Longlegs (15)

FBI recruit Agent Lee Harker has a strange knack for unmasking criminals and her boss, Agent Carter, tasks her with assisting him in the hunt for an elusive predator known as Longlegs. The devious serial killer has been tormenting authorities for years and leaves cryptic clues at the scenes of his crimes. Harker provides fresh insight and her unique abilities position her as both Longlegs' greatest adversary and his next potential victim.

LondonNet Film Review

Longlegs (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Forget the liver, fava beans and glass of chianti. Writer-director Osgood Perkins, son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins, serves his 1990s-set FBI hunt for a twisted serial killer exceedingly bloody and rare. Psychological warfare between clueless police and a demonic interloper simmers across three meaty courses entitled His Letters, All Of Your Things and Birthday Girls. Perkins alternates the screen ratio to distinguish claustrophobic flashbacks to a creepy childhood encounter between the tightly wound heroine and the titular predator…

Sound designer Eugenio Battaglia and composer Zilgi are diabolical collaborators, repeatedly terrorising frayed nerves with plucks of discordant strings, jolting thuds on a wooden front door and unexpected creaks of floorboards in a supposedly empty house. The Silence Of The Lambs is clear inspiration for Perkins’s descent into hell, most notably in nail-biting scenes of a rookie FBI agent staring directly into the camera, gun unholstered as she moves breathlessly from room-to-room in search of a suspect.

Maika Monroe is haunting as the socially awkward investigator with psychic abilities, estranged from a devoutly religious mother (Alicia Witt) who wholeheartedly believes that “our prayers protect us from the Devil”. Those prayers go unanswered in a lip-smackingly oppressive opening hour. The devil in question is a virtually unrecognisable Nicolas Cage, rendered grotesque by heavy facial prosthetics that Perkins hides from repulsed closer inspection until dramatically necessary. When the camera finally lingers on his distorted visage, the Oscar winner unleashes a caterwaul of crazy from his vast repertoire that almost tips the film over the edge into absurdity. It’s a far cry from the choking menace of Hannibal Lecter.

Monroe’s unflinching, committed performance grounds these wilder moments in a woozy, heightened reality. She plays FBI agent Lee Harker, whose extra-sensory perception goes haywire during door-to-door house calls with chipper colleague Agent Fisk (Dakota Daulby). “It’s like something tapping me on the shoulder, telling me where to look,” Lee explains to senior agent Carter (Blair Underwood).

He harnesses her “half-psychic” abilities to hunt a serial killer named Longlegs (Cage), who targets families with daughters born on the 14th of the month. The wily perpetrator leaves coded messages at crime scenes in a similar vein to the Zodiac Killer. Lee cracks the algorithm and provides remarkable fresh insight, positioning her as a worthy adversary and, potentially, the killer’s next victim.

Longlegs is a relentlessly grim psychological thriller, which exerts a chokehold until Perkins almost loses control at the wheel. Cage is scariest when he dials down the volume and settles into giggling delirium. Perkins cranks up discomfort by lingering on static scenes to suggest something truly wicked is about to manifest. Evil bides its time and when the screaming begins, it pierces to the bone.

– Kim Hu