For a film that was recently claimed to be "the scariest movie of the decade" and "this generation's The Silence Of The Lambs", Oz Perkins 'Longlegs' is a production that gets a lot of things right in a lot of different ways, yet somehow fails to provide the fear factor that it had built itself up for in the weeks prior to it's cinematic release.
For anyone who knows anything about this movie must be fully aware of the impressive and original advertisement campaign neon have produced in order to get fans excited about 'Longlegs'. And if that's the case, the chances are that you will already have associated this movie with a handful of uncomfortable emotions before even stepping foot in the cinema.
However, 'Longlegs' fails to provide us with the kind of fear that we have been used to for decades and so badly crave to be reignited into modern day cinema.
The emotional stress that we as audience members are put through whilst watching 'Longlegs' may be described similarly to having your head held under the water of a swimming pool for precisely an hour and 40 minutes. We're consistently uncomfortable for a very long time, but we know that nothing is going to sneak up on us and cause our heart rate to spike too much.
Throughout the short runtime of 101 minutes, there really does only seem to be one major occasion that will frighten audiences into some kind of horrific shock, and if you've seen the movie, you'll know full well which one were talking about. But other than that, the lack of legitimate jump scares in this film leaves audience members with no other feeling than disappointment, especially considering we all purchased our tickets with the intentions of seeing "the scariest film of the decade".
Aside from this, Oz Perkins (son of Anthony) really has crafted a unique and intriguing storyline for this movie that seems to leave us with very little loose threads to pull on. Although it becomes pretty clear fairly early on which direction the storyline will be taking, as the plot unfolds there are a number of unexpected spanners thrown into the works that succeed in enhancing the overall viewer experience.
Although this film fails to live up to the recently acclaimed title of "scariest film of the decade", the character of Longlegs and Nicolas Cage's portrayal of the mentally-ill mass murderer will certainly be remembered for years to come. The long awaited reveal of Longlegs' face throughout the whole promotional campaign as well as the first half of the movie makes for a piece of great cinema.
Alongside Cage, Maika Monroe does her best to provide us with a strong portrayal of the mentally-harmed and emotionless FBI agent, Lee Harker. It is clear that it was Perkins' intention right rom the start to have Harker be portrayed as a 'plain canvas' of a person. She has no real emotion throughout, as well as very little information about herself to share with the audience. And Monroe does an excellent job of capturing this.
However, it may have been the lack of emotional connection to our protagonist that excluded us as audience members to show any real fear for her in the twisted and uncomfortable scenarios she finds herself in. The lack of emotion or fear that Harker lets herself show throughout the movie allows the audience to ask themselves: 'If she isn't scared, then why should we be?'.
Regardless of this, one technique that Perkins utilises perfectly to turn up the fear factor throughout this movie is through cinematography. From minute one all the way through to 140, the overall tone given off from the movie is dark, as any horror film should be. But there are large handful of unique shots and camera techniques that provide us with a sense of unsettlement on their own.
Whether it's the idea of not knowing what's on the other side of the camera or our characters being secluded to a small space to manoeuvre in, Perkins and his cinematography team do an exceptional job at creating certain tones and stills that frighten the audience without any action occurring at all.
PrimeTime Films Score: B
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