Longlegs - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

The serial killer film is a very popular subgenre of the crime/thriller drama, but is a difficult film to really hit the sweet spot of appeal to general audiences. Films like Silence Of The Lambs, Se7en and even Zodiac all have a number of elements in common that make them excel like dark and tense atmospheres, great character development and arguably most importantly, a great menacing villain to compel the main plotline forward. The new Neon title Longlegs is a serial killer film starring Nicolas Cage as the killer Longlegs and follows the story of Agent Lee Harker played by the decently cast Maika Monroe in her efforts to catch him. To put it simply, this film excels in many of its technical filmmaking aspects. Not only is Cage killing it in the role, pun intended, the film is exceedingly effective through the first two acts at creating and enveloping us in a dark, tense and foreboding atmosphere. Some of the lighting effects and camera shots are brilliant and beautifully haunting. But despite the top tier mood and tone, which the film absolutely hits the nail on the head with, *slight spolier alert* the story itself veers into the supernatural and paranormal into the third act. This turn didn’t quite work that well for me and in the end the film didn’t come close to being one of the great serial killer films, although there were many aspects of the film I really did love. Despite it’s shortcomings, there’s really no surprise that general audiences are loving this film and giving it’s box office run some exceedingly Longlegs.

SYNOPSIS - Our creepy vibes kick off with a bright red screen, like something you’d see from a Jonathan Glazer film like we see in Under The Skin or The Zone Of Interest. After a moment we see some lyrics to the song Bang A Gong by T. Rex from 1971, they appear black against the red backdrop. They disappear and slowly the red follows suit and we’re inside an old station wagon as it slowly winds it’s way up a driveway. It’s a cloudy midday in winter, snow covers the ground and the pine trees alongside the road and soon a house comes into view, the camera slowly pans in on it. The shot changes to inside the house where a young girl sits at a desk, she looks up and sees the white vehicle with wood paneling down the sides. As she observes the vehicle, she goes downstairs, puts on a red coat and goes outside to see who it is. She walks out across the snow, tilts her head and the camera slowly zooms in on the vehicle, it’s difficult to tell who, if anyone, is sitting in the front seat. As she turns around to look back at the house, she sees a figure peeking out at her, whoever it is slips back behind the left side corner of the house out of view. For the sake of spoilers I won’t break down the rest of the sequence in all its details, but we do get a glimpse of Longlegs (Nicolas Cage), with long curly hair and wearing a very stylish but dirty looking white denim jacket, a very faded light pink button up shirt and sporting some pink lipstick. Clearly the deranged lunatic vibes are hitting full throttle as he speaks to the young girl in an ultra quiet and feminine voice, “There she is. The almost birthday girl. Oh, but . . it seems I wore my long legs today.” As the scene cuts we’re taken back to the bright red screen with the titles in black against it, the T. Rex song Jewel cues up as the intro credits roll.

Eventually the red screen goes black and we see the words “Part One” and then “His letters” in red hit the screen. We’re then introduced to Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) as she sits in a dreary, wood panel walled, FBI meeting room with lines of chairs and agents sitting, listening to their instructions. Even here, the lighting of the fluorescent bulbs cannot overcome the dark and possibly gray filtered lens that keeps this film in a near constant state of twilight. The man speaking instructs them what they’ll be doing, “Door to door, on foot, knock knock, “Have you seen this man?””. The scene cuts, we see Agent Harker and her assigned partner pull up into a neighborhood, it’s naturally overcast, they get out to begin their canvassing for the supposed man behind some, as of yet, unmentioned crimes. Harker walks down the street and slowly comes to a stop in front of a cookie cutter housing development and looks at a generic house for some moments before saying, “It’s that one. He’s in there.”. Despite her partner’s disbelief about how she could know such a thing, he disregards her suggestion to call it in and get some backup but goes to investigate himself. Suffice it to say this proves to be unwise. Argent Harker has some amount of psychic ability which allows her to sense or feel things that the rest of us cannot. She ends up inside, chasing someone through the house, the interior covered in plastic sheeting. She catches this killer although it’s not the one you might expect. We’re then transported to a secret FBI room where the powers that be are testing out Harker’s abilities, asking her questions and doing some psychoanalysis on her. In the next sequence we’re introduced to Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), who will be Harker’s supervisor on the case as they give some exposition about Harker’s abilitiesa. As Carter and Harker pull the threads at all the mysterious leads and clues to try and find Longlegs, the tension builds and the dismal gloominess becomes absolutely stifling at times. The film continues its trajectory towards an unexpected conclusion that will keep many audiences interested but will leave some behind scratching their heads.

As I’ve already made mention of at the outset, this film excels in many of the technical categories, they combine forces to create one of the most disconcerting atmospheric environments from any film in recent memory. The sound design and original score by Zilgi, although subdued, are both haunting, although the film itself stays eerily quiet for stretches. Some of the cinematography and visuals in the film are really exceptional. The camera pans that the film utilizes, one in particular that captures the two detectives crossing a deserted farm yard with a storm rolling in behind them, were absolutely stunning. Also the lighting, a few sequences in the entryway of Agent Harkers house, but also in the loft of the barn the detectives enter after the aforementioned barnyard shot, exquisite work. This film is so moody and creepy, it rivals some of the best sequences from some of the best serial killer films of all time. Think the storage scene from Silence Of The Lambs or finale to Zodiac and you get the idea. Although the film’s direction by Oz Perkins is excellent, he’s able to pull all these elements together to create something really quite spectacular from a technical standpoint, but the screenplay, which he wrote, is where I lay most of the blame. The story doesn’t develop the characters enough, aside from our main protagonist, the Longlegs character’s presence is felt but Cage is left very little screen time for us to care about our, albeit very cool, antagonist or understand his motivations. The dialogue is also lacking, with sections of exposition and dialogue being just standard and not terribly engaging. It’s hard to tell if Maika Monroe could’ve been better cast or not, it’s very possible the screenplay just held her character back from being a standout. We just don’t have enough information about the character to care about her and to invest in her like with do with Foster in Silence or even Gyllenhaal from Zodiac. Cage is really doing some great stuff here, between this, Pig and Dream Scenario, he’s putting out some of the best work of his entire career in my opinion. This film is a surprise summer hit for a reason, if you’re a fan of the horror or crime thriller genres, you should certainly punch your ticket and see what this film has in store for you.

SUMMARY - As far as serial killer films go, this one excels in so many ways but without the story to push it over the finish line, it just didn’t quite stick the landing for me. But when it comes to the technicals Longlegs uses to create an edge of your seat thrilling experience, in the words of the great bearded band ZZTop, “she got legs, she knows how to use them.”