On August 1, cinemas began screening the mystical horror film with the strange title «Longlegs», starring Mike Monroe and Nicolas Cage in the titular role of a mysterious serial killer. The Western critics, who literally lavished complimentary reviews ranging from «the scariest horror of the year» to «the scariest movie of the decade»The movie made a real splash. In the review below, we will tell you how well-founded such statements are and what constitutes another crazy performance from the man-meme Nicolas Cage.
Pluses:
a moderately exciting detective intrigue; excellent acting by Monroe and Nicolas Cage; perfect technical execution (sound, editing, cinematography, shot composition, makeup, etc.); the authors' desire to create something different from the standard representatives of the genre, while referring to genre classics;
Minuses:
the film definitely falls short of the «scariest movie of the decade» status; the slow narration is sometimes tedious; the climax may disappoint or annoy some people;
«Longlegs»
Genre thriller, mystical horror
Director Osgood Perkins
Starring Maika Monroe, Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood, Dakota Dalby, Kiernan Shipka, Nicolas Cage
Premiere movie theaters
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
A gloomy, sleepy Oregon in the 90s. A somewhat reclusive and brooding FBI Special Agent Lee Harker is assigned to the case of the Longshanks, a serial killer who has been slaughtering families across the state for decades. Surprisingly, he doesn’t do it alone, but somehow magically makes loving parents take up the axe and wreak bloody havoc in their own homes, and when the job is done, he self-destructs. All that is left at the crime scene is rivers of blood and a small note with a mysterious cipher and the signature «Longlegs».
For many years, the investigation did not move forward, until Lee managed to find a certain pattern in the obviously satanic symbols. But will this help the heroine and her colleagues really get closer to the elusive maniac and prevent the next tragedy?
When considering the success of «Longlegs», it is first of all worth paying attention to the marketing that Neon has built competently. Before the film’s release, 11 promotional videos were posted on YouTube, which garnered a total of 30 million views. For example, here’s the one where Monroe meets Cage for the first time, who she hadn’t seen before the scene (no spoilers):
The Seattle Times ran an advertisement with a cipher that referred to the Zodiac — the same one that David Fincher was filming. The ad directed readers to website, made in a retro style, describing in detail the crimes of Longlegs. At the same time, the maniac himself was carefully hidden from the public, like the Marvel concealed star cameos in «Deadpool and Wolverine».
All of this, of course, fueled sincere interest in the film, even before its release. So to a certain extent, the success of this detective thriller with elements of the occult is due to the promotional campaign, which was really intriguing. But now we can say with certainty that «Longlegs» is really worth watching, and in isolation from any advertising ploys by experienced PR specialists.
To the director Osgood «Oz» Perkins, who is the son of Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in the cult «Psycho» Hitchcock, managed to harmoniously combine many components and take the best from the genres covered.
That is, a detective and maniacal thriller in the spirit of the cult «The Silence of the Lambs» and «Seven» coexist here with mystical infernality like «The Amityville Horror», whose story is based on a real massacre. If you recall, Ronald Defeo Jr. first shot his parents and then massacred his two brothers and as many sisters. It happened in 1974, which symbolically resonates with the events of the 70s in the local plot. And the crazy maniac with the appearance of an ugly shock rocker is not placed in a dynamic bloody slasher, but in a gloomy, suspenseful, extremely atmospheric and trendy post-horror.
That’s why Perkins’ film had such an effect on the public because every horror maker knows that today (especially today) it’s no longer possible to scare with liters of artificial blood or a maniac chasing a helpless victim with an axe. Today’s horror films are all about mystery and suspense, which, thanks to the hints and clues thrown by the authors, create a fascinating intrigue.
Occasionally, the slow narrative is interrupted by rare screamers, which are achieved through abrupt editing, but this technique is not explicitly relied upon. In general, «Longlegs» — is a distinctly formalist movie, one that is characterized by a certain style. The local characters exist in a completely gloomy setting and as if in categorically cramped rooms with narrow corridors, and these disappointing landscapes and interiors fully reflect the internal state of agent Harker.
Sometimes Perkins resorts to outright fairy tale tropes (remember, his previous film was the horror «Hansel and Gretel»), like the one where someone knocks on the door of the protagonist’s lonely house, located somewhere in a dark forest. And this also works for the overall atmosphere, while the painstaking work with sound, aimed at the viewer’s discomfort, is noticeable.
And, of course, this bizarre glorification of Satan would not be so eerie if it weren’t for the crazy Nicolas Cage, who is completely unrecognizable under layers of thick makeup. The actor has repeatedly proved his ability to portray fierce madness before, whether in «Ghost Rider», whose deal with the devil is relevant to «Longlegs», or in the bloody madness of «Mandy». This vividly characterizes the late stage of the career of Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew. There’s not much of Cage here, but his performance will definitely be remembered.
Monroe, meanwhile, has made it a habit to shoot out roles in hit horror movies about once a decade: 10 years ago, it was David Robert Mitchell’s outstanding «It Follows», and now history is repeating itself in Perkins’ film.
As a result, it’s hard to characterize «Longlegs» directly with the loud epithets that English-language media reviewers have allowed themselves. But it is definitely a noteworthy movie that tries to go its own way in every way possible and may even claim some mentions in the film reviews for the current year, and it reminds us once again that the answers to great mysteries are often somewhere nearby.
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