Courtney Howard // Film Critic
LONGLEGS
Rated R, 1 hour and 41 minutes
Directed by: Oz Perkins
Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood, Kiernan Shipka, Lauren Acala
As evidenced by LONGLEGS, Oz Perkins instinctually knows how to craft a cinematic freak-fest. It extends beyond his lead actor’s bizarre performance. It’s beyond what’s in or calculatingly cropped out of the frame. And it’s beyond the aesthetic color story and discordant tones in the score. The auteur makes it look effortless, hitting a timbre of terror in his creepy concerto. It’s as if LONGLEGS was forged in Hell by Satan, who brought it as an artifact into our world as a gift. With a steadied tension build and mischievous dark spirit, it’s equal parts scary and sick AF – and it’s the real fucking deal.
Perkins pulls inspiration from unsettling bedfellows like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and SEVEN to conjure his uniquely grotesque tale of sinister shenanigans that will have you sleeping with the lights on. FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is good at her job catching murderers and bringing them to justice. So good, she’s suspected to be psychic. After the death of her partner, she’s recruited by Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) to help solve the strange case of a serial killer only known as “Longlegs” (Nicolas Cage). He’s been at work for decades with no intention of stopping. He slaughters families on significant days of the year. Yet there’s little evidence of him ever being on scene at the time of the crimes, except for cryptic, un-decodable notes left behind.
Outside of work, Lee is struggling to maintain a relationship with her religious mother, Ruth (Alicia Witt), whose consistent attempts to prod her daughter about her spirituality provide more obstacles than in-roads. There’s also a mysterious past bubbling under the surface of their tenuous mother-daughter bond – an incident Lee has psychologically repressed. Naturally the specifics come back to her in waves, provided by the Academy ratio flashback sequences, showing her younger self (Lauren Acala) visited by a creep cloaked in cream-colored clothing. The key to unravelling the case – and provide clarity to Lee on her own upbringing – might be the only known survivor spared throughout the years: Carrie Anne Camera (Kiernan Shipka), who’s tucked away in a mental institution.
What Perkins and company have created is masterfully macabre, delighting the darkest hearts. Setting it in the Clinton era – a time full of hopeful change, naiveté and deception – adds a subtle, politically peppery flavor. While the first act is slightly scattershot, the remaining acts piece details together intelligently. Sound design is immersive, shocking the senses and providing another lens to capture the protagonist’s tormented psyche. Cinematographer Andres Arochi illuminates hidden character facets, saturating the colors and blackening the liminal spaces to augment the bleakness in the narrative. Production designer Danny Vermette’s environments are eerie. Lee’s remote log cabin feels like the Big Bad Wolf that’s haunting her will blow it down at any moment.
Monroe embodies her curiosity and laconic stoicism like a second skin, wielding her smarts and wit as weapons. She’s an assured performer, gliding on a razor’s edge of the hallucinogenic scenarios. Cage is in pure, unadulterated weirdo mode and clearly loving every minute of it. He’s molded a cunning, psychotic portrait of a manipulative killer, whose look is part musty, ghostly Buffalo Bill, part plastic surgery junkie. His eldritch vocal pitch will haunt your nightmares. Witt is unrecognizable as an aged, psychologically strung out and colorless nurturer. She astutely depicts motherhood in oxymoronic terms, caring but apathetic, loving but removed, sorrowful but satisfied.
As in Perkins’ previous films THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER and GRETEL AND HANSEL, this one delivers a spooky slow-burn. However, once things heat up (and they do), it’s a scorcher.
Grade: A-
LONGLEGS opens in theaters on July 12.
