Following one of the best marketing campaigns for a film in recent memory, Oz Perkins’ Longlegs has finally hit the screen and it’s… okay?

Review by Rob Hinkal

It feels impossible to talk about Longlegs without talking a bit about its incredibly effective marketing campaign. Through a series of disturbing trailers, clips, and miscellaneous materials, it is fair to say that this film has the largest amount of hype surrounding a horror movie that we have seen in quite a while. Going into the theater, I wasn’t exactly sure of what to expect, but I did know that what I would see was intended to scare the heck out of me. 

The film’s greatest strength is undoubtedly its atmosphere. Rich in amber tones and dark corners where evil lurks, Longlegs does a fantastic job of encapsulating an uneasy feeling. In particular, a sequence taking place at a farmhouse at night is just pure spooky fun. Flashlights and a crucifix in an abandoned barn are a classic combo. The performances in the film are quite good also. Maika Morrone gives a solid, if somewhat one-note turn as an FBI agent tracking down the film’s eponymous serial killer, portrayed by an unrecognizable Nic Cage, who goes into full Cage mode when given the opportunity. Also of note is Blair Underwood, who portrays Morrone’s superior FBI agent and fills out the role of “stern but good-natured authority figure” quite well. Perhaps the best performance in the film comes from Alicia Witt, in a role I won’t spoil but one that she completely owns and feels the most natural, and distressing of the entire cast. One of the more interesting production aspects of Longlegs is its use of wide-angle lenses to help create tension. I have never seen a horror movie try to create suspense and dread by trying to show more on screen and think it was an extremely effective concept that paid off. 

So, is Longlegs the scariest film of the century? No. Its tension and moments of dread, while noticeable and handsomely produced, did not consistently elicit as strong a visceral reaction as I was hoping for. There’s certainly a fair share of gross-out imagery and effective jump scares that take the audience by surprise, but there’s nothing I saw that I feel is going to stick with me or make me lose sleep (except perhaps the image of Longlegs themself). As a story, Longlegs is quite an interesting one, even if some of the elements of the plot don’t exactly fit into place as neatly as the film seems to think that they do. The last twenty minutes can feel as though the script’s reach has exceeded its grasp as it moves into a more supernatural realm and essentially reveals its cards in a monologue that still leaves some questions feeling fuzzy. 

In the end, this is a horror movie made with a great deal of passion and attention to detail that it feels as though is lacking in other horror films that we have seen released in the past few years. Longlegs may not be the revolutionary horror experience its marketing led us to believe it would be, but it is still worth a watch. 

3/5 Stars