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Film Review — Longlegs
Despite fine performances and atmospheric direction, Osgood Perkins’s horror-thriller ultimately disappoints
NOTE: Normally, my new-release film reviews are spoiler-free, but there are mild thematic spoilers in the latter part of this review, with no specific details.
Longlegs arrives in cinemas accompanied by considerable hype. Comparison to David Fincher’s nerve-shredding serial killer thriller Se7en (1995) particularly arrested my attention, though I treated the claim with the same dubious scepticism with which I treat all such hyperbole. I’m glad I did. Directed with innovative flair by Osgood Perkins (son of actor Anthony Perkins), Longlegs is strong on unsettling imagery, sound design, and performances. However, for me at least, it lacks the most vital of ingredients: A story that satisfies.
For about half an hour, Longlegs looked as though it might be something special. A creepy opening, flashing back to the 1970s childhood of FBI special agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), sets the tone via a boxy aspect ratio designed to evoke Polaroid photographs. Clever framing initially avoids fully showing the face of the film’s villain, the titular serial killer Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). It also suggests a fragmented, traumatic, deliberately forgotten past.
