Longlegs came out in 2024, to very mixed reviews.
The marketing campaign was so great, that many felt that the movie didn’t live up to its hype.
And I kinda have to agree.
Legacy names, old and new
Created by Osgood Perkins (The Monkey), his style is very divisive to begin with.
You’ll never know what to expect when you press play.
It will be artsy, but in a very weird way.
If you’ve seen Nicolas Cage (Mandy, Willy’s Wonderland, Mom & Dad) in anything, you will know that whenever he wants to go off the rails, he will go there. And he does.
The shooting style reminded me of Lars von Trier somehow, where instead of a staged play, the characters where moving around in the real world. Every scene had its intent. Every design was purposeful. The camera work also fits the style.
A new cop plot, with a twist
Here we follow Lee harker, an FBI agent in training who seems to have « the shine », which helps her catch criminals. She is assigned an unsolved case, similar to the zodiac killer, but only affecting entire families. Each letter is signed, you guessed it, by «Longlegs.
Lee is played by Maika Monroe, seen previously in It Follows.
She seems to like playing in strange horror movies, I guess.
And she doesn’t even have to really look for Longlegs, as he comes to her place to leave a new note.
We figure out in the end that she wasn’t truly a psychic, and that everything she saw was linked to the Devil himself.
The dolls were created by Longlegs as a Satan worshiper.
The little balls had a direct line to him so he could activate them, maybe ?
Look, it’s Perkins.
The less you know, the better.
The little nod to Church from Pet Sematary at the murder scene was a nice touch, same with the Amityville looking barn during the investigation. It’s fun when horror winks at horror.
An anti-Netflix plot
The movie has a « show don’t tell » vibe that I really like.
It doesn’t bash you over the head with information, like the decade, instead it shows you a huge picture of Bill Clinton for instance.
Same with the explanation.
We do have a voiceover, but not a detailed one.
No motives, no details to how the balls are made, no explanation for the magic.
Just Hail Satan.
Creative, but at an uneven pace
Just like for The Monkey, I’d like to give credit for creativity.
It may or may not be your kind of movie, but it is unique.
Sadly, it drags on for too long. It’s a vibe, but not mine. It felt like Nic Cage was in another movie completly.
I’m glad they didn’t show his character more, but the atmosphere went from procedural dull cop plot to a mental institution satanic patient every time.
As often with Perkins’ work, it goes from 0 to 100 and drops back down to 0 in a heartbeat.
Longlegs could have been a horror icon.
I could picture the glam rock serial killer vibe on display every Halloween, like Art the clown…
But it felt like they misused his character somehow ?
The pace would have been quicker, I think it would have worked out this way.
While I usually rate movies on rewatchability, I use a different rating for his.
I’m not going to watch Longlegs or The Monkey again any time soon, but I will always watch the new movies he puts out, because while it may not be for me, it at least is creative, new, and surpring work, always.
That we can count on.
My rating : 3/5 bats
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