‘Long Legs’ Review: A Serial Killer Thrill with a Wintery Atmosphere

Filmmaker Osgood Perkins’ eerie and mystical serial killer horror thriller “Longlegs” begins with a psychedelic sequence that lasts less than a minute or two, and he creates a sense of shock, awe and humor through simple composition, editing and acting that unsettles the viewer to the bone, and the tension bubbles to a bravura score.

It’s scary. Not necessarily because of the basic action or imagery on the screen, but because of the way it’s presented formally. And it’s thrilling because Perkins announces from the start his bold approach to tone and his mastery of the filmmaking techniques that create suspense. The tension is constant throughout “Longlegs,” but there’s a dry, dark humor that somehow makes everything more unsettling.

For the best viewing experience, you should know as little as possible about “Longlegs.” In fact, if 100 minutes of nauseating horror mixed with a completely unpredictable plot and dark humor sounds like a compelling cinematic experience, stop reading right now (it does). But “Longlegs” is such a rich text that I can’t help but unpack it a little, and the obstacle course surrounding its true horror is a worthy challenge, so here we go.

Maika Monroe in the movie ‘Long Legs’.

(neon)

It’s an easy comparison, but “Longlegs” feels like a Perkins version of “The Silence of the Lambs,” with a young female FBI agent playing cat-and-mouse with a serial killer (and sharing a passion for ’70s British rock, in exchange for their respective boogeymen). Special agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) has Clarice Starling’s supernatural skills and drive, and both characters fail to mask their vulnerability with toughness in different ways.

Harker is not a good social person, but she has great intuition and maybe even a little psychic powers. She is recruited by Special Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) for exactly those qualities, and begins to re-investigate a series of cold cases involving a family murder in which a man named Longlegs has claimed some kind of distant responsibility via encrypted notes. As she delves deeper into her research, it becomes clear that Harker has a strange connection to these cases. (Is she psychically gifted, or is this just memory?)

Nicolas Cage plays the odd suspect in one of his more bizarre and unrecognizable performances. He’s excellent and clearly enjoys committing wholeheartedly to his bizarre and terrifying choices (though Cage never goes beyond that in any performance). Alicia Witt is Harker’s mother, with whom Harker and the agent have a close but complicated relationship. The somewhat calm and brooding Monroe is the eye of the storm among these colorful characters, including her aggressive boss Carter.

The acting works alongside the incredibly meticulous and precise filmmaking. Perkins, the son of “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins, has a wonderfully methodical eye for creating cinematic images and sounds. Working with cinematographer Andres Arocky, who works magic with light structures, Perkins centers Harker in carefully composed shots, emphasizing her smallness and sense of being overwhelmed by her surroundings. The camera switches between an objective observation of the protagonist and a synchronicity with her perspective and actions. Slow, crawling zooms mimic her perspective, backward tracking shots constantly put her in danger, her gun always drawn.

Maika Monroe in the movie ‘Long Legs’.

(neon)

The camera has an omnipotent, ominous knowingness that can’t always be trusted (similar to Monroe’s “It Follows”), but the repeated shots and scenarios suggest connections and comparisons between the various characters over time, so there’s an internal rhythm to the filmmaking even as the story defies conventional logic.

“Longlegs” is also a masterpiece of production design (Danny Vermette) and set decoration (Trevor Johnston), hinting at the time and place (mid-1990s Oregon) and filling that world with appropriate visual information. Perkins also assembles a cast of interesting and memorable supporting characters who make the world of “Longlegs” bigger, richer and stranger, and help us understand the characters better and see how they interact with the world around them.

But “Longlegs” doesn’t offer easy answers to itself on a macro level. Watching this movie is a puzzle, a code to be deciphered, and by the end, it feels like the whole puzzle hasn’t been solved yet. That’s okay. In a movie that offers a delicious roller coaster of bad vibes, understanding everything isn’t the point. Just jump in and let Perkins guide you. The journey is worth it.

Katie Walsh is a film critic for Tribune News Service.