Longlegs: Film Review
I have heard so much hype for Longlegs that I came away from it underwhelmed – even though it’s a good film – because I was expecting “a masterpiece” and “the scariest film of the decade”.
The film follows FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), who joins an investigation to find the serial killer known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). He leaves letters at the site of each murder-suicide yet there is no evidence to suggest he was involved with the crime. What is going on?
Longlegs, written and directed by Osgood Perkins, is not as terrifying as I’d be led to believe by the hype. There was one jump scare that made my heart leap into my mouth and one brutal and bloody moment that was horrifying. But overall, it was more disturbing, tense and unnerving. I felt on edge and it got under my skin.
Perkins effectively creates an unsettling, ominous atmosphere, with a big help from the score by Zilgi. There’s the constant sense that something is off and not quite right and the camera frequently moves as if Harker is being watched. I was constantly waiting for Longlegs to appear out of nowhere.
You should go into Longlegs knowing as little as possible. I didn’t watch the trailer, I had no idea what it was about and I didn’t know what Cage looked like. Not knowing really helped my experience as I felt totally off-guard.
Cage is perfectly unhinged in this role. We have seen him do this kind of performance before and he throws himself fully into the pathological character. He does overdo it at times and I had to resist the temptation to laugh because it felt so weird and silly. The hair, make-up and prosthetic team did a terrific job making him look so freaky.
Monroe proved her scream queen status with It Follows in 2014 and now she’s back where she excels. Harker is an unusual character herself – what isn’t she telling us? Not knowing what’s going on with her adds to the unsettling feeling. Perkins withholds details from us for a really long time, which I liked, but then the explanation is dropped on us in a big old exposition dump.
It may not be the scariest film of the decade, but Longlegs is a superb serial killer procedural that really sticks with you.
In cinemas from Friday 12th July