Stephen Morgan’s review published on Letterboxd:
Excellent serial killer mystery thriller.
The film does a really good job of establishing an atmosphere of dread and foreboding, and creating a world that seems dark, lonely and empty, where everything seems a little off.
The movie concerns an investigation into a series of murders. Among all the tension and the doomy mood it has some thematic depth, although it probably borders on spoiler to say why, but there is some interesting stuff going on.
There has been a lot of discussion of whether this is scary or not, but in an era when I can barely remember anything about most horror movies I watch by the following day, the fact that this has stayed with me suggests, at the very least, this is a movie that gets under your skin.
Although it is a somewhat cliched premise, the execution has some strange and disquieting flourishes in the visuals and performances.
Nicholas Cage is superb as the titular Longlegs. It is a performance where he is simultaneously creepy and close to comical. It is a fine line, but he doesn’t care which side of it he is on, which makes the turn all the more unsettling and memorable.
Maika Monroe is good as the FBI investigator, and there are solid supporting performances from Alicia Witt and Blair Underwood.
I enjoyed the score, and there some very effective Shining-esque sudden dissonant orchestral blasts.
I liked the ending for the most part although I do think it had its limitations. It is far too reliant on exposition and I would have preferred something more opaque and less specific. It undoubtedly has a surprising and shocking finale while bringing together all the plot strands, but constructed in a different way I think it could have had more impact.
It is still ties things together in a reasonably satisfying way, and this is easily the best and most memorable film of its type for a while.
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