It’s probably the most hyped movie of the summer. No, I’m not talking about DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE or ALIEN: ROMULUS. I’m talking about the indie horror film, LONGLEGS, and many people are saying it’s the scariest film they’ve seen in years.

LONGLEGS begins in 1974 in a quiet and snow-covered corner of Oregon. A young girl with a Polaroid camera is met by a tall stranger with long hair and wearing pale makeup (Nicolas Cage, RENFIELD; PIG). About 20 years later, FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe, HONEY BOY; IT FOLLOWS) is part of a team supervised by William Carter (Blair Underwood, TV’s L.A. LAW) to investigate a series of unexplained murder-suicides in the area. Each case involves a father killing his family and himself, leaving behind a coded letter signed “Longlegs”. Lee, who seems to exhibit some clairvoyance, works out that each family had a 9-year-old daughter born on the 14th of the month, and that the murders all occurred within six days before or after the birthday itself. The murders form an occult triangle symbol on a calendar, with one date missing. Now Lee has to find Longlegs before the next murder which, if she’s correct, should happen in the next few days.

I’ll start by saying that I didn’t find LONGLEGS to be scary at all. Creepy, most definitely, but not scary. When the lights came up in the cinema, I turned to my friend and asked, “Who dreams up crazy sh*t like this?” The answer to that question is writer-director Osgood Perkins, who is the son of actor Anthony Perkins of PSYCHO fame. (I saw Anthony Perkins in EQUUS on Broadway years ago and he was absolutely brilliant. I just looked online and saw that it was in 1975!) Perkins reportedly had the idea of a Longlegs character for quite a few years but needed to flesh out (no pun intended) his story before making the film. For that, he cites a number of influences including THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (duh!), DOGTOOTH (okay, I can see that), and the Golden Bough mythology (interesting!). Getting Nicolas Cage on board, not just as an actor but also a producer, seems like a perfect fit as Cage loves taking on bizarre roles like this one. And it’s definitely bizarre as Longlegs is not just an occultist, he’s also an aging glam rocker as evidenced by both the opening reference to Marc Bolan and the subtle nod to Lou Reed later in the story.

Not surprisingly, Cage puts the cray-cray all on the table while Monroe grounds the film with her understated performance. The pair balance each other out very well and that’s what makes the story so unsettling. The movie also features some great supporting performances from Alicia Witt as Lee’s mother (film buffs might recognize Witt as young Alia Atreides in David Lynch’s DUNE) and Kiernan Shipka (TV’s MAD MEN) as the very troubled Carrie Anne Camera.

All told, although I didn’t find LONGLEGS to be the scariest film I’ve seen in years, I did appreciate it for what it was — a dark and disturbing police procedural. If that’s your thing, you won’t be disappointed.

LONGLEGS opens in cinemas in Hong Kong today (August 29th). In the US, it is now available on many of the streaming services.

Thanks for reading but don’t be a lurker! If you liked what you just read, here are some suggestions:

Sign up to receive my movie reviews in your inbox automatically
Share this review on your Facebook page
Leave me a message telling me what you thought of my review or the film
Bookmark the site and visit often
Like my Howard For Film Facebook page
Watch my reviews on my YouTube page
Check out my Howard For Film magazine on Flipboard
Tell your friends about the site