Inflicting an eerie chill down your spine, gut-wrenching suspense, and stunning visuals, Longlegs pulls its audience in for a long and terrifying ride. Longlegs is a horror crime fiction film directed and written by Osgood (Oz) Perkins. The film surprised me with its unsettling atmosphere and characters; it also surpassed my expectations on many levels, from the acting to the cinematography. I didn’t expect such an intriguing plot and had no clue that Nicolas Cage could make such a great and scary character as the main antagonist, Longlegs. The Longlegs film was the best horror movie in 2024 by nailing the atmosphere and balancing the supernatural and psychological elements, creating an unforgettable experience.
The film takes place in the 90s, following our main protagonist, Lee Harker, played by Maika Monroe. We get introduced to her as a detective who has been moved to a new case after a tragic event following one of her last detective cases. This latest case is where Longlegs comes in. Blair Underwood plays Agent William Carter, who recruited Harker onto the case, kickstarting the plot and helping Harker figure out the mystery behind this killer. Through twists and turns and breath-holding scenes with mind-blowing cinematography, we discover who is truly behind this string of murders.
As the story develops, it turns into a slow-burn horror similar to The Witch. It is done intriguingly and terrifyingly through subtle imagery in the background to transitional jump scares, making the environment feel as if it is part of the horror. Other important characters throughout the film are Lee Harker’s mom, Ruth Harker, played by Alicia Witt, and our villain, Longlegs, played by Nicolas Cage.
Longlegs takes on both the world of the supernatural occult and crime-solving detectives. It fuses a heated murder case with a creative demonic villain. When watching the film, the first parallel I saw was to the 1991 film Silence of the Lambs, as Longlegs uses a detective main character to lead the horror, along with the dark color scheme of the film. There is a lot of inspiration taken from The Silence of the Lambs in this film. Another movie that inspired Longlegs was the 2018 film Hereditary, which has subtle foreshadowing in the background that develops into an actual threat. In the 2018 film, as the movie goes on, the feeling of unease you get from background silhouettes eventually becomes a real threat to the protagonist; they ultimately build up and become a threat in the foreground. In Longlegs, we see subtle characters, silhouettes, and hidden messages through the background of many scenes, increasing the scare factor and creating a truly professional horror movie.
Longlegs is a fantastic movie that scared me to my core. Its writing and directing were phenomenal, keeping my interest and many others throughout the film. It was a new experience like I’ve never seen before in a horror movie, and it came out in a time of modern technology that could genuinely shape the audio, lighting, and special effects to make it outstanding. The subtle foreshadowing through imagery in the background of certain shots was clever. It reminded me a lot of Hereditary, another amazingly terrifying film and a great one from which to take inspiration. How the film balanced the demonic villain of Longlegs with an actual serial killer was terrifying. Nicolas Cage did a fantastic job of making this character feel insane and threatening to the main characters. Adding to that, the detective work done by Harker and Carter in the film felt like you were watching real detectives on a case: it was convincing and, when combined with the supernatural and demonic elements, helped bring this movie together.
The movie was exceptionally well done, but one aspect that bothered me was the emphasis on heavy breathing. Through intense scenes in the film, there is an emphasis on the sound of Lee Harker’s breathing. One of the most annoying and unsettling moments with this heavy breathing was at the film’s beginning, where Lee Harker was trying to find a killer; it felt cheap. While it adds an unsettling aspect to the film, it comes off as over the top and more annoying than anything. Other than that, the plot, characters, and visuals elevate this movie.
From foreshadowing to casting to balancing the unknown and detective work, this film changed my perception of a great horror movie. Director Oz Perkins brought his all to this movie, and I can’t wait to see what he brings to the big screen in the future, especially with his most recent film, The Monkey, which I have yet to watch. This movie is a must-watch for any fans of slow-burn horrors like Hereditary. The eerie unknown, the goosebumps you get, and the fantastic directing skills from this movie make it worth watching for any major horror fans.
