I wanted to know very little about Longlegs before watching the film, but I still ended up watching every trailer Neon released because they are edited in a way to get a minor glimpse and understanding of the story, while still maintaining a huge cloud of mystery outside of what the whisperings spoke of it online. Neon released the first teaser in January, and it instantly became one of my most anticipated films of the year. The teaser ended with cryptic letters and I was sold. I attempted to avoid the remaining hype material stating “It’s the scariest film of the decade.” We’ve heard it all and heard it all before as well. It’s the scariest film of the year or the decade, but it rarely lives up to that expectation. It can’t.

A horror film can live or die off the hype, so once you watch the film with lower expectations (or maybe a rewatch like I did because I couldn’t lower them in time for my first screening), it’s one of the best horror theatrical experiences I’ve had, and easily one of my favourite films of the year. Even with knowing where the film will go before it does, I can appreciate and see exactly the groundwork that Oz Perkins put in to make sure that it lives up to those wonderfully spooky trailers. ” It was hard to not get lost in the hype, but two viewings later, this movie may not be the scariest film of the decade, but it’s the real fucking deal. 

Oz Perkins’ latest film Longlegs follows FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) working with FBI Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) to try and solve an unsolved cold case. Once a year, for the past thirty years, there has always been a brutal family murder. Typically, a husband “snaps” and murders his children, wives, and then themselves. The only thing left behind would be a letter signed by Longlegs and those same cryptic letters. 

There rightfully have been a lot of comparisons to Seven, The Silence of the Lambs, and Zodaic, but I feel as if the film has a similar ominous tone to The Poughkeepsie Tapes. There is a darkness to this film, not because it asks us to bow down low for the man downstairs, but because of the reality of the commonality in the deaths in so many families. Some characters are framed as if they’re marked for death from the moment you see them. It’s on these rewatches that we realize how precise this story and events have been constructed. We realize there is no other way this could go.

I believe a horror film has to be tangible, and also understand or subvert our expectations for it to scare the audience. If we aren’t able to believe in what’s happening on screen, it’s no longer scary. We’re also waiting for what we already know is going to happen or are in complete shock when something happens when we’re not expecting it. The true horror of Longlegs relies on the all too recurring incidents where supposedly happily married family men turn who would kill their family, and often be blamed on possession, or demonic behaviour.  It was common during the 80’s, and the Satanic Panic was everywhere. It’s a perfect place for a man like Longlegs (Nicholas Cage) to hide and get away with his evil plan.

Yes, it’s true. Cage is the thing of nightmares in this film. Speaking in at least an octave higher than his own, plus the use of phenomenal sound mixing, his voice sometimes pierces through those speakers. He is terrifying and unforgettable. He does get to his true Cage self in one scene, and while I laugh a little (and the audience more than I expected), it’s still fucking haunting.  Monroe plays her character subdued, I think as a way to tone away some of the intensity, especially in the times she’d have to interact with Cage as Longlegs. I’ve been a big fan of hers since It Follows and The Guest and her taste in film choices have consistently been great. 

The film changes different aspect ratios to differentiate periods in time and point-of-views from characters. We occasionally get glimpses of how our crime scenes tell the incidents to occur, but within the changing of ratios, there’s a consistent dread. Every frame brings dread and suspense, as we anticipate what might happen next. It is not in your face about jump scares necessarily, but this movie is going to crawl under your skin and think about it for days. It might haunt you a bit after and still have you looking into the corners of your dark rooms for figures and silhouettes.

I’ve not seen enough of Oz’s filmography yet, but I have been a bit mixed on him so far. I understand and appreciate his interest in the occult in his films, but I think he tapped into something for Longlegs. I haven’t stopped thinking about the movie since my screening at the beginning of the week. Monroe gives a performance where we can’t take our eyes off her, and Cage is the scariest he’s ever been.

While still trying not to reveal anything about the film, the film feels like a bit of a love letter to his parents and parents in general about how they try to hide the true horror of the world from their children. And maybe, how he’s trying to do the same to his own, like Bea Perkins, who steals the movie for one quick moment before Cage reigns you back into the depths it reaches. 

I’m now absolutely invested and excited for his next film The Monkey, as well as ready to see Longlegs at least another time during its theatrical run, but this film will go down as another classic in the procedural killer genre, and will play on the big screen in the future, as well will live in horror fans recommendations and best of lists for years to come.