You are the dark.

I’m going to try my best to put together a cohesive review of Longlegs because i feel like this is one of the few deserving films to have a review written humbly by me… so please stick with me.

Longlegs is apart of a two of a kind film for me personally. Out of the hundreds of films i've seen in my life, only 2 have succeeded in making me literally watch over my shoulder constantly for the entirety of the runtime, those two films would be The Shining and Longlegs. From the opening scene to the end credits i was tensing onto my seat, my heart was beating insanely fast, my mind was thinking all different thoughts, i jumped multiple times, i tapped my legs constantly out of sheer anxiety, and like i said before, always watching over my shoulder. I’m trying my hardest not to hype up the horror aspect of this film as it’s basically already turned into a comedic remark saying its the scariest thing ever, but this film genuinely got under my skin immediately and stayed there for 2 hours straight. Please keep in mind i barely watch horror films too, especially contemporary and jumpscare horror, though i am a massive fan of atmospheric horror, so obviously im gonna have different thoughts about the horror aspect than others. 

One huge way Longlegs achieved in getting under my skin is definitely the cinematography. I was talking to my mate on the whole drive back home about it so the way it’s shot is definitely intentional. They mainly used a very very very wide lens, almost like a fisheye lens. I’m going to take a guess and say it was a 14mm lens? In almost every suspense building scene, they set the camera in a single position, let the scene play out, and just the camera linger, they always have the main subject in focus obviously but always positioned to the far left or the far right leaving a lot of negative space. While letting the camera linger in one position while having the scene play out, your eyes always glance over to the negative space expecting something, anything to show up and fill the negative space, but it never happens. And i think thats the greatest aspect this film has to add to the horror atmosphere. The suspense always, ALWAYS builds to NOTHING. This film also relies so much on another wide 35mm and 50mm lens to trick the viewers into feeling as if they are in the film itself as those two focal lengths are the most accurate to the human eye. I don't remember a single time where Longlegs relies on using close ups to help with the horror which is a very different take on the technical aspects to create a scary atmosphere.

Now i would love to talk more about this film but unfortunately my brain has gone to shit from watching this film and thinking i could write a review that would make sense… anyways… i just leave you all by saying Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage both give off terrifying performances which will go down as some of the best performances on the horror genre… ever.

Goodnight.