Despite only playing at one film festival, Longlegs has whipped up a serious fervour on social media. There arguably has not been a horror picture that has been previewed with so many superlatives since Midsommar, and it is pleasing for this outlet to report that the hype is well and truly justified.
Sharing DNA with The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, this feature by Osgood Perkins (notably the son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins) takes a familiar narrative set up of an elusive serial killer (Cage) being trailed by an FBI agent (Maika Monroe) who uncovers a personal connection to the case, but overcomes its familiar plot through engaging performances, technical flair and by putting a strong thematic lens to its brutality, highlighting how a killer’s capability doesn’t just come from their own sociopathy but through coercive control over a network of enablers.
The rich visual aesthetic merges a claustrophobic 4:3 for one timeline of events with a 16:9 to track the investigation in the present day, yet the atmosphere is so thick with gloom after one of the most frightening opening scenes in recent memory, that Perkins doesn’t truly let the audience feel safe even when the feature transitions to its widescreen scenes. The relentless sense of dread is upheld in canny production and location choices, where expanses of trees, lonely houses and long roads feel like fertile territory for a serial killer to come in and get away in the broadest of daylight.
As the titular killer, Nicolas Cage is completely in his element, bearing a similar facade to his real-life pal Marilyn Manson, delivering perhaps his most dangerously unhinged character yet. Opposite him, Monroe, typically a brilliant scream queen, comfortably shares the same space as Clarice Starling in her performance as FBI Agent Lee Harker. Further hugely impressive performances are given by Blair Underwood as Harker’s professional partner, and Alicia Witt as her troubled mother.
Though it may go through the motions in telling its story within a classic detective framework, Longlegs’s sheer commitment to an oppressive ambience, where every person and object in the frame is susceptible to the titular monster’s influence, render it the scariest American horror film in years.
Musanna Ahmed
Longlegs is released nationwide on 12th July 2024.
Watch the trailer for Longlegs here: