- Director: Oz Perkins
- Writer: Oz Perkins
- Stars: Maika Monroe, Nic Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt
REVIEW
Every year there is a hotly anticipated film that has been declared “The Best” and “The Scariest”. Horror fans are like moths to a flame when these kinds of declarations are made, and when “The Scariest Film Of 2024” is from an established genre filmmaker, it’s hard to not be excited. Writer/director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel and Hansel) has a very specific aesthetic and mood for his films. At times, he has been accused of making films that are more style over substance, but his most recent entry, Longlegs, is a wonderful blend of both. Undeniably his best film to date, Perkins is receiving stellar reviews and is the current
genre darling, but does Longlegs really live up to the hype?
As with any proper horror film, there is a cold open which intends to prepare the audience for what’s in store. In this case, we get a 4:3 aspect ratio that looks like the polaroids of yesteryear and we are briefly introduced to the titular character. You get a brief glimpse of the lower half of his face and it’s the thing of childhood nightmares. Cut to an FBI briefing room where we meet Lee Harker (Maika Monroe; It Follows) as she’s about to do a routine door to door to locate an active killer. This perfunctory outing leads to why agent Harker will be paired up with Agent
Carter (Blair Underwood). Harker is put through some psychic testing and then sent out to help solve the decades spanning Longlegs case. Essentially, Longlegs is a family annihilator who leaves no trace, and the only commonality among the families is that the daughter was about to celebrate her birthday on the 14th of the month. The usual cat and mouse game between a taunting serial killer and an ingenue FBI agent takes place, some wacky things happen, and it’s all shot in a very self serious, moody and retro manner. Osgood is definitely a star at utilizing slow zooms and frame distortions.
From here on out, this will be spoilerific. Please do not continue if you have not yet seen the film.
Longlegs is certainly deserving of the attention it’s receiving, and I am fully aware that I am in the minority with my takeaway, but as a girl who wrote a paper about Silence of the Lambs when I was in high school, the story feels like Clarice Starling fan fiction. A young FBI agent is partnered with a tenured, skilled, but jaded agent, and she also forms an unlikely relationship with a serial killer. Monroe is a beloved in the horror genre for so many well-deserved reasons, and while she brings her A-game to Longlegs, her performance also feels as though she wasn’t entirely sure how to portray Lee Harker. At times, she presents as being someone who is on the spectrum. Of course, in the 90’s, when the film is set, this wasn’t yet a term, so she’s written off as quirky and even “50% psychic”. Why can’t she just be exceptional at her job, regardless of age, without there being something off about her? This trope is so overused in both horror and thriller/crime films and television. A female character who comes from a functional family, enjoys her life, is as mentally stable as anyone can be in this world and is kickass at her job would be such a welcome fresh breath of air. Why does everyone have to be damaged in some way?
Nicolas Cage is a producer on this film, and Perkins has said that Cage did absolutely no adlibbing and read the script exactly as it is: he simply brought his own personal wackiness to it. And boy, oh boy, does it get wacky. Once we see Longlegs in all of his glory and he begins to spew his satanic propaganda, the spell that had been cast is immediately broken. The story was chugging along it’s patchwork quilt of a million other films that came before it really smoothly: everything is so creepy and gorgeous looking that you don’t even care that the letters Longlegs leaves are just Zodiac knockoffs of the most egregious variety. When you are
face to face with Cage in makeup that can only be described as what would happen if Radu from Subspecies and a Real Housewife had a satanic baby, it’s beyond distracting. During a scene that should be chilling, the Cage-ness of Longlegs proselytizing to Lee takes away from the truly subdued and expert work Monroe is bringing to the same scene. After this, the movie feels more like a schlocky true crime thriller that really thinks it has done something shocking when they deliver a “twist” that is as plain as the prosthetic nose on Cage’s face.
The occult part of the story has a truly fascinating nod to the JonBenèt Ramsay case. In fact, lifelike dolls for the birthday girls and “satanic Ben Wa balls,” to borrow an observation from a friend, are a bit wasted. A doll maker who uses black magic is far more interesting than watching, yet another female FBI agent be underestimated, only to be the one who solves everything. It really cannot be stressed enough how many nods to Silence of the Lambs can be seen in this film, and this can only make one wonder if this is when Perkins stopped watching current horror films. In a recent interview, he went out of his way to say that he does not watch contemporary horror films. In this same interview, he talks about his relationship to the film industry via his father. (Osgood Perkins is the son of Anthony Perkins, AKA Norman Bates.) Perkins seems to have a particular disdain for movies that he perceives as less than, so it’s a shame that Longlegs devolves into exactly that. Longlegs starts out strong, but it begins to flail when the story turns dangerously close to camp territory. The kills are brutal and startling, the
acting is top tier, and you really can’t beat a gloomy Pacific Northwest set serial killer story when it comes down to it, but this viewer expected more from a director who is quick to throw other contemporary horror directors under the bus. At least the recent slew of horror films have felt new and original. Longlegs is more like a cozy blanket that true crime fans can wrap themselves up in when they want to be cloaked in a gloomy, self serious atmosphere.
Lisa Fremont
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