jasmin 🌙’s review published on Letterboxd:
Well, hi there.
Finally. Longlegs walked and arrived. Hyped up as the scariest film of the year and with some of the best marketing I have ever seen, best believe that I was really excited for that.
Now, I did receive some sad private news today so my feelings regarding this film may be influenced by that but can't change that now.
Ambitious FBI agent Lee Harker uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end a serial killer's terrifying killing spree.
When we heard young female FBI agent and serial killer we all collectively thought of The Silence of the Lambs, am I right? This film wears it's inspiration on it's sleeves that I half expected someone to ask Lee if the lambs have stopped screaming yet.
Maika Monroe shines in this role as the FBI agent desperately trying to solve this case. What an under-appreciated actress. Any role I saw her in, she was phenomenal. And this is no different.
Going into this film, I wasn't sure what to expect - would this be realistic or supernatural? And I was pleasantly surprised with the direction they went in. I found it extremely eerie and uncomfortable.
Nic Cage is one of my favorite American actors who is severely overhated or not taken serious. I'm glad that changed with Pig and I hope that Longlegs will also prove people wrong. Gosh, he was so fucking creepy in this. Partially, the makeup is so uncanny but also the angles of how Longlegs was shown were genius and Cage delivers with such an uncomfortable performance.
Blair Underwood who played the sweet bank manager in Set It Off - he's Agent Carter and Michelle Choi-Lee plays Agent Browning, both superiors of Lee. I enjoyed both of these actors.
Kiernan Freaking Shipka also pops up and of course, she was in one of Oz Perkin's past projects so glad to see her again but as I attempted to avoid spoilers and such, I don't think anyone mentioned her at all. Kiernan's great in the limited screentime that she gets.
Alicia Witt plays Harker's mom, Ruth - you may recognize Alicia from Urban Legend and a bunch of iconic shows. She was great in this film, a very interesting performance.
Zilgi aka Elvis Perkins (Oz' brother) composed a haunting score that I quite enjoyed too.
Now, is the film scary? That seems to be the main discussion with people being divided being creeped out or saying that "it didn't scare them" hence it sucks which is such a bad takeaway from a horror film. I can't remember the last time a film truly scared me, apart from some fantastic tension in Rec or the found footage film Creep but only *afterwards* because I'm a paranoid person and this film is *made* for people like me.
I won't say that Longlegs is scary. What it will deliver on however is a slow boiling, dreadful and claustrophobic atmosphere, great performances and a rather unique take on the serial killer, in my opinion. Nothing could have prepared me for the reveal nor would I have guessed most of the twists, maybe one of them but I wasn't even looking at that possibility because there's just so much going on. It may be too much for some people. It' just enough for me. The many elements coming together, it's such a creepy conclusion. Like, what are you going to do about it? Exactly.
Maybe I'm just susceptible to that because what the actual fuck, you're doing all of that?! No, thank you.
I do have to say, after thinking about it a bit, there's a lot of potential but the film doesn't completely reach that.
I enjoyed the film that we got well enough though but also understand the disappointment many have expressed.
Your enjoyment of this will severely depend on your expecations and hype and I'm not sure what to say. Either it'll work for you or you'll think it's foolish crap. Wow, what a divisive film.
