IN Longlegs, a series of murders rocked communities in Oregon, US from the 60s up to the 90s, with over 30 confirmed victims from several different families. The pattern is always the same: a church-going father kills his wife, his children and then, himself.
Normally, these cases would be considered regular murders as no third party is present but at each crime scene, a birthday greeting card is found. Filled with coded occult symbols, the cards are signed with a single name – Longlegs.
Believing there may be more to the murders and that Longlegs may be a serial killer, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tasks its young agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) to lead the case as they believe she has psychic powers or at the very least, some form of extra-sensory perception.
Expertly crafted horror
The global marketing push to hoist Longlegs as “the scariest movie ever” is quite the exaggeration. It is not even the scariest movie of the year but is certainly a masterclass in horror.
Taking cues from the likes of David Lynch (Mulholland Drive) and Stanley Kubrick (The Shining), writer-director Osgood Perkins has somehow crafted a horror film with intricate storytelling, powerful performances and great cinematography to complement the film’s atmosphere of dread and terror.
If the aforementioned general plot does not sound similar, Longlegs shares certain DNA strains with The Silence of the Lambs but Perkins takes the film in different, unexpected directions that will make the audience audibly gasp when the revelations begin dropping in the third act.
Sterling performances
Forming the second part of the trifecta of terror in the film is Nicholas Cage, whose gonzo acting naturally elevates the film’s dread. After decades of playing a wide range of characters and stretching his acting to the most extreme ends, it only makes sense that Cage is finally playing a character such as Longlegs.
Masked by the veil of makeup and prosthetics, the actor is unrecognisable if not for his manic acting, which he tweaks to be as unnerving as possible. Further adopting a sing-song speech mannerism, he comfortably eases into the character. The result for the viewer is abject terror as Longlegs looks like something wearing a human as its skin.
As a kind of spiritual extension to her role in It Follows, Monroe plays Harker as a quiet, brooding FBI agent. For most of the film, Monroe’s Harker is disconnected or dissociative, completely removed from those around her and laser-focused on her job as she seems to harbour some unknown trauma involving her childhood and her mother.
When Cage’s Longlegs and Monroe’s Harker finally come face-to-face in the film’s strongest scene that is greatly inspired by The Silence of the Lambs, the payout is excellent. Cage flexes his acting while the story becomes more layered as the FBI investigation makes a hard pivot and in turn, feeds into the complexity of Harker’s past.
Doorway to hell
The cinematography by Andres Arochi is used to great effect in building the tension and dread in Longlegs and how does Perkins does it is with doors, shooting them as a kind of primordial window or gateway that ratchets up the fear that something might be outside, waiting to come in, walk by, follow behind the characters as they walk in or obscured behind the door frames.
It is an intentional filmmaking decision by Perkins as from the start of the film, he deliberately trains the audience to focus on the doors due to how Longlegs is filmed with centre framing, in which every object and character are either in the middle of the screen or positioned symmetrical to the centre.
The style helps that feeling of “looking in” rather than “watching” as Longlegs creates an ominous feeling that you are peering into an otherworldly world that looks like ours but no one moves or stands around like we would.
This is the general experience behind Longlegs. That feeling of unease and dread, like a blunt steel rod being slowly pushed into the base of your skull. You cannot turn your head to see what the object is or who is holding it and nothing can be done except to sit there and let it dig deeper and deeper.
Though the film is not the “scariest movie ever” nor is it Perkins’s first rodeo in horror, it is certainly his most effective and the strongest, most realised horror film to come out in a long time.
Longlegs is screening in cinemas now.
E-Value: 10
Acting: 9
Plot: 9
