Spoiler review
It’s been around a year and a half since Longlegs released, and the dust has settled. The movie had a ridiculously impressive viral marketing campaign, which created a whirlwind of buzz when it first came out, but also some strong opinions. Now, with Halloween just around the corner, it seemed like a good idea to see if Longlegs was worth the hype.
To not keep you in suspense, I do think Longlegs was overrated. Not that it was a bad movie, but I think the movie loses itself in the weeds and takes a simple story and overcomplicates it for no apparent reason other than to subvert expectations. But first, the story. Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, Longlegs focuses on Lee Harker, an FBI agent with incredible powers of deduction (she may be clairvoyant) who ends up getting assigned to the Longlegs case, which involves a series of familial murder-suicides with Satanic messaging and notes signed by the titular killer himself. Thanks to her abilities, she’s able to quickly decode Longlegs’ codex, revealing occult messaging and leads that take her further down the rabbit hole and into her own past traumas.
So what works? The sense of unease that permeates throughout the movie is quite effective. There’s a sinister, evil and uncomfortable vibe that never really lets go throughout the runtime, and it’s quite effective at creating an anxious vibe. The film also makes use of creative cinematography and jumping between aspect ratios (2:39.1 and 1:33.1). Many shots have an eerie photographic quality about them. Then there’s Nicholas Cage as the film’s titular character. I’m sure opinions on his performance will be mixed, as the actor certainly “Cages” it up more than a few times, but I thought that level of unhinged crazy worked for such a character, even if it did take me out of the illusion a couple of times. Caked in prosthetics and makeup, Cage is unrecognizable, but these quirks do reveal the actor from time to time. Maika Monroe is also good as Lee, even if her character’s cold, reserved persona does make it hard to get close to her. I do wish that her deduction abilities were explored further, though. We’re just told she can sometimes figure things out, implying she may have some sort of psychic abilities, but like many aspects of the film (next paragraph!), I think having her just be naturally talented, akin to Sherlock Holmes or Will Graham, would have been more interesting than giving her unexplained powers of deduction. Making her really smart would have been stronger. I get Longlegs is likely teasing its supernatural elements, but since her skills are never explored or explained, what’s the point?
The film is split into three acts, each one picking up right where the last one ended. I thought acts one and three had great pacing, but the middle act, which is also the longest, suffered from pacing issues. Now, into spoiler territory. The film presents itself as an FBI/serial killer movie, but perhaps fearing the parallels to The Silence of the Lambs, the film makes the Satanic elements found throughout the film tangible, meaning the film diverts from a grounded film with unstable killers to a supernatural film where the Devil plays an active role in the plot. I thought this ultimately took me out of the film. There’s nothing wrong with supernatural horror; Insidious and Conjuring are great examples, for instance, but the film keeps its supernatural elements hidden until the final stretch. This changes our perspective on everything that came before, which is the majority of the runtime. The audience goes from looking at Longlegs as a horrific being who could be part of this world, someone warped by mental illness, paranoia, and/or fanatical worship, to something that is more abstract and untangible. Lee’s mother is also involved in the plot as part of a Faustian Bargain, but once again, I think the horror of thinking one is under the devil’s influence is more horrifying than actually being under the devil’s influence, at least when it comes to a movie presented like this. It’s ironic, I’m also playing Alan Wake II right now, which is a supernatural horror video game involving the FBI, but the supernatural elements are introduced pretty quickly and feel integral to the plot, whereas I really feel Longlegs would have been a superior film had it been grounded in a traditional killer/investigation story.
So in the end, I thought Longlegs was good, but not great. It was well-shot, and the sense of dread was really effective. I do think the movie overcomplicates itself when a simpler and more rational story would have not only streamlined things but also made for a scarier story.