Samhain Project '24 : Longlegs

Anyone who reads this thing of mine knows what a fanatical geek I am for Nicolas Cage.  My fanhood dates all the way back to 1983 at the age of 11 with Valley Girl.  He's had a varied and eclectic career to say the least.  But this, folks, is off the beaten path.  Longlegs is a gut punch. 

Many things have been said about the film, from it being unbearably frightening to grossly overrated.  I am speaking from the former.  Director Osgood Perkins creates a ghastly and oppressive weighing-down of dread and cold needling.  Nicolas Cage's character, who doesn't have a ton of screen time, the titular Longlegs, doesn't need it.  And it's not just the hair, the silvery outfits, the facial prosthetics. 

Those are all just window dressing. 

Cage inhabits some terrible doorman to hell itself, and he is to be commended. 

Murders of families are being committed in our setting here and go back some 20 plus years.  The question is not just who is committing them, but how. It seems, in all cases, that someone is making these murders take place without touching anyone.  The FBI has been on this for years without being able to scratch the surface in any real way.  And in a touch of Clarice Starling, they bring in a rookie.  Not just because she scored high on her SATs though. 

Because she's fucking clairvoyant. 

Here's where the public's opinion of the film is lacking.  Admiration for the performance of one Maika Monroe as our investigative ingenue.  This is one terrific performance, and she carries a lot of weight, as she's on screen a lot. I mean, a ton.  Monroe's character is also probably a highly-functioning autistic.  Some may say she's a scream queen as her perfect performances in the unbearably powerful It Follows, as well as Watcher, and Significant Other, as good as they are, don't hold a candle to Monroe's Lee Harker in Longlegs.  She inhabits a woman who's being deeply held down by something.  But whatever it is, it's been there since long before she got on the Longlegs case. 

Eventually Lee and Longlegs, as deeply anticipated, will come to a clash.  But you'll be surprised why and how.  And under Perkins sure hand, all the events roll toward a cataclysm like something slowly growing in the pit of your stomach.  And Perkins places what may be the source of that thing in random spots throughout the film.  Blink, and you may miss them.

And where Monroe's weight comes from. Longlegs is a very thickly designed and scary film, and shouldn't be taken lightly.  It's shocking, it's disturbing, it's scary. 

What it may not be is fun. It's an exercise in power.