Longlegs

I was into this. I loved the slow burn dread and uneasiness this movie built. I wouldn't call this a scary movie by any means, but Longlegs does a fantastic job at making the viewer feel uneasy and uncomfortable. The minimalist score, the unusual performances, the use of wide angle lenses in many, many shots that make your eyes dart around the background, looking for something. There's a constant sense of dread building in this movie, and, very wisely, Longlegs never settles for cheap jump scares to pay it off. In fact, it doesn't pay it off period. The intention is to give the viewer a nagging feeling tugging at the back of their minds that never quite gets resolved. I loved the performances. Maika Monroe's FBI agent Lee Harker could've easily been a Clarice Starling clone, determined but wide-eyed and new to the job. She could've been cool, or sassy, or dismissive. Instead, she's weirdly aloof and stoic, keeping everything at arm's length, including the viewer. Is this a reaction to some trauma? Is she trying to put on a brave face? Is she on the spectrum? We don't know, but it makes her stand out. On the other end is Nicolas Cage's titular serial killer. This is one of those roles where Nic Cage's Nic Cageyness works to his advantage. He is altogether disturbing and weird, and he leaves a hell of an impression in the minimal screen time he gets. Some might find his more eccentric moments a little comical, but I found them enjoyably disturbing. I loved the way Longlegs was presented as a throwback to 90's crime thrillers like The Silence Of The Lambs and Se7en without overtly copying them. It looks and feels like those movies in tone and style, but there are no deliberate references or rip-offs. And just to cement the feeling, the movie takes place in the 90's, making it feel like a lost film from 1996 that's just been unearthed. I was on board with so much of this. It wasn't gonna crack the top tier of 2024 for me, but it was enjoyable. And then the last 20 minutes happened and ruined it. The movie spends so much time building up intriguing questions and mysteries. Instead of threading the answers through the narrative, Longlegs slams on the brakes, bringing the movie to a full stop, to tell a flashback that pulls some, but not all, of the strings together. And when I say "full stop", I'm not speaking hyperbolically. All momentum is lost as the movie grinds to a halt so it can awkwardly go backwards, and it suffocates the tension that has been building. Worse still is that the answers it gives don't answer everything. I don't need everything answered in a horror movie; Phantasm, my all-time favorite horror movie, provides answers that raise more questions. I can deal with ambiguity. But when a movie has the audacity to basically pause itself and give me a PowerPoint presentation to connect the dots, but it fails to connect all the dots ... why? Why even bother at that point? Why be half-wet? Either spell it all out or leave it all hanging, but don’t interrupt the movie to give me half the picture. And that doesn't even touch on how underwhelmed I was at the answers given. I won't spoil it here, but it was so deflating and stupid, and didn't fit with the rest of the movie. Imagine if, in the ending of Se7en, it was revealed John Doe's plan wasn't just the product of a total crackpot, but of a Satanic madman trying to summon a demon. And it almost happens, but somehow, Somerset beats it back with thoughts and prayers. That's how tonally dissonant the ending of Longlegs is to the rest of the movie. I know Longlegs had a lot of buzz when it came out, and for some, I'm sure the ending was just fine. But for me, it single-handedly ruined the experience. Had the ending not done what it did, this would've gotten an extra star and a half. I felt like my time was wasted with a terrible filmmaking choice and a moronic rug-pull twist. I know it was a divisive point at release, and I'm sure it will continue to be. I would still recommend seeing it, because it's going to hit everybody different. Judge it for yourself. But don't be surprised if you walk away saying "... that's it?!?".