Longlegs Review: A New Horror Masterpiece?

Nicolas Cage plays a satanist in serial killer chiller Longlegs

You’ll be loathe to find a horror advertising campaign better run this year than that for Neon and Black Bear International’s latest release Longlegs – a film drawing comparisons to Silence of the Lambs, Se7en and Zodiac. This buzzy film’s secret cyphers and cryptic voicemails have whipped fans into a frenzy when sat alongside the rumour that this is Nicolas Cage’s best work in years. But does director Osgood Perkin’s satanic horror thriller have the goods?

1990s Oregon and certified scream queen Maika Monroe plays FBI agent Lee Harker. After Harker’s uncannily accurate hunches catch the eye of senior Agent Carter (Blair Underwood,) Harker is assigned to a serial killer cold case. The infamous ‘Longlegs’ (Nicolas Cage) has been killing entire families for over 20 years, leaving no trace behind him other than uncrackable coded messages and his spooky scrawled name.

Harker digs deeper into the case – deciphering notes and tracking down Longlegs one surviving deeply traumatised victim – and things seem to take a supernatural turn. But is the devil truly at play in Longlegs work, or is this just her own paranoia creeping in? Before long Harker’s digging attracts the attention of the killer himself and he begins sending her letters and tip offs that lead her to finally crack this cold case wide open – but after seeing how deep the rabbit hole goes, is she going to regret ever getting involved in the first place?

Writer/Director Perkins crafts a truly chilling vision, Longlegs is absolutely drenched in dread and an ominous sense of foreboding from start to end with a handful of tiny jump scares thrown in to keep audiences on the edge of their seat. Stylishly and thoughtfully shot, he keeps Harker dead centre of the frame throughout, leaving acres of space either side where you’re just sure something or someone is going to creep up on her. Grainy 4:3 flashback scenes feel referential to classic horror movies of the 70s, and as self-professed fan of Kubrick and Rosemary’s Baby Perkin’s wears his influences on his sleeve.

Where such a terrifically tense atmosphere has been built it is rather ruined in the end by the ‘reveal,’ for we do eventually start to see upfront scenes of Cage’s killer after a good hour of him hiding and narrating from the shadows in terrifying fashion. Longlegs, as it turns out, is far too ridiculous to be properly scary. Nic is going ‘full Cage’ here – adorned in overdone prosthetics that make him resemble Danny DeVito’s penguin and rambling about the devil in a clownish, sing song voice. I love an overacting Nicolas Cage – I really, really do – but whilst the character of Longlegs might become another memeworthy cult favourite, he distracts from could have been a genuinely effective, chilling story.

When it comes to story Perkins has somewhat overstuffed it, as classic police procedural slowly gives way to ‘’let’s throw every horror trope at the wall and see what sticks.’’ Isolated cabin in the woods? Check. Creepy dolls? Check. Suspicious nun? Check, check, check. As things get increasingly supernatural ‘detective’s intuition’ becomes psychic ability, and the serial killers acts the work of satanic power rather than psychotic mania. It hurtles towards an ending that moves us firmly into the camp of occult horror, and whilst it’s creepy for sure, Longlegs ultimately feels more confusing than ambiguous by the time the credits roll.

Nevertheless, this is promising work from Osgood Perkins and I’ll be very curious to see what he comes out with next. Longlegs is genuinely scary, presented with bleak but beautiful style and peppered with truly nightmarish scenes. A campy Cage is clearly having the time of his life playing one of his most memorable roles in years, and while it may not be a masterpiece, it’s still a hell of a good time.

Longlegs is out in cinemas from 12th July 2024