Longlegs (2024)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Longlegs (2024) – O. Perkins

Director Osgood Perkins (son of Psycho’s Anthony Perkins) knew exactly what he needed to steal to make this serial killer horror film a success. But it isn’t quite stealing if it adds up to something new, is it? Let’s just call it another entry in the evergreen genre that includes The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Se7en (1995), and dozens of lesser entries. But Longlegs also takes some cues from horror films that include subliminal images, such as the Exorcist (1974) with which it also shares a demonic theme; keep an eye out. (Can it simultaneously be in the serial killer genre and the Satanic Panic genre?).  Maika Monroe plays the Clarice Starling role as a young FBI agent who discovers that tracking a serial killer unexpectedly reveals things about her own past (she’s also psychic, which adds an extra spooky dimension to proceedings).  Teamed with Blair Underwood’s Agent Carter, she draws clues together from the letters (in code) that Longlegs leaves behind (a la Zodiac, 2007) and the not-quite-coincidental details that link the cases (all of which involve a father killing his entire family, including a daughter born on the 14^th day of the month, and then himself). Eventually this leads to the killer who turns out to be a T.Rex-loving Nicolas Cage, unrecognisable in Buffalo Bill drag.  He’s weird, even weirder than usual.  The plot then moves slowly and inexorably to its conclusion.  Is it crammed too full with disparate elements? Maybe. Things mostly make sense if you are willing to accept a certain supernatural logic. Ultimately, it’s a solid entry to the genre but perhaps one step down(stairs). Worth seeing.