The Cinema Boy’s review published on Letterboxd:
Longlegs is a movie I avoided the first few weeks of its release. I’m not going to go watch some satanic worshipping movie. I don’t have time for that and all that entails. But I am the cinema boy and my longing to see all the major cinematic pictures upon release in a theater was gnawing at me to my core exposing my inner wiring to myself and revealing my redundant ingrained moving going behavior can’t be quelled. I had to see this movie! Color me surprised when I say this is a masterpiece of cinema. This is an incredible horror movie. This is the best horror movie I’ve seen in a while, truly and easily the best of 2024 and surprisingly emotionally enrapturing and engaging overall. I really dug this brilliant movie. Even with the acknowledged brilliance on display in this compelling and masterfully done story I don’t enjoy marinating in the details, the signs, the satanic incidentals flashed repeatedly on screen which all feel akin to something honestly spiritually unnerving, I didn’t even look at it too closing in examination (all of the satanic rituals and insignias feel authentic and frightening.) If someone walks away from this picture imbued to walk a life in darkness I find that unsettling and unfortunate. If the narrative of this picture is emphasizing the power in what we as humans can’t see with our eyes but can feel and become in our bodies and minds let’s also not dabble into an investigation and lauding or incidental consumption and or intrigue and memorization towards the demonic influence studied and documented in this picture. Some of it feels a little too realistic to me, like watching this movie can also imbue an individual towards opening a metaphorical door they won’t want opened and they didn’t understand the ramifications of much like the victims in the literal narrative at hand ironically. I think movies have a moral obligation to at the very least inform the audience at large of what they are allowing into ones spiritual world depending on how they process and take in this picture. It’s almost a calling card for joining the devil when there is no moral responsibility at hand. Don’t like it, not into it, but irregardless I actually find the film to be so fantastic in every other capacity that it outweighs this discerned criticism and thrives as a picture remarkably. I just can’t stress enough when I praise this movie that I’m not into any of these messages or overall themes as a way of life and I think some people will take this movie and run with it because they are already lost in their lives and this doesn’t help someone find betterment, the very last line in the movie is hail satan. I can already see the Hail Satan cringe letterboxd reviews. There was a time many decades ago now where pictures were censored and if one even looks at the classic “Rosemary’s Baby”, the ending of the film tries to make fun of satanic worshippers as the creatives didn’t want the audience finding the behavior laudable. For whatever reason we live in a time such a this now where anything and everything is presented to anyone, someone’s own betterment a self realized isolated journey, not something being given out for free anymore. No one feels the responsibility to steer anyone else in any direction. That can be dangerous. With all that said as aforementioned the picture has a storyline that is genuinely engaging and supports these aforementioned glorifying and observing demonic influence choices as tonally establishing an atmospheric dread and palpable thrust which genuinely supports and gives momentum and terror to the unfolding narrative at large with focus and point of view. This is why everything that I personally don’t like about the film, actually works in the film regardless of moral responsibility. Maika Monroe is really good in this movie as Agent Lee Harker and the writing and acting for this character takes this movie to a God tier level in craftsmanship and style. This is a really good performance and Monroe is a very specific talent, with an emotional availability and command on screen that is uniquely her own and always coming from a place of authenticity. She has two iconic horror performances to her resume now after “It Follows” and now “Longlegs”. I look forward to more from her in the future. Monroe is also what holds and focuses the movie together for me. I need someone to root for in these types of stories and the character of Lee is incredibly well written and layered. The balance in her essence and narrative fight for not only accountability but also sheer survival is incredibly well handled. This movie has moments in it that honestly blew me away and had me aghast. Monroe showcases so many layers to her character and quickly establishes a fully fleshed out person that correlates to the mystery at large overall. The script is really fucking good in this movie overall. I was documenting to myself all of the information we as viewers were discerning through her performance, there were numerous revelations that come out of an externalized realization through her layered work. I was really pleasantly surprised at how well handled her character and performance is throughout the picture. Nicolas Cage is great as Longlegs. He is terrifying and haunting. This movie barely holds a through line together successfully, it just somehow always feels like it’s moments away from loosing focus, but it always stays on course regardless, almost mirroring Cage’s own performance with a tightrope walk which goes right to the edge of feeling realistic and dynamic and rides the wave all the way to the finish line. This was some really fucked up and creepy work from Cage. Maybe we should just dive right into “The Silence of the Lambs” comparisons of it all at this point. This movie doesn’t hold a candle to that picture even if both are regarded by me as masterpieces, I can’t reckon with the idea that this is on that level. “The Silence of the Lambs” is literally one of the very best movies ever made. That bar is too high a burden to reach. Again this movie is its own bonafide masterpiece right out of the gate, this movie is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s not at the level of Lambs. I don’t think this movie will get any Oscar nominations either. This film in some ways culturally is closer to the energy around something like “The Blair Witch Project”, and a little more disposable than not, and even though I think it’s a better movie then that one, it wouldn’t land as impact-fully as that film did culturally, “Longlegs” is actually a movie that is a tiny bit overhyped and falsely marketed. It’s not this event film that everyone was wanting it to be, it’s a smaller scale character driven and slow meditation on evil at its spiritual core, wonderfully explored. I understand on the surface some of the externalized similarities to