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MOVIE REVIEW
'Longlegs' Is The Best Original Horror Movie Of The Year
By Sal LoCicero | July 15, 2024
The year’s most anticipated horror movie has arrived, distributed by NEON; the studio behind the Oscar Winning film ‘Parasite’ (2019), writer-director Osgood Perkins (‘The Blackcoat’s Daughter’, ‘Gretel and Hansel’) brings audiences a massively chilling detective thriller with Nicolas Cage.
The FBI investigates a killing spree that has lasted three decades, committed by the same individual, and with each victim a letter with coded messages is left at the crime scene, Detective Lee Parker (Maika Monroe) is assigned to uncover the mystery behind these heinous crimes and to put an end to it all.
Ever since the first teaser, titled ‘Every year there is another’ which showed a photograph of a three person family celebrating a birthday, while a haunting audio recording played over the image as it zoomed closer into the child’s face. Once more and more videos (like the previous one) were uploaded online, people became more intrigued. Eventually, these videos revealed themselves to be connected to the upcoming film ‘Longlegs’. The official trailer was terrifying, and anticipation only grew higher.
‘Longlegs’ takes inspiration from ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Zodiac’, and 'Se7en’, however it doesn’t rely so heavily on those features to tell its story. Writer-director Osgood Perkins crafts this highly unsettling world that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. This is unlike any horror film to have come out in recent memory - in terms of how (both) frightening and shocking it is.
The opening sequence alone feels like a nightmare. The aesthetic of the shot and the 4:3 aspect ratio makes the scene near petrifying. The cinematography is significantly well executed, it adds more unease to the viewer by tricking their minds into believing what is (mostly likely) untrue. Composer Elvis Perkins delivers one of the most sinister scores of all time. The music captures the movie’s tone perfectly and allows certain scenes that would appear (somewhat) comedic to be intense.
Maika Monroe (‘It Follows’) delivers an excellent performance, one that should broaden her filmography as an actress. She portrays her character - an introverted, but gifted detective - flawlessly. Nicolas Cage is very good. He definitely stands out as the serial killer “Longlegs”, and for the majority he is creepy, and monster-like. There are (only) a few scenes where Cage lets out his usual over-the-top “Cage-isms”, but mostly he nails it as this satanic worshiping murderer.
The runtime may catch some - if not - most off guard, since the expectations for psychological thrillers and/or horror films are that of a duration of two hours or longer, however, if anything, ‘Longlegs’ 1 hour and 44 minute runtime is another reason why this is a special horror flick. Osgood Perkins is in full command of what he wants for this movie and how he wants it to be perceived. The climax is flawed, and maybe a little abrupt, but there is absolutely no doubt that it will have you guessing for a while…or possibly for years to come.
‘Longlegs’ is destined to become another horror classic in the same vein as ‘The Shining’ (1980), ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)’, and ‘Psycho’ (1960). It is utterly scary and ambiguous, and is a must see for horror fans who are craving for the next big phenomenon to come out of the genre.
Grade: A-
What are your thoughts?
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