A One Mann’s Movies review of “Longlegs” (2024).
Some of the social media comments I’ve seen have had people enthusing about “Longlegs”. “The Best Horror film of the decade”… etc. etc. Sigh. While it had a few creepy moments, I’m afraid it failed to stir my spookometer and imho rather wimped out with the ending.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is an FBI agent who possesses some semi-psychic powers that are clearly useful for her line of work. She is assigned the case of tracking down a serial killer who butchers families and leaves a cryptic note together with his moniker… “Longlegs”.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong violence, gore, threat, horror, language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee.
Directed by: Oz Perkins.
Written by: Oz Perkins.
Twitter Handle: #LonglegsFilm.
Running Time: 1h 41m.
“Longlegs” Summary:
Positives:
- Dark and brooding in terms of both cinematography and content.
- A deranged Nicolas Cage is entertaining.
Negatives:
- For me, neither was it a full-on horror film nor a “Se7en”-style murder mystery.
- A number of “What? Whys?”
- Wimped out on the ending.
Review of “Longlegs”:
Fell between two stools.
I really enjoy good mystery thrillers of the kind where the FBI are on the case pursuing a mass murderer across their multiple crime scenes: “Se7en”, “Along Came A Spider”, “Sicario”, “Silence of the Lambs”… that sort of thing. As the film started I warmed to the theme since it seemed we might get one of those. But alas, it never really lasted the course in that genre. Neither did it fully get into its groove for me as a pure horror film. Nicolas Cage, in full crazy mode, made for an entertaining villain, but I was never scared at any point and only very occasionally creeped out (mostly involving the spooky dolls, that did it for me in films like Anthony Hopkin’s “Magic” all those years ago).
For such a dark film, the cinematography (by Andres Arochi) was also suitably dark and blue-tinged.
Good acting from the main cast
It was good to see Nicolas Cage hitting the “11” button again on film in a role that was made for him. I complained that in “Renfield” he appeared to overly dial it down. Here, he cannot be accused of that!
Maika Monroe (I remember her best from the hit TV series, “The Stranger”) does well with her role, even though I thought it could have had stronger writing. I also really enjoyed Blair Underwood, who I fondly remember as one of the regulars in “La Law”. He plays Lee’s FBI boss Agent Carter and really delivers a great performance.
Yeah, but what about….
I can’t really write this section without spoilers, so please check out the spoiler section below the trailer. But there were some questions that kept coming to me about the plot, and – imho – the ending could have been made so much darker and more compelling. Instead, it just seemed to wimp out. There was a script I was writing in my head for this one… and it was a lot better than what we got.
Summary Thoughts on “Longlegs”
Given the strong positive vibes from some reviewers of this one, I perhaps went in with my hopes a little too elevated. But in the end I came away disappointed.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Longlegs”:
The trailer is here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FXOtkvx25gI .
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
…
…
…
NO, SERIOUSLY!
…
…
As above, I had some issues with the plot.
Lapses in FBI logic
I mean, we are supposed to believe all the semi-psychic mumbo-jumbo, and I can accept that, but were the FBI really so dumb that they couldn’t work out a simple cipher on the multiple notes left behind?
Why was the wife sacrificed?
In the finale, Carter (Blair Underwood) heads into the kitchen to butcher his wife (the very striking Carmel Amit). Harker just stands there and watches him do it! Are we to believe that she was in such shock seeing her mother there that she was paralysed?
Who was Lee’s father?
Harker’s father is never mentioned (as far as I can remember) in the whole piece. I was thinking, “he’s going to be Longlegs”, “he’s going to be Longlegs”, but he never was! This would have made some narrative sense as to why Ruth (Alicia Witt) was so under his thrall.
That wimpy ending
The ending just left me cold. Harker tries to blow the head off the doll (something that has been done to other dolls) but her gun misfires repeatedly which, we are led to believe, is some sort of demonic intervention of a laughing Longlegs from the other side. If this had been my script I would have taken a much darker and more shocking path: I would have made Longlegs Lee’s father such that the demonic activity was somehow genetically engrained in the bloodline. At the end, after her shooting of Agent Carter and then her mother, the audience would have thought “Oh, phew, a happy ending” but then Lee would have swirled the gun around and shot the birthday girl’s head off! Now THAT would have been an ending to talk about!
Subscribe
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to One Mann’s Movies to receive future reviews by email right here. No salesman will call!
