I serve the man downstairs

 LONGLEGS (2024)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I have seen so-called dangerous films in my youth that I felt I shouldn't have seen, yet there was a slight giddiness mixed with an unclean feeling that brought some uneasy euphoria. "Pink Flamingos" was one, the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was another, not to mention "The Exorcist" or the abominable "Caligula." The great films, some which were horror, fit that bill. You couldn't wait to tell someone about them. Hyperbolic statements would fly out of your mouth when sharing your shocked enthusiasm at whatever strange images you had seen from these forbidden movies. "Longlegs" is, proud to say, one of those forbidden movies that you might feel unclean after seeing it yet you can't wait to tell someone about it. 

The opening shots of this hyperbolic, punk-ish horror flick already set a mood of uncertainty and the unknowing. It is the 1970's and a young girl is sitting in her room on a snowy, gloomy day when she hears a car pull up. She's curious, steps out and sees the vehicle but no one steps out. A man's voice is heard in the background and we then get someone with long blonde curly hair and frosty white skin with virtually ruby red lips (what is he, the Joker?) We sense trouble and then we flash forward to the 1990's. A sullen FBI agent, Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) who has psychic abilities, is assigned to bizarre murder-suicides where letters are left signed by "Longlegs." The problem is that the murders are usually committed by the family patriarch and Lee listens to 911 calls made either during or after the murders. The letters are also not written by anyone in the family, and they also have coded messages. The confusion to these family massacres is that there is no forced entry and no fingerprints. Who in creation is that creepy pale-faced maniac known as Longlegs? Why do the codes point to Bible passages from Revelation? What is up with those creepy dolls found in the homes that resemble the families' own daughters? 

"Longlegs" is long on atmosphere filled with more dread-inducing images than most anything else I've seen since "Hereditary." It is ostensibly geeky horror filled with serious overtones that takes it beyond a freaky geeky show. The movie is almost completely bereft of humor (not unlike Maika Monroe's almost impassive performance), other than Longlegs' infrequent outbursts which are equally frightening and funny. As directed by Osgood Perkins (the late Anthony Perkins' son), the movie is rigidly tight in its storytelling and in its dank cinematographic look that actually helps, not hinder as in other films of its ilk, the unsavory world we witness. There is nothing bright or cheery here, visually or otherwise, and "Longlegs" holds you in a vise and its intriguing FBI investigation is compelling. You want to know where it is going and just when you think you have a handle on the film's Satanic twists, you will be floored by the depth of these twists. 

Haunting and spine-chilling in every sense of the word, along with "Hereditary" and "Barbarian" this is solidly unkempt and unbridled horror at its finest. I guarantee you will want to share what you've seen with someone as soon as it is over.