…upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

2024’s Longlegs had a lot of hype going for it. Whether it be from the positive word of mouth when it premiered at Los Angeles’s Beyond Fest or the countless social media critics touting it as “The Scariest Movie of the Decade”. A bold statement indeed, and partially why I didn’t love Longlegs as much as I wanted to. With such expectations shoved onto audiences’ backs (no thanks to obvious critical fluff), does Longlegs push through and at least show merit in its own horror/thriller genre? Let’s find out on Gaber’s two Cents.

As previously discussed, critics did not do this film any favors. I’m not saying Longlegs doesn’t have its fair share of dread induced scares, but to continuously tout it as so horrifying that audience members are throwing up, fainting, and leaving the theatre etc. is just complete nonsense. Now, if one were to be intoxicated while watching this film (which most critics must have been), that is a completely different story. The imagery alone is nauseating, leaving you just as uneasy as our main protagonist Lee Harker played by the always excellent Maika Monroe.

The real star however is Nicholas Cage as the titular “Longlegs” with a performance made to get under your skin. Like clockwork, Cage’s turn as the pale faced serial killer kicks the film up a couple notches as soon as he is introduced, making it irresistible to look away from him no matter how hard you try.

As far as the story goes, it’s all just fine. There is nothing to completely write home about, but it does an excellent job setting up what is to come with Cage’s killer. Longlegs is no Seven by any means, but it doesn’t have to be. My only concern is that the eventual supernatural aspects towards the film’s end felt a bit much within the setting of the world the film resides in.

I was also confounded by a late ending twist that was so obvious that I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to be surprised or expecting it outright. Some odd choices in a finale that didn’t need such a backhanded twist to an already solid 101 minutes. Maybe that was what director Osgood Perkins intended, sometimes the truth stares you right in the face right?

In all honesty, the film’s final 10 minutes is what really befuddles me. We have been shown throughout Longlegs entirety that our main heroine is as smart as a whip. Yet she makes the uncharacteristic decision of not acting when it’s finally time to do so, and instead seems uninterested in the characters who are now facing dire consequences because of her fumbling of the situation. It’s a bizarre mishandling of a great character. I can only assume the intention of this was to show that no matter what, all of Longlegs victims will inevitably meet their gruesome ends one way or another. However, in my opinion it did a slight disservice to a hero that has illustrated more than enough detective intuition to give Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt a run for their money.

Longlegs does have enough in the scare department to put it over other horror releases this year. For one it doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares to scratch its sinister itch. It’s claustrophobic handling of showing just enough, without revealing the horror hiding in the darkness gives the viewer an eerie feeling. Even making me check the house twice for a pale faced intruder before submitting to the unprotected state of sleep. In this aspect, Longlegs has more than done its job. After all, what more could one want from a horror flick?

Longlegs is a good film that could have been a tad better. Uncharacteristic character decisions and a lackluster final 10 minutes can’t take that away. Both Cage and Monroe are excellent and help keep this dread filled show on the road and give it that extra juice to make it more than your average serial killer thriller. All that and more is why Longlegs received this particular, Cent Score.

Cent Score: 3 Cents

The pros outweigh the cons, sit back, don’t think too much and you’ll be fine.

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