Longlegs (Osgood Perkins, 2024)
One of last year’s most successful and critically acclaimed horror movies, clearly influenced by The Silence of the Lambs. It was directed by Anthony Perkins’ son (talk about having good credentials) and co-produced by Nicolas Cage (who also plays the creep). The story is about a possibly clairvoyant young FBI-recruit who’s asked to help track down a mysterious man named ‘Longlegs’ who inspired several cases in which a father all of a sudden slaughtered his entire family for no apparent reason. Somehow this Mr. Longlegs seems to have the power to turn normal people into murderers.
The film is eerie and occasionally also scary, but personally I had trouble to get into this rather odd mix of police procedurals, serial killer tropes and supernatural elements such as mind manipulation, deadly dolls and a dangerous nun (a dangerous what? Yes, a dangerous nun, I’m not making this up). Horror, so they say, relies on the suspension of disbelief: it doesn’t have to be realistic, but we must be able to attach some credence to what’s happening as long as we’re watching a horror movie. The suggestive first half works quite well, but things become less intriguing as the story progresses and becomes more explicit. But maybe that’s just me, many others seem to like this movie a lot and I do admit that the denouement (which was nevertheless well-prepared and announced) caught me by surprise.
**½ out of 5 – disappointing