One-Line Review: Longlegs is like a re-visit to the classic era of horror films, where horror means fear with no gimmicks.
Longlegs Youtube Trailer
Cast: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, etc.
Release Date: July 12, 2024
Director: Osgood Perkins
Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage grip in brooding horror thriller
~ The Guardian
Introduction
FBI agent Lee Harker is assigned with a case, a murder-suicide spree that connects to satanic activities.
Our rating for Longlegs is 08/10.
Summary
Lee Harker, an FBI agent with clairvoyance abilities is assigned with a case of brutal murder-suicide occurrences. As Harper starts the trial, she starts to dig out mysterious connection between each murders that makes her strongly suspect a satanic-ritual’s presence behind each of the murders. Lee finds a letter written in strange symbolic, cryptic language by a person named ‘Longlegs’ in the crime scenes. Each murders will have a similar pattern where a father kills his family members and commits suicide himself.
Lee receives a birthday card from ‘Longlegs’, which sheds light to the cryptic messages found at the crime scenes. But the birthday card warns that if she tells anyone about the source of how she solved the cryptic messages, her mother will be killed. Lee Harker finds the presence of a wooden doll at each place of the murder. Slowly, as she starts unveiling more clues, to her own shock, she finds out Longlegs is related to her own life in a gruesome manner and she must take action before the psychopath who worships Satan continues his killing spree.
Review
Longlegs brought back the good old days of horror with class. At present, when most new horror releases are all about abundant jump scares and mindless blood shed, longlegs was able to bring in the much needed eeriness and fear factor in the script. With literally no forced or cliched scenes, we would like to term Longlegs as ‘Pure Horror’.
Right from the start, the movie starts with an eerie white color palette. With plenty of white shots, most frames of the movie resembles a beautiful yet mysterious painting. Static shots and absence of loud music makes Longlegs more eerie in nature. What we loved about Longlegs is how brilliantly the SFX was injected and sprinkled across the movie. When a scene is happening with no music but just the sounds of breathing and footsteps, you are automatically pulled into the scene with zero obstacles on the way to distract you. The touch of mystery and suspense was well maintained till the very end keeping the viewers at the seat-edge.
Nicolas cage was exceptionally brilliant as ‘Longlegs’ – the psychopathic killer with darkness all over him. Right from the makeup and prosthetics, Cage was brilliant. His absolutely on-point dialogue delivery was icing on the cake. Maika was convincing as a troubled yet curious FBI agent. Cinematography was exceptional as every frame matched with the mood of the movie without giving away the interesting factor. Although, what is discussed in the script isn’t brand new, it is the technical treatment that makes the movie work big time.
Conclusion
Longlegs is a treat for horror movie lovers, especially those who loves cinema as an artform.
