Longlegs

by Philip Price

Picture: Neon

Director: Oz Perkins
Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage & Blair Underwood
Rated: R (bloody violence, disturbing images & language) 
Runtime: 1 hour & 41 minutes

​“Longlegs” features a completely surreal style a la the isolation of characters and staging of settings that writer/director Oz Perkins manages to merge with the expectations of a procedural, allowing the story to boil in the tedium of its case gone cold before the unexpected convictions of its characters come to light - revealing the true intent of the piece. Key to this intent is the understanding that the world we're being presented with is largely dictated by the perspective through which we see it. 

“Longlegs” doesn't always sustain itself on the intrigue of its mystery yet continuously gets under the skin with the disturbing, if not sometimes heightened, ideas it has around real-world difficulties. That isn't to say the central conceit of the film as a crime thriller doesn't work, but if that's all one takes away from it, then they are missing the point. In essence, Perkins has put together a cautionary tale of sorts regarding the trappings of mythologizing both regular human beings who choose to do terrible things as well as deities, demons and whichever side you affiliate with in terms of worshipping them. 

Perkins, who is presently the father of two teenagers, is also, if not more, interested in the ideas of the extent and severity to which parents go to not only protect their children but ensure the purity of their life experiences for as long as possible than he is told procedural aspects. Alicia Witt turned in a genuinely chilling performance in support of such. Yes, “Longlegs” features the titular character played as extravagantly as one would expect Nicolas Cage to play a creepy serial killer who looks like Tiny Tim and Powder's lovechild but for as effectively (and memorably) as Cage portrays this doll-making witch doctor what echoes for days after seeing the film is not the actions of the character of Longlegs, but more the credibility he lends his beliefs based off nothing more than intuition and how far he was willing to follow them. 

Intuition is a crucial idea in Perkins' screenplay and shapes much of the direction Maika Monroe's FBI Agent, Lee Harker, does and doesn't follow. We are introduced to Harker in two different periods - first as a child in the mid-‘70s when she initially encounters Longlegs and then 20 years later as a newly minted agent on the job. It is her intuition in an introductory investigation that lands her working alongside Agent Carter (a fantastic Blair Underwood) and Agent Browning (Michelle Choi-Lee) in the search for Longlegs, a serial killer whose work very purposefully parallels that of the Zodiac, Manson and interestingly enough, JonBenét Ramsey murders. Why Harker has this intuition becomes more apparent, and her connection to this assumed killer becomes more intrinsic as each new layer of the case is revealed. As involving as the pieces of the puzzle are, though, what is most striking about the storytelling in “Longlegs” is how Perkins infuses the hallmarks of a crime story with the amount of unease and malevolence he manages to inject into every frame. A critical aspect in crafting horror films is deciding if it is meant to scare audiences or creep them out in ways they feel they can't shake what the film did to them and “Longlegs” is very clearly the latter. Perkins takes what is familiar and expected about the genre and twists things just enough to make the viewer want to question yet ultimately trust that perspective; a tightrope to walk for sure, yet the director's design is so omnipresent across each scene that the performances entrusted with conveying these objectives all feel in tune with one another as well as the movie overall.  

There is a darkness to the aesthetic and mood that is balanced by much of the awkwardness, outlandishness and humor of the characters involved. The uncomfortable, if not unpleasant, aura of Harker is felt from moment one. While signaling a defining personality trait, this decision also establishes the necessary tone of the film overall, with the previously mentioned trust in the midst of the surrealist spirit hinging on Monroe's performance. Harker has to be both our conduit into this world and this investigation while simultaneously being something of an ambiguous personality without coming off as a fraud. It's a lot to balance and a lot for Perkins to ask in a single performance, much less a single and subdued performance. Still, Monroe manages to convey these elements and facets both through her actions and just as critically - through her reactions to the manner and mode Perkins has built his film on. Kiernan Shipka, in a single scene, along with Zilgi's score, offers some major assists in terms of contributing to said mood as well. Of course, the more straightforward performance, and the one that will be discussed most, is Cage's. While some might consider Cage's interpretation to be at odds with the spirit of the rest of the film, I would argue that no one other than Cage could have played this part at this level with the same impact as what he delivered. While many interpretations of serial killers over the years have leaned into that mythical nature by stripping them of any recognizable traits, both Cage and Perkins seem intent on exposing the flimsy and frail nature of such an individual. The scene in which Longlegs encounters a flippant teenage girl (portrayed by Perkins' daughter Bea) who is working the register at a hardware store tells audiences all we need to know about how we should view the character as opposed to this liaison for the Antichrist AKA "the man downstairs" who believes he has the power to make people follow and worship Satan with the same sense of wonder he does. 

As a character states in the film, “Suffice to say, it’s all heavily satanic.” This refers to Longlegs' methods but could just as easily apply to the movie. For instance, there is imagery of a snake eating its tail in the film, an ancient symbol with many meanings, but which signifies here that the mythologizing of a man like Longlegs through his presentation in the film itself represents a dark cycle of life, death and rebirth. We want the perpetrator killed or locked away, yet we don't allow their legacy to be forgotten. One could venture into delicate and complex territory when discussing why these stories continue to be told and re-told, but how our culture treats murder investigations in a serialized state with an almost comforting, enjoyable affection is the literal resetting of that cycle. Serial killers have come to be presented, often decades later, in a nearly mythical fashion that, if not necessarily making an allowance for their actions, endears them in a strange way to a new swath of minds. This veneration of sorts ensures the easily influenced and/or certain persuasions of thinkers that these actions can just as easily lead to idolatry as they do death, confirming that acting upon such thoughts will remain perpetually present. Suppose there are multiple ideas and considerations “Longlegs” prompts. In that case, the central hope seems to be that yes, the world can be a terrible, cruel place - especially for the little ones - but if we have people willing to sacrifice and do the dirty work to cleanse society, we might at least honor that work by not extolling the antagonists.