Longlegs

Movie Name: Longlegs
Year of Release: 2024
Director: Oz Perkins
Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, Kiernan Shipka, Blair Underwood, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby, Lauren Acala, Jason William Day, Lisa Chandler, Ava Kelders, Carmel Amit
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
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Synopsis and Review

Writer/director Oz Perkins is back, following the well received "Gretel & Hansel", released in 2020. "Longlegs" takes place in the early 1990s, and follows the story of Lee Harker, a newly recruited FBI agent who is possessed of a special intuition and ability to perceive details that many others don't focus on. In one of her first assignments she manages to detect where an assassin is, and eventually captures him, even if her partner fails to survive the ordeal. She then gets assigned a case that has been with the bureau for decades, one that has been designated "Longlegs", since each crime scene is left with a letter that is signed with that authorship. It's been a series of murder-suicides, and in each of those situations, the father murders the wife and children, before taking his own life. Those signed letters are found at the crime scenes, with Satanic coding, though the handwriting doesn't belong to any of the victims and there's no evidence of home invasion. Lee eventually understands the pattern surrounding all the victims, and the connection between all the dates in which the killings occur. She and her supervisor, Carter, uncover a doll buried in one of the crime scenes, and within the doll, a metal orb that emits high energy, despite being empty. Carter suspects that there's a connection between Longlegs, Lee and her mother Ruth, and encourages Lee to converse with her mother. Ruth, who seemingly lives like a hoarder, tells Lee she remembers nothing from her 9th birthday, but also tells her that she has kept everything in her room as it was since she was a child. While looking through polaroids she took when she was 9, she identifies a pale-faced looking man, and she realizes that it is Longlegs, and that he visited her when she was a child. After he is taken into custody, Lee finally speaks with him, and realizes there's more to his plan and that he hasn't been operating individually through his perfectly realized plan.

"Longlegs" is one of those rare features, that while displaying some of its filmic influences, it manages to create its own identity. In this particular case, there are obvious hints at the beginning of the narrative, that tie "Longlegs" with Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs", particularly in some of the similarities of the treatment of the characters Lee and Clarice Starling, but as "Longlegs" continues to reveal its narrative, the film goes in a different direction than what Thomas Harris' adaptation focused on. While Jonathan Demme's feature is both a procedural, but also the narrative of someone overcoming her fears and traumas, thanks to the relationship she establishes with a dangerous psychopath, in "Longlegs" the environment and the unsettling aspect of what is being depicted suggests a more horrifying scenario at hand, particularly for its central character. Another particularly arresting aspect about this feature, is the attention to detail and the styling Oz Perkins and his team bring to the narrative at hand (it situates the action in a specific time period, but it also hints at the 1970s and 1980s). The environment and atmosphere he manages to conjure is perpetually menacing, particularly for Lee, since no space seems safe or secure. While the level of detail for the characters is somewhat underdeveloped, the interactions that occur between them still resonate and feel authentically depicted. The cast is uniformly strong, with particular highlights going to Nicolas Cage who is truly unrecognizable, Alicia Witt who nearly walks away with the entire film, and Kiernan Shipka who has a small, but powerful part. The production team is impeccable, with highlights going to Andres Arochi's cinematography, Elvis Perkins' score, and Danny Vermette's production design. A very well crafted and worth watching film.