Longlegs: Movie Review

Cast: Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt
Director: Oz Perkins

Potentially the victim of its own incredible trailer campaign, writer / director Oz Perkins' weirdly unsettling Longlegs won't be for everyone.

With its quirks, occasional crash cuts and potential desire to show it all early on (needless to say more of its potentially polarising finale), the elevated horror's movie seems to be more about singular moments than an entire whole.

Monroe is rookie FBI agent Lee Harker, who appears to share some kind of connection with a cultist serial killer called Longlegs (Cage, in some kind of prosthetics heavy homage to Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, T-Rex's Marc Bolan and Heath Ledger's Joker) who has killed 10 families over 30 years - despite never being seen at their homes.

So, with deadlines creeping in until his next potential kill, and deemed a "half[-psychic" Harker is assigned the case....but finds her past may hold the key to what's happening.

Longlegs thrives on an atmosphere of unease, its story drip fed over a series of parts rather than one continual narrative.

Perkins' desire to shoot scenes from afar and on angles leads to a feeling of upending expectations and a desire to keep audiences unsure about what's going on. But with homages to Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs - former US President Bill Clinton's visage looms large in many FBI-set scenes - Longlegs struggles to remove itself from the shadows of its forebears.

Equally, Cage's performance benefits more from the adage of "don't show, tell" and the ultimate reveal of the creepy character feels like a formative let down for the narrative. While it may perhaps be a victim of its own hype, Perkins' film delivers some requisite jump scares in a fairly new way; but its resolution feels more head-scratching than terrifying.

It's more interested in rug-pulling, in depriving the senses (Monroe's FBI Agent says she's suffering from insomnia, and every line of her visage demonstrably points to it) and just trying to unsettle you - but Longlegs is a singular experience, destined for cult love rather than widespread fervent admiration.

Gloomy, grey, washed out and haunting, Longlegs may have a muddled denouement and a desire to not go further but its journey towards resolution is one that greatly benefits from Monroe's performance and will provoke reaction once the lights finally go up.