Last Updated on July 19, 2024 by
Oz Perkins directs Longlegs (2024) movie. The film stars Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, and Blair Underwood with a rum time of 1h 41m theater released July 12, 2024.
Perkins transfers the aesthetic element of a crime scene photograph merged with a twist of nightmare in his take on the serial-killer genre. It is shocking, and when one looks at it, they get the feeling that they are looking at something they should not be looking at and may have something bad happen to them. This diabolical impression is quite clearly felt at the start of the film. Though the first ten minutes effectively mimic a nostalgic home movie before the ominous music and grainy film stock abruptly and jarringly pull the rug out from under the audience, Perkins quickly connects true crime tropes with spiritual hokum by introducing rookie FBI agent Lee Harker, played by Maika Monroe.
While out looking for a suspect in a featureless middle-class neighborhood with her partner, Agent Harker gets a very powerful and unexplained feeling that their suspect is in a seemingly random house. And, as usual, she is right — much to the amazement of everyone, including the viewers. And so, her boss, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), assigns Lee with the frustrating case of a group of crimes. Several nice suburban families have been exterminated, and in several cases, the killer seemed to fit the textbook description of a ‘family annihilator’. (It’s a dark theme, even for a murder mystery. ) The evidence points to murder-suicide, except for one bizarre detail: While there are no appearances of break — or, in fact, of any third party gaining entrance into the house — a coded note in the form of a letter signed by ‘Longlegs’ was recovered at all the crime scenes. If there were no intruders before, during, or after the killings, then how were these messages able to find their way into these homes?
Carter thinks that this ‘Longlegs’ is controlling the killers from behind, hence why he is enlisting Harker and her newly found power. “He tells them what to do to themselves, to each other, and they do it,” he says. The messages Longlegs sends are intended to look like those of the Zodiac Killer, and the agents reference Charles Manson while discussing his approach. The inclusion of these historical crimes adds a layer of realism to these elements and is essential for the aesthetics of the film of occult fiction. Perkins goes a step further in creating this destabilizing effect by presenting the audience with slides of (fake) autopsy, accompanied by tapes of (fake) nine-one-one calls as Carter educates Lee or the audience about the outcome of these crimes.
These brief glimpses of violence and or physical torment are supported by the blood splatter motif as well as demonic imagery in red and black during subliminal messages. Perkins’ screenplay also utilizes childish phrases like ‘big bad wolf, nast stuff’ in a mesmerizing way. Lee submerges herself into this bloody mystery head first, and we are left holding our breaths as she discovers that the person hunting her and killing these women not only knows her name and her address but also met her years ago. This is where the film becomes Perkins’ version of The Silence of the Lambs, with Monroe as the Clarice Starling archetype. When you first encounter Longlegs (Nicolas Cage), he turns out to be Buffalo Bill’s Satanic cousin, complete with the makeup and glam-rock imagery but instead of transphobic plot twists. However, he performs a Tiny Tim-inspired quivering drunken crooner, which is just another perfectly sane career choice for Cage.
Monroe, however, proves competent and flashy as the eponymous Agent Lee Harker, especially while defending his weak mother, played by Alicia Witt. She is not quite able to retain the balance of focus required to prevent Longlegs from becoming the established lost cause as the conspiracy unfolds and the murder plots become increasingly surreal. But she does have a lean athleticism that suggests she’ll make it to the end, which has secured her a “final girl” title in movies such as It Follows, The Guest, and Watcher. The term doesn’t quite apply here; this is a procedural, not a slasher movie.
Despite this, the spirit remains the same. Perkins also owns a pretty clear cinematographic self-identification, and his overcast coloring and American Gothic farmhouse motifs have been inherited from The Blackcoat’s Daughter, and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. Even if it looks like something any other artist, there can be little doubt that this is his work. There are moments when Longlegs feels like a movie you’ve seen before but with an evil filter laid over it:
This is both a strength and a weakness of Perkins’ horror surrealism: she makes the familiar eerie and the eerie familiar. And that leaves us, the viewers, exposed – this is the best chance for something fundamentally evil to enter. Osgood Perkins’ directorial stamp on a procedurally-grounded serial killer flick that blends grim criminology and socio-spiritual possession. Maika Monroe from the horror flick It Follows essays a determined FBI officer in the Clarice Starling tradition, with Cage as Buffalo Bill that only Cage can be (or will). In the context of supernatural events, one feels that something evil is coming from the movie.
I’d rather prefer The Watchers, A Quiet Place: Day One, and In a Violent Nature to this movie, period.
Longlegs 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
Longlegs is rated R by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for bloody violence, disturbing images, and some language.
Violence & Gore: The film has crime scene photographs and autopsy slides, which are fakes but look very realistic. It is possible to observe short but vivid scenes of bloodshed and physical abuse. The plot is a series of murders of families from the suburbs with graphic descriptions of the murder-suicide type by a manipulative character.
Profanity: The movie contains strong language, and some scenes would be better represented in an R-rated film.
Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking: It should not be so specific but would rather be expected from an R-rated movie and may depict characters using alcohol or cigarettes.
Sex & Nudity: It is only implied in the given summary that there are none of the sexual concepts and nudity that are usually seen in most R-rated movies, but there may well be some allusions to the subject or some rather suggestive scenes.
Parents should know that this film is quite violent and is likely to be deemed provocative by children and other like-minded viewers.
