Unhinged, unnerving & thoroughly unforgettable.

Granted, this sounds a little reductive but hear me out. At a very base level, there are two types of horror film. Ones that go for the instant scare and ones that burrow under your skin.

Of course, neither approach is the right approach. Whether it’s slow, creeping dread or the instant kill shot of a jump scare, they’re simply two sides to the same coin and two opposing ways to extract that precious, highly lucrative fear from you.

While the film’s overtly vague marketing has kept us guessing from the start, what’s been clear all along is that Longlegs’ scare tactics were always likely to be a slow burn.

Reserved and reticent FBI agent, Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes an unexpected turn, revealing disturbing evidence of the occult. Dragged deeper and deeper into the case’s devilish darkness, Harker discovers an unexpected personal connection to the killer and must do everything she can to stop him before he strikes again.

Starting out as an eery FBI procedural thriller but gradually creeping up on us to reveal itself as a deeply unsettling tale of the occult, Longlegs isn’t quite the horror film you think it is, yet it’s all the better for it. Committed to the slow burn, the film refuses to offer instant scare gratification, instead delivering something far darker, deeper, and more difficult to shake off.

Coming out of the blocks like an off-kilter blend of Seven and Silence of the Lambs, Longlegs’ opening act presents itself as an ominous, brooding cat and mouse serial killer chase; and while that might not necessarily be what you came to the film for, it works perfectly as a destabilising swerve. One that lets you know right away that this is not a film to be taken lightly.

The road is long, wild, and distressing, taking you to some dark and deeply disturbing places along the way, yet it’s absolutely worth the emotional investment. The journey required to get to where director Osgood Perkins wants you to go may be slow, brooding, batshit, and frequently bewildering but there’s an oddly gratifying level of enigmatic intrigue available to you if you’re willing to accept it.

With a firm handle on his genre and laser guided in his vision, Osgood Perkins puts it all on the line to offer a truly disturbing slice of low-key horror cinema. With intense yet fluid meticulousness, Perkins delivers something that, despite its cold, antagonistic appearance, does extraordinarily well to give audiences something to latch onto.

Leaning all the way in on Andrés Arochi’s starkly haunting cinematography, Perkins’ sense of mood is as devastating as it is immaculate, with a subtle but superb sense of period built through little moments that, like the rest of the film, find their way under your skin and stay there. Lingering on long foreboding shots that allow shadowy, demonic figures to pass through undetected, and utilising deliberately distorted, destabilising framing, Longlegs uses every inch of the screen to unnerve and unsettle us all.

Sure, there are plenty of bumps along the way – in particular the plot, which gets a little muddled mid-way through – yet, otherwise, Perkins stands steadfastly by his unnerving vision and thoroughly sticks his landing.

Painstakingly crafting a world that feels simultaneously normal, unnerving, and teetering on the edge of hell throughout, Perkins has a firm grasp on his vision and a refreshingly determined confidence in his horror approach. Blessed with a captivating protagonist and a thoroughly disturbing villain, Longlegs is a grim, grimy, grisly viewing experience in the best possible way.

Compact but highly effective, Longlegs’ cast is an absolute joy that manages to elevate an already impressive film to the next level. As the focal point of this, indie horror darling Maika Monroe makes for the perfect lead, delivering a thoroughly enthralling performance that keeps us on the hook throughout. Cold, calculated, and deadpan but with creeping cracks forming at the edges, Special Agent Lee Harker is a thoroughly enthralling protagonist, with Monroe offering a performance of emotional detachment and fragile vulnerability that refuses to compromise.

Complementing Monroe’s stoicism perfectly, Nicolas Cage turns his Cage gage up to eleven for an unhinged performance for the ages. While his screen time (or at least, his face time) is relatively limited, it won’t be forgotten easily, as he launches himself into his killer role with sinful abandon.

Buried beneath a mountain of unsettling pale prosthetics and delivering lines like a malfunctioning chainsaw, Cage’s performance is truly something to behold, and while its overly extravagant nature won’t be for everyone, it’s undeniably unforgettable. With the latter portion of his career seemingly dedicated to one unhinged horror monster after another, you’d think it’d be hard for Cage to muster the energy or enthusiasm to go again, however, go again he does with one of his most impressively unhinged creations to date.

Around them, the film’s extended cast all play their part in making it the sinister success that it is, not least Blair Underwood as Lee’s superior, who once again proves what a valuable performer he is, however, despite this, Longlegs is very much the Monroe and Cage show, as they take a classic cat and mouse serial killer story and swing a bloody axe through it.

Prodding, probing, and eventually puncturing the inner recesses of the human psyche, Longlegs is an all-encompassing work of pure psychological cinema. Fuelled by creeping, simmering dread, Longlegs is far from the all-out horror attack some may be anticipating and certainly not one to make an instant judgement on. Let it sit with you, however, and you’ll be richly rewarded. Not necessarily in a way you might want or expect, but you will be rewarded nonetheless, for Longlegs will cling to you like a malevolent force long after the credits roll.

Reinforced by a sense of dread that’s as devastating as it is absorbing, Longlegs may not hit you with jump scares, but its sinister slow burn approach is all the more effective because of it. Blessed with outstanding opposing performances from its two stars and riding on a wave of impeccably framed, unnervingly shot terror, Oz Perkins delivers a masterclass in buttoned down brutality that will lay on your skin thicker than Nicolas Cage’s pasty prosthetics.