Daisy
When I first saw the marketing for Longlegs, it was love at first sight.
An artsy trailer about a murder mystery with heavy hints of the ‘ol satanic panic. The PR boxes with secret codes. The phone number with creepy messages.
Horror fans flocked to any glimpse of the film, namely – what Nicholas Cage would look like. My expectations were set high.
The movie follows Lee Harker – a young, detached FBI agent – tackling her first case. The case being to track down an occultist serial killer who goes by the name Longlegs.
The film spends a nice chunk of time setting up Lee and the case. As expected, it’s a murder mystery fanatics dream.
The mystery lies in how Longlegs could manipulate numerous fathers to murder their families and themselves.
With no evidence that a killer ever entered their homes, they could’ve been mistaken for murder-suicides. But then there’s the cryptic messages left at each scene. And the fact that each family had a daughter born on the 14th.
The unravelling of the mystery took on an interesting and somewhat erratic pace. Lee solves clues incredibly fast, due to the narrative aid of her psychic abilities.
The visual style and sound design were masterful, and carried a lot of the movie. With lingering shots – I would’ve raved about in film school – and harrowing flash cuts, I was engrossed.
The third act is when the movie started going downhill for me.
Instead of offering something fresh and gritty, the last half hour reduces the film to cliche and the over-used theme of a possessed doll.
Even worse, they completely disregard the main reason that Longlegs was never caught. Spoiler alert, there was someone in the house.
So much time had been spent setting up this creepy, odd-ball occultist killer, just to have the answers feel so subpar. Especially for avid horror fans who were expecting a little bit more pizazz.
Overall, I rate this movie pretty high, despite its narrative flaws.
Nicholas Cage gave a goofy yet eerie performance. The film was crafted beautifully and delivered a high level of suspense.
It was a fresh take on the genre, but was let down in the end by using cheap cliche. It just didn’t quite find its feet – or should I say legs?
But hey, at least the movie is split into parts so you can easily track where the movie started to go downhill.
Year: 2024
Rating: R16
Running Time: 101 MIN
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Osgood Perkins
Starring: Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Nicolas Cage
Production Studio: C2 Motion Picture Group
Distributor: Neon