A brilliant Internet marketing campaign help to make Longlegs became one of the most anticipated horror titles of 2024. In fact, I was so impressed by those promotional videos, I’ve included them before the official trail. (See below) The hype Longlegs built reached a fever pitch, but whether or not the movie delivered is a complicated answer. It really depends on the people you ask and what their expectations of the film were.

Of course, when hype isn’t built on word-of-mouth, like 2023’s out of nowhere indie hit Talk to Me, there is definitely a bigger risk for disappointment, but Longlegs mostly survived a public backlash because it really is a good film, even if it doesn’t deliver genre-braking experience the analog horror inspired original promotional video promised. And with a box office total of $127 million when up against a $10 million budget, nobody can say the film wasn’t a financial success, 

But, to put things in better perspective, Longlegs is also a film directed by Osgood Perkins, a name that should by now be familiar with horror fans…and not just because he is the son of Anthony Perkins. If you are familiar with anything from Osgood Perkins’ filmography, then you probably have a better sense of what Longlegs actually is…for better and worse. In horror circles, Perkins’ films have always been divisive.

On the plus side, Perkins directed the 2015 indie horror The Blackcoat’s Daughter, a film I have previously placed on The Midnight Selections. (and probably should properly review someday.) And though I really dislike the fact that Kat in both timelines wasn’t just played by the same actress (we’re only talking about a nine year age difference), the film itself was a masterful atmospheric horror with one particular, very subtle, influential scene that included a dark shadowy demon lurking in the background of a dorm room conversation. It’s a film that rewards your patience.

But there’s the rub. The Blackcoat’s Daughter also put me to sleep, and I started watching it in the middle of the afternoon. And I don’t regularly take afternoon naps. Perkins is also the director of I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House and Gretel and Hansel, two films that I didn’t really care for. Like The Blackcoat’s Daughter, both of these films had me struggling to stay awake too, but neither managed to capture the same level of creepy imagery or mystery that more grounded The Blackcoat’s Daughter has.

And yes, Longlegs put me to sleep as well. I had to finish watching it the next morning. At least this time, I started the film really late at night.

I love slow-burn horrors, but I have to admit that I find Perkins’ particular style to be a bit heavy-handed. There are a lot of monotonous long shots of objects or people doing mundane things. But there is often additional visual information in these sequences, so you need to pay attention. Perkins is a director capable of making good horrors, but I believe that he has a pacing problem that, until he figures it out, will always place a lower ceiling on what is films can achieve. And if you read some of the audience reactions to the film you’ll find that Longlegs too nearly drowned in its hype. The reaction for this film has again been divisive, but the people who enjoyed this movie really do feel like this was one of the best horrors of the year.

That said, I should point out that Longlegs is probably Osgood Perkins’ best film to date. It shares a lot of similarities to The Blackcoat’s Daughter, but with this film, Perkins’ has brought something new to the table that gives me hope for his future projects: quirkiness. The intentional addition of Nicolas Cage’s strange singing antagonist is no fluke. Nor is the off-kilter performance of Maika Monroe. Perkins seems to finally be having a little bit of fun as a filmmaker.

Longlegs stars Maika Monroe as Lee Harker, a young F.B.I. agent that is discovered to possibly be clairvoyant while on a case that ends in her partner’s murder. Harker ends up being recruited by an Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) to help solve an ongoing investigation into a series of murders that involve a husband brutally murdering a family and a coded note always being left behind that is signed Longlegs.

I know. If you take any young female actress and cast them in the role of F.B.I. agent, especially in a film tracking a serial killer, you’re going to get people thinking about Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs. But to Monroe’s and Perkin’s credit, Harker’s character pays the proper homage while simultaneously doing enough to set the character apart. 

Longlegs does a good job giving you pieces to a puzzle and leaving you guessing how they all connect. There is a strange encounter with a girl in the film’s prologue involving a man (Nicolas Cage) wearing white make-up. There are weird child-sized dolls with orbs inside their heads. And there is a lot of talk about birthdays and triangles.

Where Longlegs really shines is in atmosphere and imagery. Horror fans looking for jump-scares are going to be disappointed that the film isn’t as scary as the trailers might suggest. (Look up the “heartbeat” trailer.) Perkins is willing to sparingly include some jumps, but these kinds of scares aren’t really his jam. But Perkins 2.0, the one who understands how to promote his films to the generations on YouTube and TikTok, seems a lot more adept at making images that stick in your head. 

Then there’s the Cage factor. Longlegs is a film Cage helped produce. His unhinged presence in a slow churning methodical Osgood Perkins horror is a fascinating oil and water mix. This should not work- and for many it doesn’t- but I for one enjoyed this odd juxtaposition between reserved and wacky. It’s the kind of risk that shows that Perkins is finding ways to make his style of filmmaking more appealing to the masses.

Oh, and you can probably make a drinking game out of all the times you can spot a shadowy horned devil hiding in the background of a scene.

Longlegs is an atmospheric supernatural psychological thriller that, like The Blackcoat’s Daughter, entertains by presenting fragments of a mystery that does not fully come together until the film’s final minutes. The film’s ending leaves us thinking, attempting to recall previous conversations and events to work out how all the pieces fit. And I absolutely loved the horrible choices our protagonist is left with at the end of the film. It is an interesting watch, and one that shows one of the most unique voices working in horror starting to fine-tune his craft while throwing more caution to the wind. 

Perkins seems the most comfortable working on cleverly layered supernatural horror mysteries that have the devil lurking around the corner. His next film, based on Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey” (which I coincidentally just read in the horror anthology The Dark Descent) is being marketed as a fun horror romp full of death and mayhem. But I know Perkin better than that. This too is likely to be a slow, atmospheric grind to the bitter end…but if Longlegs is any indicator…I expect some flourishes of fun and flare to help keep my eyes open and my attention on the screen.

(The Monkey better have a shadowy horned devil somewhere. I wouldn’t be upset to learn that all these things are happening in some shared Perkins film universe full of voyeuristic demons.)