Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, Longlegs is a psychological suspense/horror/thriller that sets the bar. Starring Maika Monroe as Agent Lee Harker, Blair Underwood as Agent Carter, and Nicolas Cage as Longlegs, this film with under a $10M budget has the quality of a $100M budget. The synopsis is "In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying killing spree." which is accurate, but there is so much more.
Having such a small budget compared to most Hollywood films of equal (and sometimes worse) quality is an accomplishment in itself. While the concept of an FBI agent looking for a serial killer isn't new, where Longlegs does succeed here is in the way that it was executed. The quality of the film is remarkable. The cinematography was noticeable, and they really nailed the atmosphere. The combination of the quality of the cinematography, lighting, and score kept us on the edge of our seats quite a few times with the thick tension.
The writing was fantastic as well. It would be too hard to elaborate on the plot too much without giving too much away, but there was a fresh spin on the occult that was pretty clever and the characters were written well. We didn't even know Nicolas Cage was starring in this until late in the film as we hadn't heard a lot about it before going in. His makeup was done well and his character isn't written in the typical Nic Cage fashion. (You know what we're talking about.) Another thing to note about the writing was that there were hardly any of those "Why would they do that?" types of moments that a lot of films from larger studios would have had. They seemed to pay great attention to detail during the writing process, which was very impressive. The scares were more from suspense than jumps, they were well-timed, and there was some well-done gore mixed in here and there to top it all off. The horror was just right in the pocket.
Overall, we would highly recommend Longlegs to fans of horror/thrillers. It sets an example that more small studios should follow and punches way above its weight class. Longlegs is currently streaming on Hulu and other online services, or you can buy it from the link below.
