The horror movie that I had been waiting for all year was Maxxxine, the finishing film to the X trilogy made by Ti West. The first two movies, X and Peral, were two of my favorite films from 2022. It was so great that he made X, and then months later Peral was put out, because he filmed them both at the same time, which is rare. When Maxxxine came out last week, I flocked to the theaters the day I came back from New Hampshire despite sitting in the car for six hours that day. I needed to see it at the special day early screening in a packed theater, and it was really good, but it only got 3.5 stars. To be great, it needs to earn at least 4 stars. This week, Longlegs came out, and we finally got the 4 star horror movie that we deserved in 2024.
Longlegs follows Agent Lee Harker of the FBI as she tries to catch the serial killer Longlegs. He specifically targets families, and although his letters are found at the scene of the crime, the crime is always traced back to the father of the family that was murdered. So the popular consensus is that there is a occult, and that Longlegs is convincing these men to go home and kill their families. Harker gets a letter from Longlegs, and this helps her crack the code of the letters that had been left behind. This leads to her finding more clues, and it turns out there is something in Harker’s past that will help open the case even more.
From the opening scene, I knew that this was going to be great. I had not been that drawn to an opening scene in a horror movie like this since Evil Dead Rise, which was my favorite film from last year. It opens in a smaller than usual aspect ratio, and there is a girl in the kitchen, probably around ten, and she hears a car. She looks out the window and sees a station wagon out in the road, and she decides to venture into the snow to take a look, but when she gets out there, she sees that no one is in the car. A noise comes from the back yard, and she walks back there to see what it was. She gets back there and looks around, and suddenly, Longlegs is standing there. We only see him from the mouth down, and his mannerisms and accent are terrifying. After a brief unsettling interaction, it cuts to the opening credits, to which I exclaimed let’s go! Honestly, I think I have a high hit rate of saying let’s go to myself in a theater and then the movie being amazing.
Nicholas Cage is one of those actors that is universally beloved. I think this is in part due to his willingness to accept just about any part, and then he will give it his all, which is great. I cannot say that I love him, but I do always watch his new movies when they hit theaters. My biggest issue with him is that no matter what weird part he takes, it is like obvious that is Nick Cage being Nick Cage. This is the first movie that I can say that it was not like that for me, and he was incredible. Every once and a while I would think about it, and it would take me out of it a little bit, but for the most part, it was really hard to tell that it was him. Longlegs was a scary looking man. He wore all white, and it looked like he had many Botox injections into his face. He even had white make up all over his face, and like I said Nick Cage buys all the way in, so it was one of the creepiest performances that I have seen by an actor in a long time. The way he talked and moved sent chills down the spine.
This movie has drawn a large number of comparisons, and one of the biggest comparisons was to The Silence of the Lambs. This is a warranted comparison, and even the director said as much, that Silence of the Lambs was a big inspiration for this film, but honestly this film is much more tense to me, and I would rewatch this over The Silence of the Lambs. They are both films with female FBI leads investigating murders, but Longlegs has an even more sinister element to its tone. It is also like True Detective, because it creates a strange feeling of is this supernatural or not?
I honestly love this feeling, because it puts you more on edge, and it makes it more fun to look for clues to see if there is a tip of the hat. Longlegs has many shots framed, where in a typical scary movie, a black silhouette might flash through in the background, but most of the time, there was nothing there, but I was scouring the screen. There were a few times, when there was a minotaur like black silhouette in the background symbolizing the devil. The first time it appeared, I honestly was not sure if I saw something that was not there or not, because it was out of focus in the background, but then it happened again a few more times. It felt like the detective was not seeing it, but the one time it appeared to Longlegs, it looked like they were more acquainted.
The overall theme was interesting considering the subject matter of the movie. The movie ended up being about what we are willing to give up for our loved ones. As it turns out, Longlegs had tried to corrupt Agent Harker’s family, when she was a child, but Harker’s mom had said that she would work for Longlegs/ the devil, if it meant that Harker would be fine. So the reason why no evidence of Longlegs was being found at the crime scenes was because it was Harker’s mom going in and doing the dirty work. So her mom was willing to sacrifice basically every moral fiber in her body for her daughter. Dark and twisted, but something that most parents would probably do if it meant the protection of their children.
This was one of the best movies of the year. It definitely makes you feel something, and it was in the horror genre, which I appreciated. The performances were awesome, especially Cage, but I appreciated the awkward performance that Maika Monroe gave as Harker too. When she goes and visits her superior’s house and is hanging out with his daughter, the awkward level was so high that it created a few much needed laughs in a horrific story. I hope that I get a chance to go and see it again in theaters, and I recommend that you see it too! 4 Stars, a top five movie of the year!
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