debbiesalt’s review published on Letterboxd:
“It’s a rip-off
Such a rip-off”
- T. Rex
For all of the complaints about predictability, there is definitely fatalism at play here; however, that doesn’t make the embarrassingly explicit reveal or final scene any less underwhelming. With all of its preceding exposition, the ending still manages to be (slightly) ambiguous—I mean I have my thoughts on what would happen post-credits—and yet any of that ambiguity is rendered meaningless. There really isn’t much to glean thematically from any possible interpretation one might have. It’s only significant if you actually care about the characters. Any exploration of ideas it does have, like repression, secrecy, sacrifice, or Satanism, is shallow and perfunctory.
So, since the narrative is spelled out and there isn’t much to chew on, was it scary? Fun? Thrilling? Not really. The only fun I had was trying to piece the puzzle together before it was inevitably solved for us. It certainly has creepy moments via setting and Nic Cage’s acting—for the latter, it’s only effective in the beginning, since the eeriness and tension are deflated when Longlegs is fully revealed. As for other formal elements, it attempts horror through its sound design, (subliminal) images, and cutaways but they fall flat for me. The climax has a nice sense of dread, but even then… It’s not necessarily a bad film, and it looks great at times, but nothing in this is as compelling as the marketing and reviews made it seem which is very disappointing.
I’ve seen comparisons to The Silence of the Lambs and Cure which are somewhat apt, and I’m sure Perkins has seen both, but the important takeaways aren’t present—not that they necessarily have to be. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure is effective because of what it doesn’t outright show or explain, and maybe Perkins just isn’t that strong of a visual storyteller. This was my first movie of his so I’m not sure, but I’m not likely to watch his others for some time after this.
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