Lambs, but ultimately this movie is so much weirder and deeply metaphorical with its deciphering of evil on a literal level not as an interpretation of human fallacy but rather as an examination towards the fundamental unknowing for some, that forces with wicked intent beyond our framing and understanding can try to guide and or control our very lives and destinies. The agency and monopoly of the characters in this picture ultimately is not as engaging as in something like Lambs, the forward thrust in the overall momentum towards the picture in the examination about the root and truth of all things in the darkness is this films bread and butter where Lambs was encompassing a wider variety of truths, an exploration towards spiritual discerned acknowledgment towards the root of evil the most important take away in this picture even more so than the characters, who are great, but who don’t hold a candle to Lambs because they aren’t focused on enough to earn that level. If this movie wanted to actually be “The Silence of the Lambs” remarkable it would need to have more agency in the narrative towards caring about the characters more than the crimes they are covering. I actually feel like this movie needs a sequel too. I feel silly consistently saying this movie isn’t as good as “The Silence of the Lambs” or pop culturally significant and bombastic as “The Blair Witch Project” but it still gets the job more than done and is a cinematic achievement that should be celebrated. I really need to see what happens next in this narrative and I think there is room for more to happen in an engaging continued storyline. I had to go on IMDB and read the synopsis for the ending of this picture because the framing device was so odd to me I actually was left slightly confounded towards what the overall take away and literal ending was. The examination towards what happens when the dolls are destroyed to the girls who were a conduit for it didn’t completely track to me and actually still doesn’t. I really want a sequel that showcases the decent into madness that Lee is now facing, the implied ending towards that destiny doesn’t feel fully developed and doesn’t engage the way the rest of the movie does. A second part might lead more credence to a slow continued unraveling and in hindsight make the lack of a forceful emphasized ending in this ultimately play better because we got more story down the road. I simply want to see more and understand more about where this ultimately is heading. I’m ok having a question or two fundamentally in a picture I enjoyed for its daring originality still felt ultimately through the lens of something real and tangible and sinister as well. I don’t know that the intention was to tie it all up in a nice bow, because it’s not. I guess the bottom line is it doesn’t seem clear what the state of mind is for Lee Harker at the end of the picture. I had read that the intention is to showcase that she is now possessed by the evil but I did not discern that at all, the opposite in fact, which was pleasantly surprising. How bleak to have an ending where now she is the conduit for the madness. I do understand that potentially it is now going to start consuming her against her will but I was pleasantly surprised to see it showcased in a fashion where the character still has her agency and morality and abilities hand in hand with a wrestling with the madness at large. The character of Longlegs has a brutal assessment of the world and his place in it which validates for himself the consumption he takes into the devil and the powers to be had and felt through wicked intent on earth. For most people the very real darkness that comes knocking on their metaphorical doors through their lives is something to be fought against as one embraces their true essence and soul in the light and in the act of love over hate, kindness over anger, compassion over fear. Longlegs is not treated with any good energy in society and when we see him he has already become a conduit for the darkness through his broken down and decaying inner compass, emphasized to himself as something to destroy in the quest for full embrace with the devil. This whole movie is more literally honest and engaging than a person who hasn’t come to realize that we wrestle against the forces of evil in myriad ways would want to externally process. I really am thankful this movie didn’t end with some sort of acknowledged moment of internalized possession, rather it dabbles in an idea that an energy and force can penetrate and attack from the outside in to various degrees of success depending on the individuals psychic ability as well as spiritual and religious morality. There is protection from the darkness and there are tools some individuals harness better and more willingly than others as well. All of that is twisted and bent in this narrative but it’s also dabbled into and acknowledged brilliantly and originally used as framing devices to add intrigue and momentum to the mystery of the picture. To have all of this examined in the storyline and through the characters was brilliant. Alicia Witt is also really good in this movie. She is compelling and intense and her performance and role also emphasizes and acknowledges the overall themes and inclinations in the picture I’ve been speaking about above. A mother who lived in the light of God and who moved into the darkness to maintain a demand wanted and needed to protect her daughters soul. Along the way she losses her own as a consequence. This movie continues to grow on me in reflection and with repeated viewings maybe it will reach the highest heights of cinematic horror achievement, after one viewing it’s not quite at the level of the greats that came before it but it’s a new great on its own which is a phenomenal place to be at. I actually realized this was a masterpiece as I formulated my thoughts in real time for this review. Things hold up about this film in reflection remarkably well. This is a brilliant horror picture. Blair Underwood is good in this movie as well. He is playing the only normal person on display in the runtime which is used as a device to further emphasis the third act examinations his character goes through and emphasizing for the audience how real the unseeable threat is. Kiernan Shipka is unrecognizable as a mental patient who might have the keys to unraveling the mystery for Lee. Kiernan Shipka also is unrecognizable in Twisters released one weekend after this film theatrically. I see you Kiernan Shipka! You are doing great supporting work and showcasing range beyond Sabrina. Overall I would say this movie is fucked up, stay far away from it, all my inclinations to never watch it were accurate and if you do watch it anyway like I did you are in for a cinematic gem the likes of which the horror genre hasn’t seen in awhile. 2024 Films Ranked The 50 Best Horror Films Ever
