366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
DIRECTED BY: Osgood Perkins
FEATURING: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood
PLOT: The FBI assigns Special Agent Harker to a 20-year-old serial murder case, triggering a serious of unsettling breakthroughs.
COMMENTS: What’s that expression—Longlegs, short review? Some thirty-dozen reviews for this Cage-y bit of strange are out there, so let us dive quickly, and deeply, into the merits of Osgood Perkins’ latest outing. Be warned: we shall be heading far away into lands of the Pacific Northwest, and back in time to a magical period known as “the ’90s”.
The sights and sounds will be familiar to some; but none will be more familiar than the sight of Nicolas Cage being crazy-go-nuts. But come to think of it, he is rendered somewhat unrecognizable: invariably coated in off-white makeup, and buried beneath a chubbed-out face. Whenever Longlegs goes off on a spiel, though, we hear Nic busting out of this cage. Much of this film’s appeal manifests during the (shrewdly) intermittent dosing of this titular oddity.
What Longlegs gets up to is where the nostalgia comes in. (And—if I may editorialize a moment—not that tedious kind on display from a more famous filmmaker.) That special time, The ’90s, oozes from every pore—and wrapped within the main throw-back are bursts of the ’70s, as our baddy loves T. Rex, Lou Reed, and Duran Duran. Our heroine, Special Agent Harker (a spectacularly spectrometric Maika Monroe), lives up to her namesake: an eye for detail, quiet courage, a a pull toward the supernatural, and a fate that can best be described as “mixed.”
Satanic Panic, alas, can only be taken so lightly: in this corner of the US, Satan appears altogether too real. How does Longlegs do their thing? (I emphasize that pronoun: it’s not altogether clear just how Cage’s character views themselves.) However they do it, they perform their deadly spree amongst stark snow-lighting, cool-as-thriller interiors, and, one of my favorite flourishes, inside a house with twin-point front roofing which forms—you guessed it—the shape of longlegs legs.
So, bust out the Shark Bites, pop a straw in your Capri Sun, and take a dangerous walk through a valley of diabolic dolls.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
![Longlegs [4K UHD + Blu-Ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410arzS6veL._SL500_.jpg)
- Longlegs [4K UHD]
Haven’t had a chance to see this yet but your review was delightfully droll. Now it’s a “must see!” 😀
Shark Bites!
i can’t believe that 366WeirdMovies is calling Tarkovski’s Nostalghia (one from the List) “tedious” – being french, i had to check my dictionary, to see if the adjective has any other meaning than the one that i know – well, Mr Edwards, i’m appalled (though some of your readers, more into splatter than “Art”, will probably think that your opinion has legs…)
Mr. Edwards’ opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 366 Weird Movies, Inc., or its affiliates.
I’ll second the administrator’s remarks—my opinion is my own.
I am glad to hear you enjoyed “Nostalghia”; unfortunately, I did not. But that did not stop me from being aware that it is a very good film.
Hi, it’s nice to see that 366WM cares about its faithful readers’ feelings – Mr Smalley, i’m certain that you do like Nostalghia, since you wrote the note for the List – and of course, i believe 366WM is a place where each contributor is free to ramble wherever his/her fantasy leads him/her (not sure there are many “hers” in the team, btw) – and, Mr Edwards, i can understand that urge to defile some sacred cows – indeed, i’m apt to do the same, when the occasion comes up (my favorite sacrificial victim is a director named Kubrick…)