Longlegs Movie Review – More Creepfest than Horror 

There’s been quite a bit of hype surrounding Nicholas Cage’s latest horror movie, Longlegs – what has been described as the Silence of the Lambs meets the occult. But does Longlegs live up to all the marketing razzmatazz?

What Is Longlegs About?

The plot isn’t overly complicated. A new FBI agent, Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), is assigned a case, and a slightly more seasoned partner takes the lead. However, after being on the case, her clairvoyant intuition points her to the house where a murder suspect lives. Upon realising her gifts, the head of her department, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), assigns her to a more high-profile case, which has gone unsolved for decades. 

Setting out to find new clues, Harker sets off a chain of events that have been dormant for years. Finding this somewhat strange, Carter raises this concerning coincidence with Harker, who doesn’t quite understand how much she’s linked to the events and the serial killer.

It’s Not A Unique Premise

The premise of Longlegs isn’t unique but does enough to whet your appetite sufficiently. The opening scenes don’t reveal much about the killer or the events. Instead, we’re led by Harker’s actions, discovering the details of the case and the previous events as she follows up on each. 

How the story is told allows you to journey alongside Harker without giving away too much detail. There are plenty of hidden details, including the mystery behind the killer.

Longlegs Is An Interesting Slow Burner

The pace may feel slow for many, but it does excellent work to set the tone. There are plenty of wide-open spaces to comb through in Longlegs, allowing for quite a bit of artistic scenery. In fact, director Osgood Perkins’ filmmaking, with Andrés Arochi as cinematographer, has a very specific style. The ’90s feel flows through each scene without needing over-the-top object placement or old-school references. 

There is also a primarily quiet tone throughout the film, which is often broken by fairly loud sounds of screams and a sharp background score. The overall silence, of course, makes for an unsettled environment, leaving you uneasy without anything particular to grab your attention.

However, two main points of reference push the film beyond weird towards the creepy. The first is the Longlegs character, played by Nicolas Cage (one of the greatest 90s action stars). Much effort has been put into slowly revealing his face, which is revealed more each time he’s featured. Cage is heavily done in prosthetics, making him primarily unrecognisable if you didn’t know beforehand.

His strange mannerisms, loud shrieks and oddball gestures, along with his ultimate scene, make you uneasy, to the point where you often can’t help but laugh. It feels comedic but would be anything but in a real-world setting. Remember the random clown sightings across the US about five years ago? As harmless as most of it was, people were terrified, to the point where those clowns were in actual danger of being shot unprovoked. 

The second aspect of the creep factor comes from a simple shot. Sometimes, in the film’s runtime, the scenes are shot in something akin to the Minolta Autocord. These scenes are intense, often without much sound or even specific objects. As the viewer, you expect something to happen here, but it doesn’t always go that way.

The Long And Short

Branded as a horror, there aren’t all that many scares in Longlegs. It’s a film of artistic value and a worthwhile story. Plenty of background elements quickly fizzle away without a second thought, which may seem important then, with only a few details paying off when clocking them to memory. 

Nicolas Cage (Con Air, Ghost Rider, Dream Scenario) shines at the titular character. Away from his conventional traits and mannerisms that we’re all familiar with, he takes the creep up a notch without it being the “same-old, same old.”

Longlegs is well worth the watch.