Allow me to start by saying I have been eagerly anticipating finally having a chance to watch this film since the first “trailer” came out. Regardless of my thoughts on the film itself, this movie had the most genuine hype I have seen around a movie in a very long time. The initial teasers were confusing mashups of still images and short clips of video, but most intriguingly: the name of the film was not in the teaser. Internet sleuths invested their time and energy in digging up everything they could about this mystery movie, including effectively solving a cryptogram which would later reveal the film’s name: Longlegs. If you’re interested in seeing some of these teasers, you can find them on YouTube and on TikTok.
The cinematography of this movie is beautiful, but jarring. The cuts between shots or scenes are sudden, the cameras are almost always stationary (with frequent lens zooms). Most of the film has a yellow tint to it, invoking the cigarette smoke heavy air and muted lighting of the 1990s as well as the infective nature of the antagonist. Because of the filming, Longlegs feels like I am looking over the shoulder of the characters’ souls.
The sound is so clean that it’s disorienting; there is very little background noise, and what is there is highly intentional. This is a clear choice on the part of the creator, but it doesn’t work for me.
I am also not a fan of the character design of Longlegs himself. The age makeup is unconvincing, and the facial prosthetics are too prominent. I understand there is supposed to be a commentary on beauty inverted into Longlegs, but it read less like plastic surgeries than it did bad practical effects.
The film deals with the Satanic Panic of the ’80s and ’90s. There isn’t any attempt to obscure satanism in the film–quite the opposite. Longlegs says “Hail Satan.” Harker quotes from the Book of Revelation. A Baphomet-like demon and a veiled demon both make appearances, as do demonic infestations of dark smoke and apparent possessions. It’s maybe a little on the nose, a little heavy handed. More than anything, it’s a little unoriginal. What excited me most about Longlegs is that I thought it would be original.
The final slaughter of the film is genuinely distressing, if somewhat predictable. This movie also has a strange way of being surprising in unsurprising ways. Once a twist happens, it feels like it was inevitable. You get just enough warning of what’s about to happen that you predict it as it happens, but the clues throughout don’t necessarily include any longer-distance foreshadowing.
I liked this movie. It didn’t live up to my hopes, but it didn’t really disappoint me either. I didn’t find it particularly scary nor particularly jump-scary, although part of that may be that I’m not especially susceptible to religious horror and am somewhat inured to it at this point.
Cthulhuville 
One response to “Longlegs”
[…] A: We’re willing to review the less-than-best out there and offer honest feedback. I’ve been a little surprised by the lack of open critical response to books and short fiction in particular. Here, we say what we think and feel about our own experiences without getting into the weeds too much with literary or film theory and without worrying about whether our experiences reflect the popular response (see my review of Longlegs). […]
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