“Our prayers protect us from the devil.”

Longlegs has been a work of viral advertising genius from Neon; claims of it being “the scariest movie of the decade” and of the lead actress’s heartrate racing in a key scene have captured the zeitgeist and made Longlegs likely one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2024. I think this is a blessing and a curse - a blessing in that many more people than otherwise would have will watch Longlegs, and a curse in that the sky high expectations for the film can never be met. 

Longlegs is not the scariest movie ever made, but it is one of the most chilling and unsettling films I have seen in quite some time. People will be disappointed that Longlegs doesn’t rely on jump scares to trick your mind into feeling “scared”. Instead, Longlegs uses a multitude of tools to conjure up a guttural sense of dread and anxiety from the very get go, and it never lets up - the superb lead performance from Maika Monroe, the patiently concealed visage of Nicolas Cage’s titular Longlegs, the ominous soundscape - it is all terrifically done. Not since The VVitch, Hereditary or Midsommar has a film left me as uncomfortable as Longlegs. 

Maika Monroe… what a flawless lead performance. Lee Harker is a clearly disturbed individual (and it begs the question why she is even in the FBI). Harker looks alien in every environment she is in, she vibrates with anxiety, and she has an aversion to meeting anyone’s gaze when speaking to them. Monroe nails her portrayal as a woman haunted by that which she cannot identify, and her breathless anxiety only increased my own. Nicolas Cage… I’m not sure how I felt about his work in Longlegs, or whether or not he fit into the tense, dreadful atmosphere of the film, but whatever you think of Cage’s work here, no one can say that he phones it in. Nicolas Cage is Nicolas Cage, and Nicolas Cage Cage-s out on more than one occasion in Longlegs, eliciting laughter in the auditorium (I imagine purposefully? Perhaps they were going for nervous laughter). I haven’t landed on where I stand with Cage’s performance, and I’m looking forward to rewatching and solidifying my opinion. 

Oz Perkins is officially on my radar after Longlegs, and I need to check out his previous work. Perkins through his script and direction creates a pungent, nasty horror film in the vein of Mindhunter and The Silence of the Lambs, and yet it never felt derivative to me. Perkins creates terror in the blankest of spaces - the fuzzy edges of the frame, the darkness beyond an open door, the eyes of a doll. Perkins knows that the imagination of the audience will do his work for him, and I appreciated the measured approach. Perkins’ use of camera angles, an otherworldly and totally chilling sound design, eerie music and a deranged Nicolas Cage buried under prosthetics (that made him look like Broken Matt Hardy) are all strokes of genius. The central mystery at the heart of Longlegs is utterly engrossing, even if I found some aspects to be overly-foreshadowed or predictable (which I shan’t spoil). However, I absolutely adored the final 20 minutes of Longlegs, and I will be thinking about the ending for quite some time to come. 

It’s hard to say much more about Longlegs without spoilers. I can’t wait to add this to my 2024 Halloween horror marathon. I may be at risk of over-rating Longlegs because as I mentioned I’m not sure whether or not the Nicolas Cage performance worked for me, but everything else is so elevated and sure-footed that I can’t resist giving it a 4.5. 

Also, I am very annoyed I didn’t know that a specific date was so central to this film, as I would have waited 48 hours before seeing it, but alas.