Within the grand custom of secretive, word-of-mouth advertising pushes for indie horror movies, there have been only a few particulars distributor Neon was keen to reveal about Osgood Perkins’s “Longlegs” within the leadup to its launch. In essence, the excitement across the movie has to this point been largely relegated to the obscure early buzz of well-placed sources saying it’s a decade-defining bone-chiller. For the remainder of the general public, we’ve been offered on a quite simple premise: Nicolas Cage as a serial killer.
If Neon thought that might be sufficient to generate the form of grassroots buzz that has benefitted many a low-budget scream-fest, then… they have been completely proper. At this level, viewers will watch Cage in absolutely anything, and for good cause, even when the eternal guru of memedom has merely signed on the dotted line to repay no matter historic relic he’s bought at an public sale—be it a medieval citadel or the cranium of a Tarbosaurus—you could be rattling certain he’ll be making use of that Nouveau Shamanic vitality to the challenge, reworking it into something however a mere paycheque gig.
After all, that secretive advertising marketing campaign for “Longlegs” has been banking on the very notion that this isn’t merely a challenge that the mercurial icon would elevate above shlock standing (or alternatively, firmly cement it therein), however quite one that enhances his persona and retools it into the form of skin-crawling expertise that might go down within the historical past books past a mere blip within the Cage-verse. To that finish, whereas nobody can truthfully say that Osgood Perkins hasn’t made an try to capitalize on that potential, little on this tonally confused procedural makes the case that his presence was all that useful within the first place.
Primarily following Maika Monroe because the reclusive FBI agent assigned to the decades-long case of the Longlegs killer, Perkins hardly offers as a lot consideration to the rote puzzle-piecing as he does to the atmospheric aesthetics used to distract from it. Because the killer’s essence looms menacingly over the case, Perkins paints his Oregon setting with a crisply organized, everlasting overcast, as if the one shiny mild to be drawn into this world is that which friends systematically by means of the deserted home windows of barn homes, or which beams clinically from the tip of a flashlight.
This style for the ambiance is all properly and good—and is clearly the first focal point for Perkins—however as soon as the precise detective work kicks in, “Longlegs” proves itself to be far under par, participating in shallow structuring and flat characters whose whole attraction appears to be contingent on the deadness of their line supply. Monroe is a selected standout on this respect, as her “Sheldon Cooper cosplaying as FBI” bit skews far too near parody to speak any real sense of isolation or repression. A socially awkward however virtually prophetic detective isn’t something new—another excuse why there’s little of observe to be gleaned right here—however Monroe’s portrayal is especially unmoving as a result of there’s nothing else to her.
The best sin “Longlegs” commits, although, is Perkins’s full incapability to steadiness his aesthetic proclivities with these shallow characters to create a cohesively chilling expertise; the atmospheric components don’t elevate the stilted dialogue and laughable deliveries however quite intensify simply how a lot dissonance is at play right here. In no space is that this extra evident, after all, than in Cage’s much-buzzed-about look within the titular position. Removed from the staleness of his co-stars, Cage makes good on his promise to fill each minute of display screen time together with his crazed aura, trying to redirect that beloved mania right into a extra distressing register. However the extra we thirst for Cage, and the extra Perkins retains him from us, the extra that Monkey’s Paw prepares to curve again when he’s lastly unleashed full throttle.
As soon as Cage truly spends greater than three seconds at a time onscreen, “Longlegs” primarily loses any semblance of unnerving rigidity to turn into a confused tonal mess. That these different solid members already act like they received misplaced on their strategy to a No Identify-brand Lanthimos movie is unhealthy sufficient, however with Cage, the misfire truly comes from his incapability to telephone it in. No precise human being seems or sounds the best way Cage does on this movie, which may feasibly be used as a way of real discomfort, however by the second time Perkins transitions out of one of many actor’s trademarked sudden ravings with a clichéd, high-pitched shrieking sound, it’s clear that this isn’t a special shade of Cage, however quite the identical hilarious one rapidly painted over in black and purple.
Extra assured than centered, “Longlegs” creeps together with the misguided air that it’s much more subversively terrifying than any of its moments, both individually or collectively. Crafting an odd however finally wearisome mediation between high-art methods and grounded style sensibilities, Osgood Perkins by no means finds an efficient center floor in his need to switch the weather we count on from simply one other staid serial killer hunt. Earlier than any screams, uncomfortable laughs, or unprompted check-ins with our therapists, probably the most dominant sentiment “Longlegs” manages to elicit is “We’ve got The Silence of the Lambs at residence.”
Learn Extra: 10 Greatest Nicolas Cage Film Performances
Longlegs (2024) Film Hyperlinks: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, Letterboxd
The Forged of Longlegs (2024) Film: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby
Longlegs (2024) Film In Theaters: Fri Jul 12, Runtime: 1h 41m, Style: Horror/Thriller & Thriller
The place to observe Longlegs
