Longlegs
Matt LaFemina

Review by Matt LaFemina

Longlegs 2024

★★★½

Watched 16 Jul 2024

Seeing this yesterday, it at least allowed some of the hype train to die down and set the proper expectations. Still, I was about as excited for a movie featuring Nic Cage (my least favorite actor) as I could be. 

Obviously it’s not the “scariest movie of the decade” or anything close to it. But it is pretty damn creepy. I like my horror pitch black and the tone in Longlegs is for the most part A+. The film is broken down into 3 parts, and the first was easily my favorite. It’s an intentional familiarity to the 90s serial killer movies that had me hooked but there’s a lingering dread that hangs over everything that makes you feel like this is not going where you anticipate. 

And in parts 2 and 3, we learn things are way more sinister and bizarre than anticipated, and it’s a weirdness that I struggled with. Nicolas Cage does enough to not do his usual schtick that I sometimes felt he was not Nic Cage pretending to be a serial killer. All the weird buildup feels like it needed a much stronger payoff, as details are thrown at us rapidly and the looming threat of the mysterious Longlegs is basically forgotten. Longlegs is at its best when Maika Monroe is trying to solve the mystery and we have a terrible feeling double L is about to stop by. However, the ending doesn’t provide a satisfying conclusion to the Monroe/Longlegs showdown and the attempt to subvert expectations was meh. Still loved the tone and dread and would prefer more horror/thrillers took this route. 

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