jryn7’s review published on Letterboxd:
I’ve been laid up for a month after surgery, and still have some more recovery ahead, which is why I haven’t seen anything at the theater lately or liked any of your reviews of recent horror and sci-fi at the theaters. I even missed my one chance to see Humanist Vampire Seeks Consensual Suicidal Person, which finally came here for one week when I still couldn’t get to it :( But Longlegs - I finally was able to get myself there for this one, and I made it through.
Maika Monroe gives another interiorised performance as new FBI Special Agent Harker, who somehow is able to determine which house in a row of cookie cutter houses contains the suspect the FBI is looking for. This draws the attention of another agent played by Blair Underwood, who is happy to get any help - psychic or not - on a long running serial killer case where the killer is only known as Longlegs and leaves cryptic coded messages at sites where whole families are slaughtered. And yet there’s no DNA evidence that anyone but the family members were even at the murder sites…
Director Oz Perkins has been honing his craft on slowburn dark and dreadful horror for a while, and it really pays off here. Longlegs seems to take place in a world not quite our own, and while the familiar beats of the police procedural are followed, they don’t feel right. Everything about this movie feels wrong, and disturbing, which is high praise. It moves like Greek tragedy, with an air of inevitability that adds to the horror. The cast give great performances - with all the movies Nic Cage has made it seems strange it took him this long to play a serial killer, but he’s genuinely scary and disturbing. Monroe is a specialist in characters trying to keep a grip on their emotions as things get crazy and they start leaking out. Kiernan Shipka gives a super creepy cameo as she reunites with her Blackcoat’s Daughter director. But special praise goes to Alicia Witt unlike we’ve ever seen her before - she really goes to some places here.
Longlegs is definitely one that will stick with me and I’ll revisit. What a good year for horror so far!
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