Today I will be doing a spoiler-free review of Longlegs. This movie came out over the summer, and it follows FBI agent Lee Harker as she is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes an unexpected turn, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker also discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again. This movie finished its theatrical run as one of the highest-grossing indie films ever, making over $100 million. The lead in this movie is Maika Monroe who plays Lee Harker, and she absolutely knocks it out of the park. Out of all the new movie releases I’ve seen so far this year, which is about 20, she has one of the best performances. Nicolas Cage plays the serial killer, Longlegs, and has an amazing performance. Alicia Witt and Blair Underwood also star in this, and Alicia has a great side character performance, specifically towards the end. I absolutely loved the direction of this, how it was shot, and how everything was placed throughout the movie. The flashbacks to Harker as a child were really great and added a lot of layers to her character. Osgood Perkins did a fantastic job as the director here, and this movie alone should set him up to have a very good career.
The antagonist of this movie is, as I mentioned before, Longlegs, played by Nicolas Cage. I honestly don’t think there could be a better casting for this character, he truly knocked it out of the park. This movie was marketed as the “scariest movie of all time,” which to be completely honest, it isn’t. I would more describe this as a thriller, as you’re just on the edge of your seat the entire time. You’re always left wondering what’s going to happen next and there is always a lot of suspense that is paid off at the end. However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending scene. I know that ending was very polarizing for most people who saw it, and for me, it just didn’t land. That does not mean the entire third act wasn’t good, as I think the best sequence of scenes was in the third act, right before the end, at Harker’s mom’s house. The interrogation scene between Longlegs and Harker was mesmerizing to watch as well as the acting performances that were being displayed.
I always rate movies and I rate them based on 10 things in the movie. Those things are emotion, acting, cinematography, pacing, score, characters, ending, plot, main character, and dialogue. I rate all of those pieces 1-10 and then after that, I add up the scores of all 10 of them and get a total score out of 100. I gave this movie an 87/100, and like I’ve said throughout the whole review, a lot of this stuff really landed for me. It was suspenseful, with amazing acting and emotion, with fantastic dialogue. The biggest thing for me was the ending, it just didn’t fully land for me, but there are also going to be a lot of people who absolutely love the ending.
