Not even Nicholas Cage could save a movie that distracts the viewer from it’s god-awful storyline by relying on it’s pretty cinematography. Granted, the movie does look very visually appealing.
Oz Perkins’ 2024 spooky cop thriller was seemingly everywhere for the six months leading up to its release as its marketing campaign mimicked that of “The Blair Witch Project,” one of my all time favorite horror movies. The marketing team went as far as to create a fake cover page of “The Seattle Times” with cryptic writing as well as a website that included fake murders committed by a fake serial killer named “Longlegs.”
It is too bad the marketing campaign was more appealing than the movie itself. Although I do not necessarily hate this movie, I do think that it was a lazy decision to play into the psychotic, demonic serial killer trope that has been used so many times that it no longer holds any edge whatsoever.
The only reason for the satanic aspect of this movie is solely to give the antagonist a method behind his madness. Essentially, Longlegs creates dolls that he infuses with the devil and the recipient of the dolls, usually families with children, end up murdering each other, which means the Longlegs character is just a freak with an obsession with the devil and violence for no apparent reason.
And that is about as deep as the story in this movie goes.
Going into this movie, I wanted it to live up to the hype and be something different, but unfortunately, giving into the hype that surrounded this movie was my ultimate mistake. Some critics were calling it a modern “Silence of the Lambs,” which, in my opinion, is a risky label to be given considering how iconic that movie is.
It is a shame that Nicholas Cage’s performance, no matter how goofy and off-putting he is in this movie, comes nowhere close to being on the same playing field as Anthony Hopkins’ performance as Hannibal Lecter.
From a production standpoint, the movie impressively captures the isolation that winter can bring in small town America, and it pairs well with its ‘90s setting, which ultimately creates a feeling of dread that kept me occupied while viewing the movie. It was not until I had finished the movie that I had no feelings about the events of the movie outside of how good it looked on screen.
Lee Harker, played by Maika Monroe, the protagonist of this movie should not be downplayed as Monroe’s performance is genuinely wonderful and portrays a genuine sense of urgency and stress as she tries to uncover the truth behind the murders Longlegs committed.
Harker is a very serious and at times quite awkward character that is the exact opposite of the Longlegs killer, and that brings me to what I would consider to be the biggest flaw within the writing of this movie.
See, the Longlegs character does not belong in this movie. Perkins’ decision to write a movie this serious and dark just to include a serial killer that looks like someone with mass amounts of botched plastic surgery portrayed by Nicholas Cage of all people is utterly ridiculous; how could I not laugh at the absurdity of his existence?
I have respect for Perkins as a director because he did take a lot of risks in this movie, yet I cannot confidently say it paid off. “Longlegs” is an overhyped, beautiful mess of ideas that provides plenty of creative elements with no reason whatsoever.
Caden Adkins can be contacted at [email protected]
