This Daddy Longlegs bites

If you haven’t seen any of the marketing for Oz Perkins’ Longlegs then you’re missing out. If you want people to get excited about your movie, then this is how you do it. By taking a leaf out of Se7en’s playbook, Longlegs didn’t show the killer in any of the publicity. Sure we knew it was Nicholas Cage, but so much was built up and rumoured about how messed up he looked that revealing it prior would have ruined a lot of the anticipation that was mounting as release day approached. They also released a video where lead actress, Maika Munroe, had her heartbeat measured as she saw Cage on set for the first time providing a nerve-wracking increase in beats per minute.

All of this combined to make Longlegs feel like a must-watch horror movie for 2024 and in many ways, it is. It’s not perfect, but it is unique while feeling strangely familiar, and there’s so much going on that it’s hard not to enjoy the bizarre journey that unfolds.

Longlegs does a heck of a lot right. Its performances are solid, its tension is palpable, its cinematography is impressive, its sound design is fantastic and overall the arthouse feel to the direction works in the movie’s favour even if it does become slightly tonally confused by the end.

At the outset, it takes itself very seriously. The stylistic inspiration and films that paved the way for Longlegs are so evident that it feels like a homage to these movies. The work of David Fincher is so clearly reflected here with Perkins (who is himself the son of Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame) approaching serial killer storytelling in such similar fashion that at times it could have almost been a deleted episode of Mindhunter. Even more so is the clear influence of Jonathan Demmes’s Silence Of The Lambs. The entire tone and pace of the film, especially in its first third, almost feels like you’re watching a remake of that film and you’re just waiting for Cage to appear and force a character to put lotion on their skin. This is not to say that the script doesn’t surprise, but the influence is very clear.

As the intriguing story unravels, Longlegs gets slightly confused about exactly what it is. For the most part, it takes itself so seriously – every frame, note, every performance is presented with such grounded conviction that you get so invested in the reality of it that even the more supernatural elements feel connected to reality. Then out of nowhere, Cage jumps out covered in talcum powder singing like a clown in a black comedy. Up until his reveal, the film has been carried incredibly well by Maika Monroe. She is grounded, and her internal monologue is so easy to follow that she can say much while saying so little.  It would be a shame if conversations about her excellent performance were lost in the more obvious discussions around Cage.

As a criminally insane psychopath, Cage isn’t struggling nor is he holding back and his performance is great. I would just argue, however that the direction Cage was allowed to take the character, despite being fantastic, doesn’t at all suit the overall vibe of the film. It’s a bit like watching a documentary on WWII while listening to Weird Al Yankovic – sure it’s unexpected, and separately both things are great, but when put together you find yourself questioning why.

And you know what, given the ambiguous nature of the overall story and some of the stylistic choices director Perkins has made, maybe this is entirely the point.