Nicolas Cage has seemingly taken the long road through Hollywood. Born into the Coppola family, his on-screen presence found footing within the early ’80s and skyrocketed to an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1995, but his career shifted into another gear in the 2000s. It’s around this time some of his projects either floundered or flopped at the box office, so the actor began choosing more abstract roles in genre projects and practically overnight, the actor gained a cult-like following.
We’ve long praised Cage’s versatile performances in these lower-budgeted productions and the actor has quickly become one of our favorites. So, once Neon announced that Cage would play a Satanic serial killer in Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs, the concept instantly hooked us.
In this original story, written and directed by the elder son of Anthony Perkins (Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho), a deranged killer (Cage) stalks unsuspectingly random families in the ’90s. Longlegs’ calling card is leaving ciphers for the authorities, who have a difficult time decoding them until a young, up-and-coming FBI Agent quickly makes progress. Not only does Lee Harker (played by Maika Monroe) find herself one step behind the serial killer, but she eventually uncovers a personal link to the Big Bad, which may prove pivotal to ending his reign of terror.
As the storyline of Longlegs unpeels, the audience watches Harker as she struggles with fitting in at the FBI. She’s incredibly awkward, she’s not a great communicator and eventually, it’s revealed that she has some psychic abilities. As she makes progress with her cold case, I immediately made the comparison of two similarly themed television shows, which I previously enjoyed: Chris Carter’s Millennium and Clarice.
The latter tells the tale of Agent Clarice Starling as she deals with the traumatic repercussions after The Silence of the Lambs, but before those of Hannibal. The works of Thomas Harris feel ever-present in this film, but it’s the concept of law enforcement being able to look into the mind of a killer as Frank Black does to catch the bad guys in Millennium that makes this offering special.
Dripping with supernatural elements, this psychological thriller is at its best whenever it hints at nightmare creatures and other things that go bump in the night off screen, creating claustrophobic tension, but not really any jump scares. Nicolas Cage makes a grand entrance at this point.
Never fully appearing in any of the film’s publicity campaign, Cage’s performance steals the show. Sporting a wig and prosthetics, his character sometimes has a sing-songy high-pitched voice, while other times full-force screaming is preferred. Either way, Longlegs feels like a spiritual successor to Buffalo Bill in more ways than one.
Fans of Crazy Cage will be in for a real treat since Osgood “Oz” Perkins really ratchets up the psychological terror and Maika Monroe solidifies her claim to being a bona fide big-screen scream queen. As much as I enjoyed these filmmakers, some of the credit is due to occult films, which have always freaked me out.
This subgenre continuously surprises me, as its depicted events feel the most realistic out of everything that I enjoy watching on the big screen. There’s just something way too creepy about what your next-door neighbor could be doing behind closed doors… especially the quiet ones! Longlegs brings that experience to life (and death).