It’s time to let Nicolas Cage out of the cage.
An FBI agent tries to stop a serial killer who has been targeting families for decades. But can she handle this case? There’s something strange about her—she doesn’t seem fit to perform her duties. Why is she so nervous, and what happened in her past?
If you like atmospheric movies with slow pacing and few characters, then Longlegs is worth checking out. Plus, you get to see Nicolas Cage playing a creepy version of Jon Voight, who has aged badly. He’s not a good-looking man in this movie, but the most important thing is that Nicolas Cage brings his signature crazy energy to every scene he’s in, and that’s what we want, isn’t it?
As mentioned, Longlegs is a moody, atmospheric movie that doesn’t show too many graphic scenes. However, it does have some intense moments, especially a brutal scene with Nicolas Cage. Towards the end of the movie, it reminded me of the classic Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie, Cure. I won’t say more than that, but it had that same eerie feeling when the protagonist tried to stop the murder of a family.
Even though the FBI is trying to find the serial killer and stop him from killing again, I never felt the movie was in a hurry. It’s not a movie that will get your heart racing because you never really get to know the victims. So, there’s no strong connection to them, making it less anxiety-inducing when the killer strikes again.
It’s all about creating an unsettling atmosphere. The movie has a sterile look that takes me back to the ugly ’70s, which, of course, benefits the movie and the mood it tries to create.
Longlegs succeeds in what it sets out to do: create a slow-paced, atmospheric horror movie with Nicolas Cage stealing the show as an ugly, Jon Voight-like character. If you like Longlegs, you should also check out Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure (1997). Longlegs seems to borrow a lot from Cure, particularly in its atmosphere and elements of the plot involving a mysterious serial killer. The way the families are killed in Longlegs especially echoes the chilling methods seen in Cure.