Unhinged Cage is scary good in creepy ‘Longlegs’
The renaissance of Nicolas Cage continues with his bonkers but highly entertaining portrayal of a demented serial killer in director Oz Perkins’ stylistic “Longlegs.” Whether his persona is enough to sustain horror fans is open to debate since his role is disappointingly small. But he does make the most of it with invaluable assistance from the makeup department.
Sporting long scraggly straw-colored hair, garish pink lips and a chalky visage, Cage presents a ghostly image that is instantly terrifying. Cap that with a creepy, high-pitched voice and you have a homicidal maniac sure to frighten the masses. But this being Cage, an actor known for his penchant for scenery chewing, he can’t resist camping it up to the degree it nullifies the film’s otherwise deeply somber tone. He’s like Chucky in human form while all about him are bleak and sullen.
Blame that on Perkins, the son of Anthony, whose iconic Norman Bates will forever be remembered as the personification of a deranged psychotic. There’s little doubt Dad’s enduring creation was influential when the younger Perkins sat down to write “Longlegs,” a story about murderous daddies. Get it? Daddy Longlegs, the oft-maligned arachnid stigmatized as the most poisonous spider? Heck, they aren’t even spiders at all. They’re venomless harvestmen.
In a way, that unwarranted vilification plays into the film’s central conceit that even though daddies are slaughtering their families – and themselves – the real culprit is a third-party wacko the FBI is comparing to Charlie Manson. That natch would be Cage’s Longlegs, who creates life-sized dolls to relay encrypted commands to fathers to embark on killing sprees, but only the papas with daughters having birthdays falling on the 14th of any month.
If this all sounds vaguely familiar it’s because Perkins rips off just about every classic serial-killer flick produced in the past 35 years, from “Se7en” to “Zodiac.” But the film “Longlegs” most closely resembles is “The Silence of the Lambs,” complete with its own Clarice Starling in spooked FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), who at age 9 came face-to-face with Longlegs. That was in the winter of 1974 in the front yard of her Oregon home. Now, 20 years later, she’s been – coincidence of all coincidences – assigned the task of solving the mystery of why 10 dads have inexplicably massacred their wives and kids over a 30-year span.
The problem is that said mystery isn’t really a mystery at all, at least not to me. I figured it out about 15 minutes in. But then, as Agent Harker’s behavior seems to indicate, she’s on the spectrum, as am I. Connecting dots is what we ASD folks do, granted Harker is better at it than most. She and I also share the trait of social awkwardness, a characteristic Perkins deftly plays for occasional laughs. Observe the panicked expression on Harker’s face when her boss, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), invites her to his daughter’s upcoming birthday party. I can soooo relate.
I suspect that’s why I was drawn in by Monroe’s portrayal of a cop obsessed with completing her mission perhaps to her detriment. Again, I’ve been there. I can appreciate her sole focus on one goal to the exclusion of everything that’s going on around her, including with her mother, Ruth Harker (Alicia Witt), whose suspicious oddities go largely unnoticed by her daughter. Like Longlegs, Mom shares an obsessive fear of Satan.
Yup, old Beelzebub is among the many cliched ingredients in Perkins’ witch’s brew of satanic cults, cryptic symbols and all-around evil. There’s even a demonic nun! Well, OK, a woman in a habit. But close enough. She even bears a passing resemblance to Tony Perkins’ alter ego in “Psycho.”
What the younger Perkins can’t disguise is his story’s utter lack of substance. It’s just frights for frights’ sake. True, there are plenty of jump scares, but of service to what? It’s certainly not to a big payoff, which is flat, predictable and ridiculous.
That’s where the film’s distinct style compensates, pulling you in, almost mesmerizing you. Kudos to cinematographer Andres Arochi and production designer Danny Vermette for lending “Longlegs” its dark and menacing vibe. It’s effectively creepy, especially the flashbacks to Lee’s childhood, which are presented as grainy home movies.
While Monroe (“It Follows”) is engaging in a thinly drawn lead role, it’s Cage who leaves the lasting impression. Of late, it seems the actor can do no wrong. He’s an attraction unto himself, which is great in films like “Renfield” and the recent laugh-riot, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.” But in a film as mournful as “Longlegs,” he dominates the screen in what is basically a glorified cameo.
Still, his Longlegs is something to see. His eerie presence will haunt your dreams. And in that respect, he delivers on the movie’s promise to send shivers down your spine and generate a palpable sense of unease. Again, is that satisfying enough? That’s up to you. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Movie review
Longlegs
Rated: R for bloody violence, some language, disturbing images
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, Alicia Witt and Blair Underwood
Director: Oz Perkins
Writer: Oz Perkins
Runtime: 101 minutes
Where: In theaters now
Grade: B
