‘Longlegs’ is moody and maniacal

Horror fans are in for a wild ride as Osgood Perkins presents the atmospheric and thoroughly disquieting ‘Longlegs’ (2024). Starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, the tightly-wrought, visually-stunning thriller hangs its story on the hooks of the psychological police procedural, as well as the cat-and-mouse mood of ‘Silence of the Lambs’ (1991) but with a chilling occult centre.

If simmering in a deep sense of dread doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you may want to give this one a miss. Beginning in snowy 1970s Oregon where a young girl encounters a strange man in her isolated yard, ‘Longlegs’ fast forwards to the 90s where special agent Lee Harker (Monroe) is investigating a string of murder-suicides perpetrated by the families’ fathers.

While ‘Longlegs’ obviously tips its hat to a number of horror greats and tropes, almost to the point of overload, where Perkins diverges into a league of his own is in the film’s particular mood.

Featuring a terrifying collection of carefully composed frames, Perkins’ purposeful pacing and performance-enhancing direction is bolstered by subtly unnerving cinematography by Andrés Arochi and a suitably discomforting score.

As for the antagonist himself, the white-faced, malevolent and erratic ‘Longlegs’ sees Cage unrecognisable and thoroughly unhinged. Oscillating between small-town weirdo, furious Satanic outcast, talented, reclusive doll-maker and thoroughly crazed serial killer, ‘Longlegs’ is a manipulative monster whose gaze you’ll struggle to meet.

In contrast, Monroe’s Harker is a detached, clairvoyant and socially awkward special agent whose lonely, clearly traumatised existence is yet another bleak landscape in a film that is as grim as they come.

Also starring Blair Underwood as Harker’s boss, Alicia Witt as Harker’s prayerful and shut away mother and Kiernan Shipka as the sole survivor of one of the murder-suicides, the film boasts a number of great performances as it winds its way to its shocking denouement.

While Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins who played the titular character in ‘Psycho’ (1960), has said that the story is complete, ‘Longlegs’ is a moody and maniacal horror just ripe for a sequel or perhaps a prequel of Longlegs’ rise to satanic power.

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