Supernatural Thriller Longlegs (2024) Review: Bleak World and Nicolas Cage as Psycho

In Longlegs, FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is on the trail of a serial killer that goes by the name of “Longlegs” played by Nicolas Cage. Longlegs leaves cryptic cyphers at the scenes of his various massacres. Harker has been brought in because she has a sort of intuition that law enforcement needs since they can’t seem to crack the case.

The film contains many flashbacks concerning Harker’s childhood and her brief encounter with longlegs. Her forensic abilities seem to have formed themselves after that fateful encounter into her upbringing and specialized career choices. She also has a peculiar relationship with her religious mother played by Alicia Witt.

The obvious star and curiosity of the film is Nicolas Cage, who plays Longlegs with abandon. He looks like Nicolas Cage if he were a rock star who went crazy with plastic surgery. He also speaks in a high-pitched falsetto at all times and is a big T. Rex fan. At least he has great taste in music, right?

Longlegs, from what hear, had some of the best marketing for a film in years. It promised to be the second coming of Silence of the Lambs and Se7en. I would not necessarily compare it directly to those films, because those films are supposed to be set in reality, where logic dictates terms. Longlegs is more of a supernatural thriller, which has elements that can’t be explained by rational logic. In fact, Longlegs has more in common with films like Cure and House of the Devil. It’s in these supernatural themes that some felt the film loses steam, because the previous films it was being compared to are not supernatural at all. I, on the other hand, am on the opposite sides of that argument. I think it’s one of the best films of the year. Sure, there are some familiar tropes here and there, but the overall film stews in dread. Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter) has created a bleak world for sure, along with Nicolas Cage creating a psycho for the ages. Maika Monroe, Alicia Witt, and Blair Underwood (he plays her FBI supervisor), are all at the top of their acting game.

Longlegs is no “feel good” movie of the year but the masters of marketing over at Neon have conjured up a bleak little independent thriller that is lighting it up at the box-office. Word of mouth will definitely give this film some “long legs” at the box office for a few more weeks. I can’t wait for the 4K disc myself.

Longlegs was released into theaters July 12, 2024 in the United States

• Rating Certificate: R (for bloody violence, disturbing images and some language.)
• Studios & Distributors: C2 Motion Picture Group | Oddfellows Entertainment | Range Media Partners | Saturn Films | Traffic. | Neon
• Director: Oz Perkins
• Country: Canada | USA
• Language: English
• Run Time: 101 Mins.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Street Date: 14 July 2024