Elegantly directed, writer and director Osgood Perkins makes full use of his technical prowess to make every frame of the horror film ‘Longlegs’ absolutely panic-inducing. With flashbacks done with a tight aspect ratio, completely cutting our view and trapping the subject of the camera in a tight frame, we feel that whatever is out there is right at the corner. Utilizing an over-dramatic score that punctuates the jump scares (sometimes even leading it), it makes the whole experience watching the movie so frightening that it is fun. When the film goes to present time, he bathes his scenes in darkness and shadows. There’s always a chance something is going to come out, and with the first opening jump scare catching us completely off guard at the start, we really feel vulnerable throughout this movie.
‘Longlegs’ is about a serial killer, who has been killing families for decades. Hunted by the FBI, Lee Harker, who may have psychic abilities, is put on the case as her abilities may open up new leads. She does but because her connection to the case is much stronger than anyone even realizes, even her.
Maika Monroe is excellent as Agent Lee. She’s guarded, extremely stiff, as if she’s about to burst at any time. She’s taciturn and not very good with people, but she does get some supernatural feeling when something is amiss. When put on the case of ‘Longlegs,’ her anxieties double. Her tenuous relationship with her mother (Alicia Witt), whom she has not seen in a long time, grounds her character to some level of humanity but the distance between them also betrays a darker secret that is lying in wait.
Nicolas Cage plays the titular Longlegs and the make-up and prosthetics makes him almost unrecognizable in a quick glance. It’s only later when Perkins finally gives him long close-ups that you realize it’s him underneath. But the glimpses we get tells us that he is fully committed to bringing out whatever frightening symbolisms his Longlegs can take. It’s a virtuoso performance from an unpredictable actor who has used his off-screen infamy to his advantage in these very off-kilter roles.
Playing out like a police procedural, we follow Lee Harker’s investigation into Longlegs while trying to decipher her strange visions and her undetermined connection to the case, though the savvier viewer will have figured it out quickly. The tale it tells is of a world gone crazy, depicting brutal violence committed by husbands to their families.
As the film unfolds, it begins to allude heavily into the occult but never really brings religion into the mix. It’s evil for evil’s sake and we hope that Agent Lee Harker has the determination and the strength to see it through.
The film is filled with terrifying moments, when you know that Longlegs is just there, just in the darkness in the back of Osgood Perkins’ frame. When he takes a long shot, he always ensures there’s an open door or frame leading to another room just in the back. It always gives you the feeling something is going to come in. You’re always on your toes. If he does not have these eerie long shots, he gives you really tight shots that prohibits you from seeing an attack if one will come. The effect allows the audience to feel the paranoia Agent Lee is feeling and the effect is amazing.
But when it reaches its third act, that build-up of tension ends up in a third act exposition that kind of kills the energy before resuming for its big finale, which is good, but doesn’t have the same punch because the energy leading up to it was stalled. And at the end of the film, we’re left with the fun feeling of having been scared out of our wits but with nothing really to hold on to. It makes no commentary of the world around us. The satanistic imagery and symbolism does not outrightly figure in as a metaphor for anything real-world that grounds ‘Longlegs’ to anything significant. Despite its fantastic filmmaking techniques, the material in itself sorts of falls as just entertainment. It’s not a bad thing, but you kind of wish that it could punch up just a little bit since it did everything else right.
My Rating:
Longlegs is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.
