Fledgling FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is asked to join a decades old serial killer case after an initial success that suggests a heightened sense of intuition in solving crime. 

Longlegs opens with a 1970’s set flashback filmed in a wonderful rounded square 4:3 aspect ratio that resembles old photographs from the time. We see a young girl at home with a Polaroid camera that is enticed outside by a creepy sing-song voice. There we get a small glimpse of Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) who speaks to the girl about the fact it is nearly her birthday. This short flashback sets the tone of the film beautifully. It manages to evoke a creepy and unsettling feel that will dog you for the rest of the story as you try to join the dots of the crimes that Lee Harker is investigating in the Longlegs case. 

What follows this flashback is an astonishingly satisfying FBI procedural. The Silence of the Lambs is the film that immediately comes to mind and is a clear inspiration with Harker our Clarice Starling. But the likes of Seven and Zodiac are also key touchstones due to its 90’s setting (we see a picture of Bill Clinton on the wall at the FBI) and some of the films crucial plot lines. 

Harker is a fascinating protagonist whose journey is one you will become invested in. Her vulnerability and introverted nature juxtaposed with her determination and intuition makes her a protagonist both supremely capable and one in peril. She has a strained relationship with her reclusive hoarder mother Ruth (Alicia Witt) and is a keen learner from her superior who brings her into the case Agent Carter (Blair Underwood). Maika Monroe is a regular in the horror genre with the likes of The Guest, It Follows and Watcher but this is her best performance to date. A tightly wound and intense character. 

It will be Nicolas Cage’s performance that everyone will be talking about though. Cage has always been an actor prepared to take risks and as his career has progressed the frequency of those big leaps of faith has become much greater. This is one of those giant leaps of faith. Channeling the glam rock lyrics of T-Rex that the film likes to quote his character tends towards singing his lines rather than saying them. Whilst his long curly hair and painted face mimics both the dolls he creates for a living and a rockstar. He appears fleetingly and it is some time before the camera actually shows him in full giving him a mythical like status and a greater impact. 

Writer/director Oz Perkins who is the son of actor Anthony Perkins who portrayed Norman Bates in Psycho has delivered a phenomenal horror film. Entrenched in the real and focusing on the evil that can live within us he is able to create an intense and unsettling experience that is both terrifying and satisfying. 

Something else worth noting is that the marketing campaign for this film has been second to none because the cinema I saw this in was full on a Tuesday evening and it was quite a joy to watch this with a full screen of people holding their collective breath. 

Spectacular.