Longlegs
A film that I admired, but did not love, Longlegs generates a fantastically unsettling atmosphere, but is ultimately style over substance.
Premise: Rookie FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is assigned by Agent William Carter (Blair Underwood) to help track down a Satanic serial killer who signs off letters left at the crime scenes as ‘Longlegs’ (Nicolas Cage). But Harker’s insights into the case soon mean that Longlegs has her and her mother (Alicia Witt) in his sights.
Review:
There’s been a lot of love shown to Longlegs and its writer/director Osgood Perkins, and I don’t begrudge them any of it … but I have to say that this film just wasn’t for me. Although I can (and do) admire this movie from a technical filmmaking perspective, the plot didn’t really work for me, largely as a result of several plot-holes and other contrivances that are never properly explained. Even those viewers who have been waxing lyrical about Longlegs have, for the most part, agreed that the plot doesn’t really make sense – for them, the nightmarish, dreamlike quality of the movie means they don’t get too hung up on plot specifics, but for me, I just found the film to be style over substance.
Looking at the positives, the film is expertly directed by Osgood Perkins to generate an unnerving sense of unease from the very first scene until the last. I felt unsettled throughout the movie, and Osgood Perkins deploys several inventive and unexpected jump-scares that only serve to crank up the tension. He’s also a filmmaker who uses the entire frame to unsettle audiences, with key events sometimes happening in the background or over a main character’s shoulder, so that you never feel comfortable or relaxed. From a directing and editing perspective, it is one of the most impressive horror films that I’ve seen in a long time.
“…evokes an unrelentingly unsettling atmosphere throughout…”
It also has a great cast – the underrated Maika Monroe gives an understated performance as the socially awkward and emotionally withdrawn Agent Harker, while the ever reliable Blair Underwood provides a comforting and avuncular presence as her superior, Agent Carter. Alicia Witt is almost unrecognisable as Lee Harker’s religious mother, but her transformation is overshadowed by Nicolas Cage’s eccentric performance as Longlegs himself. Some audiences have said they felt Nicolas Cage’s performance was a little too much and detracted from the eery tone of the rest of the movie, but I thought his over-the-top approach suited the material perfectly, balancing Longlegs’ almost otherworldly menace with his more grounded and pathetic qualities.
But despite the talents in front of, and behind, the camera, overall Longlegs just didn’t work for me. It didn’t satisfy as a serial-killer-thriller in the vein of The Silence of the Lambs (a film that the opening section of Longlegs very intentionally calls to mind) because the investigation elements are soon forgotten, and it doesn’t work as a Satanic horror because (for me) there are still too many plot holes left unresolved by the end (even after a lengthy, and rather inelegant, monologue of exposition is delivered in the third act to try to explain everything that’s been going on). But I know that isn’t a problem for many viewers, and I may be in the minority who found Longlegs an unsatisfying movie when all is said and done, despite its ability to evoke an unrelentingly unsettling atmosphere throughout.
