Joker might have been: a deranged sociopath obsessed with dark magic and religion, embodying deadly sins such as envy, gluttony, and sloth.
Is Longlegs Worth Watching?
Cage is simply derangely magnetic in the role. He’s so compelling here; his character is the best villain in a recent horror film memory, with a performance that will linger long in your mind after the credits roll. It’s a daring, over-the-top, compulsively goosebump-raising, one-of-a-kind portrayal. Cage’s brief cameo initially sets the mood for the entire film, which we don’t fully experience until the overwhelming third act.
I would also like to point out that Alicia Witt’s decisive supporting turn, the best performance of her career, which Cage will likely overshadow, is nevertheless just as good—more stoic but chilling by the end. Of course, Longlegs is worth watching for Monroe, the preeminent 21st-century scream queen, who is more subdued here but mirrors the audience’s taut anxiety and fear. Her performance is crucial for the film to achieve its cinematic horror thriller heights.
Longlegs, simply put, is a modern classic of the horror genre. The third act may turn some people off as it veers away from a gritty serial killer murder mystery into something more abstract. Still, Perkins embraces a core horror genre value involving religious zealotry that will lead even the most devout into the darkest of places. Nerve-wracking, unhinged, truly visceral, and wholly original, Longlegs will linger in your mind long after it’s over.
You can watch Longlegs only in theaters on July 12th.
9/10
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