Longlegs

Like a lot of people, Longlegs has been one of my most anticipated movies of the year. I should have watched it on Friday when it came out, but I had to wait until today. Not much of a delay, but long enough for the anticipation to seep into my bones. I felt like I was on hold waiting for it all weekend. I dreamt about it, in my dream I watched - and lived inside - the movie. I also started seeing the reviews over the weekend. The positive reviews hyped me up more, the mixed/negative reviews kept it in check. Thankfully, miraculously, I avoided spoilers of all kinds, and now I've seen it I feel such a sense of relief. Not only because I'm not in limbo waiting for it, but relief because it somehow lived up to everything I wanted it to be. Longlegs is such a deeply unsettling movie. It's relentless. Every scene - every frame - is designed to unnerve. I can understand why it's being compared to Silence of the Lambs on the surface, as well as Zodiac, Seven, even X-Files, but none of that really does it any favours. There's something very different going on here. It's very much its own thing, and the preconceptions and the expectations and the hype probably do more harm than good. From the opening scene (one of the best - if not the best of the year) to the (surprisingly funny) final beat, Longlegs is relentlessly disturbing. It's claustrophobic and oppressive. The cinematography is superb, constantly drawing your eyes to the dark corners, until simple open doorways become anxiety-inducing portals into the unknown. Lingering shots fill you with unease, but with good reason: every so often there are demons in the darkness... Nicolas Cage is a sickeningly scary tour de force, his usual brand of unpredictable over performance twisting into something truly unsettling. Maika Monroe is constantly on the verge of screaming, her understated FBI agent Lee Harker battling monsters inside and out, you can see her private war clearly taking its toll in every expression, every move she makes. It's great to see Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt and Kiernan Shipka all taking on substantial roles here too. Along with the cinematography, the sound blew me away. Longlegs barely relies on jump scares, but the score is always terrifying. Nails on a chalkboard, deep bassy tones, broken windchimes echoing on the limb of a dead tree, it's frightening, off kilter, unreal, dread-filled. I love this movie. I love how divisive it seems to be - it's obviously doing something right! I love how it's so decidedly its own thing. I love how abstract it is. It never spoonfeeds you. I love its exploration of religion, the supernatural, the loss of innocence, the devil inside. It's all fascinating and deeply disturbing. It's my favourite movie of the year, and I need to watch more Oz Perkins movies, because his vision is enthralling.