LONGLEGS (2024)
a review by Evan Landon
“You've got the teeth of the hydra upon you
You're dirty, sweet and you're my girl"
Those T. Rex lyrics from their hit “Bang The Gong” open the film, written across the screen, then the credits play their song “Jewel” right after. In fact, there is pretty decent soundtrack to Longlegs, despite the long, drawn out absences between tracks. In fact, the score was composed by Elvis Perkins (the filmmaker's brother) credited as his alias, “Zilgi”. Don't ask me what that word means because I have no clue.
Horror really has had a resurgence these past few years. Once Disney and Hollywood started fighting over who could make a shittier remake or reboot, the customers stopped showing up because it was just the same old bullshit that has been regurgitated so many times it would taste last week's salmon dinner creeping back up after a night of chugging Goldschlagger. Now, just to be clear, horror has been guilty of that very same thing with A Quiet Place: Day One, The First Omen, The Strangers: Chapter One, and Alien:Romulus, just not as bad as major studios. Nosferatu should be pretty good though; I have a lot of hope for that one.
Writer and director Osgood “Oz” Perkins (actor Anthony Perkins's son) has a masterful control of pacing and camera work that seems to just come naturally to the fifty year-old. Maybe it was growing up around all of the Psycho films as a child, but listening to him discuss his father in Shudder's Queer For Fear series, one can truly understand his passion for each one of his projects like The Blackcoat's Daughter, I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House, and Gretel & Hansel which I covered a few years ago.
In Longlegs, we follow clairvoyant FBI agent Lee Harker as she is commissioned with hunting down a killer who writes notes in demonic symbols at the locations of serial murders where the entire family is killed by the father. Got that? Tough, because there's more. Known only as “Longlegs”, the supernatural element is raised when Harker realizes that all of the families had a 9-year-old daughter born on the 14th of the month, the murders all occurred within six days before or after the birthday itself, and the murders form an occult triangle symbol on a calendar, with one date missing. She also recalls the man known as “Longlegs” in her own childhood that ties her and her highly religious mother to the very murder-suicides she is investigating.
Getting back to the overall pacing, Longlegs gets a lot of criticism for that very thing, but the way it utilizes the cinematography by Andrés Arochito is seamless. The stark nature and loneliness of 1990's Oregon is on full display. Even the carefully crafted shots inside her cabin are based upon a fixed perspective (that Stanley Kubrick was well-known for using) allows the viewer to not only feel the isolation and existential dread of the characters on screen, but for the audience to focus on things happening in the background. It is truly a masterclass in editing that follows the main character in an almost omniscient sort of way.
Maika Monroe pulls off another great performance as Agent Harker, after nailing being the main protagonist in such modern classics as It Follows, Villains, and The Guest, solidifying her as one of the finest “scream queens” of our time. Alicia Witt brought back her freaky Alia Atreides vibes as her strictly evangelistic mother who really knows how to convey a multi-layered character.
My only issue is Nicolas Cage. Don't get it twisted; I love me some Nic Cage. I just burst out laughing when I saw him in this. The make-up looks like someone left bologna on a flat-iron grill, put sauerkraut on it, then threw powdered sugar all over it. “There ya go, Nic!” the make-up artist would exclaim everyday at work, never once quite sure if she did a good job. I don't know, he kind of takes me out of it and that sucks because I love that dude.
Longlegs had some very long legs at the theaters (giggity) as it was reportedly made for less than $10 million, but made $100.7 million at the global box office. It should have some longlegs for years to come, as well. See? That shit just writes itself.
4 Out Of 5