LONGLEGS

“I know you're not afraid of a little dark. Because you *are* the dark.”

I have spoken here before about how I’m not great with horror films. I’m very easily scared, and very susceptible to the ambience that horror films bring.

I’ve also spoken about how the majority of horror films I’ve watched recently have not been particularly scary.

Well, horror fans, I can assure you that Longlegs is scary. It’s really scary. 

It never relies on cheap jump scares, but its overwhelming atmosphere of dread and unease permeates through. It is unrelenting, from the first moment to the last. 

Described as the 20’s take on Silence of the Lambs, Longlegs is a psychological horror following Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), an FBI agent whose semi-psychic abilities get her enlisted to help track down a serial killer known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage).

Firstly, the fact that Nicolas Cage plays Longlegs is not a spoiler. The is not a whodunnit. We know whodunnit from the start, and Cage is identified as Longlegs in the opening credits. 

Because Longlegs (the film) is far more interested in the how than in the who.

Because Longlegs (the character) never appears to be present at the killings himself. Instead coercing others to do his bidding for him, before turning the weapon on themselves. How is he doing this?

Monroe is brilliant as Harker. Her performance has a muted quality about it. Her voice rarely raising to anything close to a shout, despite the circumstances and the terror she must, at times be feeling. Her movements feeling small and understated. 

It is at odds with what you might expect to see in a horror and adds to the growing sense of unease.

Her mother, Ruth, played by Alicia Witt (who I mainly know as a singer, despite her successful acting career), seems to have these similar mannerisms. The phone conversations they have a stilted and while there appears to be love there, there is also a disconnect between them. Something that feels… not quite right.

And Longlegs himself I found terrifying. Cage’s performance is unhinged. Where much of the cast have that muted quality, Cage brings the energy. Where the other characters are quiet and, somewhat, controlled, he is loud and manic and unhinged. 

It is a role that plays right into what Nicolas Cage does. It allows him to lean into the flamboyancy and extravagance that he does so well, in a way that not only makes sense in the movies world, but actively enhances it.

And his face; powdery and chalky. The way he moves; almost marionette-esque… it makes me happy I have aphantasia and never have to worry about the unwanted visualisation of him looming at me out of the darkness. 

Every aspect of the film is designed to unsettle. The set design - especially our protagonists lonely, isolated house - is intensely creepy. The use of shadows and light, of repeated images foreshadowing what’s to come. I would wager that if I went back and rewatched, knowing what I know now of its story, I would see significantly more in it.

The use of aspect ratio in flashbacks, cutting the screen down to a constricting 1.33:1, giving the impression of a horrifying home video, enhances the feeling that you’re watching something inevitable. Something that has already played out. That the feeling of dread is not only overwhelming, but that it is justified too. 

I think Longlegs is brilliant. One of the best horror films in years.

And I’m also fairly sure, as someone who, as I’ve made clear, is not good with horror, that I didn’t enjoy a single second of it. 

It unsettled me. And as brilliant as I think it is, as well made as I think it is, I never want to watch it again.

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(p.s. If you’re a horror fan, stay for the credits. There’s a nice little detail there for you)