Writer-director Osgood Perkins is aiming straight at his celebrated father’s standing on the high of probably the most memorable and creepy character within the historical past of movies. The filmmaker’s dad was the nice Anthony Perkins who after all performed the unforgettable and nightmarish Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s chilling 1960 traditional, Psycho. He additionally adopted it up within the ’80s with Psycho II and Psycho III, the latter he additionally directed along with enjoying Bates but once more. I can’t consider one other movie outdoors of Frankenstein that has stayed within the public’s consciousness fairly this lengthy, actually on this horror style.
Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter) appears to be unleashing his personal inside demons together with his alternative of material, and he even has instructed that the darkish story behind his mother and father’ marriage is partly accountable. Anthony Perkins was a closeted homosexual man, although married to Berry Berensen, who stored that every one secret from the general public and her two children. Perkins would die in 1993 at age 60 of problems from AIDS, and Berensen died within the first airplane to hit the World Trade Center in 2001. His new movie, Longlegs, isn’t about any of that, however a few of its themes undoubtedly hit residence for Osgood, who isn’t precisely lighting up the world with hope within the tales he tells.
In reality, Longlegs is extra a tribute and homage to ’90s serial killer thrillers The Silence of the Lambs (its most evident inspiration) and David Fincher’s Se7en — or absolutely anything else by Fincher, a filmmaker who has traveled in the identical corridors of darkness Perkins appears to additionally favor, cinematically a minimum of.
In Longlegs, the Jodie Foster function is performed by Maika Monroe (It Follows) as FBI agent Lee Harker, who has immersed herself in one of many bureau’s nice unsolved circumstances, one which started in Oregon within the ’70s and continues into the Clinton period of the ’90s, the place a collection of 10 weird household murders has baffled investigators. They have a few issues in widespread by all the time centering on the homicide of younger ladies born on the 14th of a month and weirdly contain the household patriarch shedding his thoughts and occurring to slaughter their household and switch the gun on himself. Each of those chilly circumstances additionally includes a clue left behind and written in code however signed just by somebody often known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage).
Nicolas Cage in ‘Longlegs’ (Everett Collection)
So how can this be, and who is Longlegs? We are launched to his royal creepiness early on however not given a full take a look at him till properly into the movie. Until then we solely see him shot torso-style, by no means revealing his head and face till later. One of the movie’s most amusing scenes includes a feminine comfort retailer clerk coming head to head with him (however not us) and yelling out that the bizarre man is again. It is the one encounter he appears to have that doesn’t finish in blood and gore.
But Harker is slowly and maybe with psychic instinct closing in on him as flashbacks moreover reveal her private connection as a younger little one and her probability assembly with this man. Meanwhile, she offers together with her colleagues, notably Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), who suspects she has a present that would assist crack the case. Harker additionally comes from an unlucky background with a mom, Ruth (Alicia Witt), who has her personal spiritual hang-ups and twisted character.
Cage’s presence doesn’t get offered into full view for some time, however his being is all the time there. When we lastly get the entire reveal, it’s a weird determine we behold with lengthy stringy hair, heavy Baby Jane-style make-up making the actor unrecognizable and a whiny, screechy voice that hits a really excessive, and annoying, vocal vary. It’s virtually musical in its personal method. If you’re on the lookout for a psychological backstory a la Norman Bates, neglect it. This is a sick pup who creates porcelain dolls of his victims and leaves them as clues. He can also be one thing of a one-dimensional creation of a Satan-loving human being gone gonzo, but additionally one which Cage in his inimitable method turns into artwork. You applaud the sheer hubris of it. Hannibal Lecter he’s not, however in Cage’s fingers, Longlegs is undeniably a hoot. This is an actor all the time definitely worth the worth of admission.
Much extra grounded is Monroe, who’s useless severe about her job, particularly because it all begins hitting so near residence. Think a cross between Agent Starling and Lisbeth Salander and you’ve got the template for Lee Harker. Monroe is all in on it and excellent, even within the last act, when the entire thing blows up in smoke with a plot flip so excessive with supernatural credibility issues and character switch-ups it virtually destroys the temper piece Perkins got down to do. The director has admitted he wished to throw in all of the tropes of the style into this one stew: ax bloodbath, serial killers, the satan, dolls, darkish barns — you identify it. With Longlegs, he comes near succeeding, particularly for followers who wish to go down these darkish alleys with him. Its flaws fortunately aren’t deadly.
Shout out to Eugenio Battaglia’s efficient sound design, virtually a personality in and of itself. Andres Arochi offers the atmospheric cinematography that Roman Polanski would love. Harlow MacFarlane’s make-up results are all in on the task and simply may offer you nightmares — precisely what Perkins, his father’s son whether or not he likes it or not, in all probability craves.
Producers are Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Dave Caplan, Chris Ferguson, Dan Kagan, and Cage.
Title: Longlegs
Distributor: Neon
Release Date: July 12, 2024
Director-screenwriter: Osgood Perkins
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Kiernan Shipka, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby, Lauren Alcala
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 41 minutes
Content Source: deadline.com