Longlegs (2024)

Dir: Osgood Perkins

Cast: Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage revels in his role as satanic serial killer Longlegs in Osgood Perkins’ unsettling and atmospheric horror thriller

After getting off to a questionable start, 2024 is shaping up to be a great year for horror. Aficionados of the genre were left disappointed in the lead up to Spring following the release of several soulless Blumhouse inspired horrors such as “Night Swim” and “Imaginary”. Now that we have crept into the second half of the year, horror fans’ patience has been rewarded in the past few weeks with a number of satisfyingly gory and distinctly unique titles within the genre. Last month we were treated to Michael Sarnoski‘s re-imagined prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One”, which was swiftly followed by Ti West‘s campy 80’s throwback “MaXXXine” and experimental POV slasher “In a Violent Nature”. Along with the releases of mainstream family affairs such as “Inside Out 2” and “Despicable Me 4”, this recent resurgence in horror has contributed to box office returns improving worldwide, encouraging audiences to flock back to their local cinema.

The latest, and most intriguing, horror release is Osgood Perkins‘ police procedural thriller “Longlegs”. The film was acquired by Neon in 2023, and for the past several months the distributors have ran a stellar marketing campaign. To help promote the film, Neon utilised similar tactics to “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity”, keeping the budget low by focusing on digital content rather than television ads. From January 2024, Neon released multiple cryptic clips on YouTube, creating viral speculation as to who or what Longlegs is. Up until a trailer was released a few months ago, Nicolas Cage‘s involvement in the film was kept secret and his portrayal of the titular Longlegs was kept hidden from any promotional material.

Perkins has long been tied with the horror genre, which is understandable given that he is the son of Anthony Perkins, who starred as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1960 classic “Psycho”. The bulk of Perkins’ work to date has focused on the supernatural, with his feature films “I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House”, “Gretel & Hansel” and “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” all leaning heavily towards themes surrounding the occult – Witches and Satan in particular. “Longlegs” is no different, despite its relatively grounded premise as FBI Agent Lee Harker pursues the untraceable Longlegs, it becomes increasingly apparent that something otherworldly may be responsible.

After a brief cold open, in a literal sense, we are first introduced to Agent Harker (Maika Monroe) in 90’s Oregon, as she and a fellow agent go door-to-door in search of a local serial killer. The movie’s more supernatural elements creep in as Harker’s borderline psychic levels of intuition lead her directly to the house where the killer is held up, resulting in his arrest and the death of her colleague. Through testing, she is theorised to have possible clairvoyance, and as a result, is assigned a decade-spanning case by her superior, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood). The case, dating back to the late sixties, involves a series of murder-suicides, in each incident the father has murdered his wife and kids before taking his own life. At each crime scene, there has been no sign of forced entry or outside interference but left always left behind is letter with cryptic Satanic coding, that is signed “Longlegs” (Nicolas Cage).

Harker swiftly connects similarities between the families, including that each family has at least one 9-year-old daughter born on the 14th of any given month. Following her assignment, the once cold case begins to heat up, with an increasing amount of messages being left directly for Harker, making Carter suspicious of a possible connection between Harker and Longlegs. Both agents deduce that Longlegs somehow manipulates the fathers into committing the murders in someway without being present himself, hence the lack of physical evidence against him. In typical cat and mouse fashion, Harker must locate and apprehend Longlegs before another family becomes his next victim.

Following its impressively mysterious marketing, “Longlegs” quickly became one of my most anticipated movies of the summer, and given the early reactions, my levels of excitement going into it were through the roof. Some of the movie’s most enthusiastic advocates early on featured heavily in its promotion, slating it to be the scariest film in recent years. Having finally seen it, while it is undeniably unsettling at times, I would not go so far to call Perkins’ latest venture terrifying. Citing the likes of Jonathan Demme‘s “The Silence of the Lambs” and David Fincher‘s “Se7en”, it is apparent that Perkins has sought to create a constant sense of dread rather than outright terror, which he accomplishes with aplomb. “Longlegs” may not possess the cheap jump scares to give its audience an easy fright but its closely framed cinematography and deliberately slow pacing gives a real sense of anguish. Any time Cage appears on screen, which is brief, his unrecognisable, pastel white features cover the entirety of the screen, as if his Satan worshiping psychopath is a mere inches in front of your face.

Cage was cleverly concealed throughout the marketing up until the movie’s release, and if it wasn’t for his name appearing during the lengthy title card, you wouldn’t know he was in it at all. Buried beneath layers of heavy prosthetics, Cage’s appearance can only be described as an androgynous, albino version of Mark Bolan, which is fitting given the characters fondness for the late T. Rex frontman. Cage’s career peaked in the 90’s, and following a number of critically panned releases in the new millennium, the 60-year-old soon became an internet sensation due to his unpredictable and outlandish performances. In recent years however, several filmmakers have managed to cleverly utilise Cage’s strengths, and the actor is currently undergoing a career revival following his performances in “Dream Scenario”, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”, “Pig” and “Mandy”, and Perkins too manages to get the best out of Cage here. Refusing to limit his star’s full acting range, Perkins allows Cage to go all out in his performance, with his portrayal of Longlegs being equally creepy as it is hilarious. Perkins keeps Cage’s screentime to a minimum to allow the movie’s atmospheric tone to remain steady, with Cage’s little outbursts providing enough shock to unsettle the audience – or in some cases, make them laugh.

At the other end of the acting spectrum is Maika Monroe, whose reserved performance keeps the supernatural elements of the narrative grounded in realism, further enhancing their horror. Monroe adopts a constant unfocused awareness in her portrayal of Agent Harker, with her skittish social interactions making her arguably the best investigator for the case but simultaneously the biggest weakness on the force.

For the most part, Perkins impressively delivers another technically masterful piece of independent filmmaking, with this latest effort closely rivalling his debut feature, “The Blackcoat’s Daughter”, both tonally and thematically. With a more accessible narrative than his previous works, I can see why “Longlegs” has been such a hit with critics, and why the strong word of mouth has seen it garner the biggest box office opening in Neon’s history. However, much like “The Blackcoat’s Daughter”, I felt let down by the movie’s final act. I would not describe “Longlegs” as a mystery film, as we are given a various glimpses of the titular figure, but a seemingly switched on Harker begins to make some highly questionable decisions during the film’s final conflict that had me almost yelling at the screen as to what on earth she was doing – or rather not doing. There is also one very foreseeable reveal in the final act that serves as the last major piece in the investigation, which also had me question Agent Harker’s investigative skills.

Reservations aside, “Longlegs” still made for extremely compelling viewing and while its slow pacing and unhinged Nicolas Cage performance may leave some viewers baffled, I came away having gone through 100-minutes of uneasiness and look forward to Perkins’ next project, his adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey” in 2025.

Longlegs is now showing in UK Cinemas

• 2025-2026 Movie Awards Season
  • 2026 Academy Award Predictions: June
  • 2026 Academy Award Predictions: September
• All Movie Reviews & Posts
• Movie Rankings
  • A24 Movies Ranked