Drew’s review published on Letterboxd:
Somehow, Longlegs lives up to the hype.
Directors who understand the uncanny mysticality of the Pacific Northwest hold a special place in my heart. Longlegs taps into the innocuous-seeming facade that exists in the space between rural and suburban living in America where its easy to imagine evil having just enough time and space to plant roots and corrupt the innocent by exploiting their search for meaning in a vast expanse of evergreen trees and endless rain.
Additionally, something about Nic Cage's Longlegs character felt so Oregonian to me, as weird as that may seem. There's a distinct politeness that occurs there that's different from other areas of the country, that persists despite clear discomfort in the other person. Its really persistent seeming, I'm not sure how else to describe it. It was also so perplexing that Longlegs was such a glam rock fan. Can't tell if that's just Perkins' commenting on something uncanny about the genre or T. Rex in particular, but it was really effective in the film. It really helped seal in the notion that Longlegs is a real person with so much time to kill, so he just plays guitar and idolizes Marc Bolan. If you have any ideas what this is about pleas lmk.
The most obvious film comparison to make with Longlegs is The Silence of the Lambs for the films' shared dynamic, heartrate-like pace and a young woman FBI agent protagonist working to take down a serial killer. My preferred obvious comparison for Longlegs, however, is with Twin Peaks, another FBI/serial killer drama. Longlegs' protagonist, Lee Harker, is like the anti-Dale Cooper. Her near-supernatural intuition is paired with a deeply anxious and unsure disposition that's rooted in childhood trauma that is made clear well before her past is explained. Her heavy breathing and somewhat anti-social behavior contrasts Cooper's unwaveringly positive outlook, creating a dissonant relationship between the two characters who are inextricably linked through their motivation to uncover and distinguish the rotten evil that lies shallow beneath the surface of smalltown American life.
I've been a lover of supernatural and religious horror since i was a teenager despite not being a religious or even remotely spiritual person. What I find most profound, or maybe relatable, about these stories are the ways the magical evil forces reflect the different ways we can be influenced to act against our own best interests. Longlegs explores how the devil (in the Christian extended universe sense) tempts unsuspecting, god-fearing people to do his bidding by creeping under the skin, into the psyche and exploiting the most terrifying impulses that live within us.
I don't believe that the devil is real, but thinking about the devil in more abstract terms, as a metaphor for the forces of evil or as a representation of the bad things we do to the people we love. This force can be applied to the ways we act in heightened states of emotional distress, when our consciousness is altered by substance abuse, or through the effects of mental illness, in which we commit acts or behave in ways that directly oppose our needs. We know that family murder/suicides occur despite the existence of supernatural forces, yet we continuously use and benefit from the use of the devil or demons in stories as an equivocal conduit for the reasons one might commit such a heinous act, leaving room for interpretation and allowing us to imprint our own meaning onto the story.
Spoiler Section:
I'm almost glad that Agent Carter didn't live long enough to see his beloved Mariners' young core of superstars stripped away without winning a championship... So much talent and nothing to show for it...
