Longlegs, an eerie new psychological thriller by Osgood Perkins, has some of the best opening scenes in recent memory. With his use of sound, cutting edges, and eerie curiosity, Perkins creates a series of jump-scares that will make your heart race. We’re sure you’ll sense it. This is a film to simultaneously lean into and cringe away from; one that is ready to pull the rug out from under you at any time; one that takes pleasure in manipulating your senses to deliver maximum shock value. It’s an incredible opening.

Maika Monroe plays Lee Harker, an uncomfortable FBI agent with a startlingly accurate gut feeling that is described early on as “half-psychic.” Monroe has great prior experience in this genre with films like It Follows and the thriller Watcher. She is working on the case of a serial murderer who killed families over a number of decades; the only evidence of him that was found at the crime scenes were coded letters that combined to form the term “Longlegs.” A game of cat and mouse develops as Lee tries to decipher Longlegs’ intentions and strategies prior to him striking once more.

It’s interesting to see how Lee and Longlegs’ relationship and convergence towards one another are shown by their mental states as well as their past experiences.

Throughout the first part of the film, Perkins hardly gives us a glimpse of the culprit, who is played by Nicolas Cage if you haven’t seen him before. We only get to see his mouth, chin, and scraggly mop of curly hair in profile. It’s a clever tactic that gradually increases the audience’s intrigue and horror before exposing a twisted, childlike character that resembles the Joker and into whom Cage totally disappears.

The middle of the movie drags a little (though Perkins wakes you up quickly), the finale feels anticlimaxically organised, and some of the story details around Longlegs’ kills are a little hazy, but the overall atmosphere the movie creates more than makes up for it. There are clear references to serial-killer films like The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, and Zodiac, but there are also overt references to sleazy video games, sinister undertones of Insidious, and a strong nod to the ‘Satanic panic’ of the 1980s. It has a thread of precisely timed dark humour, ratio shifts that hint at memories, grainy film, and severe, cold humour mixed in with loose, joyful moments. The link and convergence of Lee and Longlegs is intriguingly shown, not just through their past experiences but also through their mental states; their mirrored primordial howls remain ingrained in the mind. Even though its most repulsive aspects should have been pushed a bit farther, Longlegs will nonetheless leave you feeling appropriately shaken up.

A terrifying mixture that showcases Nicolas Cage’s incredible metamorphosis and serves as a timely reminder of Maika Monroe’s star potential. Give yourself to its sinister obscurity for a unique, visceral horror film experience.

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