James Dongilli’s review published on Letterboxd:
Oz Perkins makes my favorite flavor of horror, which is to say that he’s more concerned with cultivating a refined visual style and tone, and less with the predictable jumpscares that plague countless other entries into the genre. The effect of his compositions, sound design, and editing is a sustained feeling of unease; a persistent wrongness that amps up every bit of suspense. Longlegs is not quite the revelatory experience that was Perkins’ last film (the tremendous Blackcoat’s Daughter), but it succeeds wildly at merging arthouse sensibilities with one of the most effective marketing campaigns I’ve ever seen - proving to general audiences that genre films can be worth just as much of their time as the latest assembly-line blockbuster. This is currently NEON’s highest-grossing film to date, and I’m confident it will inspire a lot more exciting risk-taking in the mainstream landscape. It’s packed with dread, immaculate cinematography, and some exceptional performances. After watching a terrible Nicolas Cage movie recently (Mom and Dad), it’s fascinating how subtle the difference is between a great Cage performance and a bad one. Cage goes for broke in each film, but here Perkins surrounds him with such an expert level of control that his theatricality becomes an acting masterclass instead of an embarrassment. He’s one of the most compelling and memorable villains I’ve seen onscreen in recent years. The third act may falter a bit, but as a complete package I’m (mostly) in love with how Perkins reshapes conventional horror ideas, along with some intriguing ones relating to religion, into a distinctive new whole. I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.
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