Longlegs
Horror film plots do not fare well under scrutiny. There’s a willing suspension of disbelief as soon as one buys a ticket and sinks into their theater seat armed with popcorn and the hope of being scared out of one’s wits. Longlegs is a low-budget film that defied box office expectations. It is chilling in terms of atmosphere and quite stunning in the performances of its actors. The story is a few notches above the standard horror flick, owing to stylish homages to two of the great ones: The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Se7en (1995.) Unlike those suspense classics, Longlegs segues into supernatural territory thereby teetering on the ludicrous. It is to writer-director Oz Perkins’s credit, however, that “the devil made me do it” rationale does not take away from the film’s merits.
Eerie mood is established from the outset courtesy of the score composed by Zilgi (whose real name is Elvis Perkins, brother of Oz.) It harkens back to Se7en and Howard Shore’s extraordinarily edgy music compositions for that film. As we get introduced to Longlegs’s protagonist, FBI Agent Lee Harker, it becomes quickly apparent that something is a trifle off about her. This is not resolutely plucky Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs. Harker is tightly coiled and apprehensive about sharing information regarding her personal life. Maika Monroe largely portrays the character through facial expressions, using her expressive eyes and twitchy movement around her mouth to silently convey an undercurrent of emotions. We watch Harker undergo agency testing, where it is determined that she has some psychic abilities. She subsequently gets a plum assignment to a high-profile case concerning several ritualistic familial murders and suicides. This leads her down a rabbit hole that challenges her analytical abilities and forces her to connect very disconcerting dots.
Visual cues play heavily into the narrative and while noticing quite a few, I’m sure that there are many nuances that probably got missed in my one viewing. I did observe that when protagonist Harker returns to her childhood bedroom that has been left intact by her hoarder mother, there’s a background shot showing a school project depicting the brief lifespan of a butterfly. Given that the murder investigation Harker is involved with has female children being slaughtered at the age of nine, this seems rather referential. And perhaps it is also a nod to the moth motif in The Silence of the Lambs. To help establish the storyline’s timeframe, there is a portrait of President Bill Clinton in the office of Harker’s boss (Blair Underwood, doing a lot with an underdeveloped role) as well as a photo of Richard Nixon from the period and environs of one of the homicidal fathers. Bringing things up to narrative date, albeit not contemporary to today, there is a scene with Harker using a pay phone as well as sequence showing her talking on a phone with a retractable antenna.
Such attention to detail in establishing the temporal and in creating an ominous ambience is praiseworthy. As is the acting. Nicholas Cage’s portrayal of the film’s titular character is mind-blowing. While not in the least comparable to Anthony Hopkins’s remarkable embodying of erudite Hannibal Lecter, Cage nonetheless imbues Longlegs with a unique daftness. Manic and over the top loopy, Cage immerses himself in the role. Sporting makeup that stops just short of Pennywise in Stephen King’s It morphed with Piper Laurie as Margaret White in the film version of Carrie, he is epically shocking in appearance. Since writer-director Oz Perkins is the son of Anthony Perkins who famously portrayed Norman Bates in Psycho, extrapolate as you will. Cage’s vocalizations are even more disturbing than the countenance: sometimes evoking the sound of nails on a chalkboard, the wail of a banshee, or the sing-song cadence of a mocking madman.
Maika Monroe already was regarded as a low-budget horror movie darling courtesy of It Follows (2015.) Her fine work in Longlegs will surely cement her place in the genre. Other noteworthy performances in the film include Alicia Witt as Harker’s peculiar mother and Kiernan Shipka is memorable in a small, but extremely unsettling scene.
Longlegs has its shortcomings in terms of narrative but compensates by delivering atmosphere in spades. This was my first exposure to the work of director Oz Perkins, and I was overall impressed. The choice to emphasize mood rather than relying on simplistic jump scares shows great discernment, enabling the talented cast to shine. Longlegs is well worth a trip to the movie theater. Accompanied by a healthy dose of that willing suspension of disbelief.
