REVIEW #387 Longlegs (2024)

FBI agent Lee Harker is assigned to a string of unsolved murders and her investigation leads down a dark path, revealing signs of the occult. 

Oz Perkins’ Longlegs utilises the best elements of the thriller genre and the supernatural aspects of horror to create a suspenseful ride of discomfort for the audience. It’s stellar performances, particularly from Maika Monroe and Nicholas Cage, completely sell the stakes of the film and through them, this sense of unnerving horror personifies. The sound effects / musical score is a beast in itself, always lurking in the background with the sole intent of driving home those uneasy emotions. Ironically the weakest element of Longlegs, in my opinion, is the supernatural themes. That being said, I have sympathy for the  horror genre because it’s incredibly hard to write the supernatural well and although the film does do it well, I just preferred the first two acts which were more reminiscent to movies like Se7en, Prisoners and other elite level thrillers. Andres Arochi is on excellent form here, with outstanding cinematography that utilised dark settings, often lit by small light sources to create that sense of evil lurking in the shadows. I loved how the flashbacks were presented as home movies, smaller framing and lower quality shots to almost strike realism in an otherwise abstract movie. Longlegs blends the best of two genres, making it appealing to even those who dislike the horror genre and combined with its genius marketing, I expect it to do very well at the box office, it’s the film that everyone is talking about right now!

Overall (8.5/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan (Film Review Club)