Thank you all for watching! I have since made a new video on Longlegs which I think is much better than this one. That video contains more of my finalized thoughts since I have watched the movie again. Check it out if you can, ty!
I think you’re misunderstanding Lee. She isn’t actually psychic, her doll was giving her those nudges and abilities. It was guiding her the whole movie and that’s why she was able to finally recall her memories again after her mom finally destroyed the doll. Idk that kinda agitated me bc she isn’t actually psychic
her description of her abilities makes more sense tho she said ‘it’s like someone tapping me on the shoulder telling me where to look’ and i am a very intuitive person and i would never describe it like that…it’s more like my first thought or gut reaction is usually right and it’s fairly detailed…so i think that was a hint early on that she didn’t actually have powers, she’s just being guided by the devil who is literally seen in the shadows throughout the movie
I came to the comment section to say pretty much the same thing. It may be the case that she also has a strong tuition. But the film hinted (rather clearly) that she isn’t psychic when she told them she only got 50% of the answers right on the test.
But why did the mom shoot the doll.she didn't want her to remember but she then did it confused me.also was it long legs essence in the ball or the devil the said first it was long legs but then said the devil was in the doll so it was both of them.the orb I wanted to know what exactly it is why it made that sound and the black mist in it was that the devil or long legs a few confused things
@@DouglasBull-rk6tv I watched the movie and some interpretations. now i tend to think that shot her doll because the devil wanted Lee to kill her mother willingly after. the whole movie is about a plot to manipulate Lee into killing her mother and to make her suffer immensly because of that. so the devil took her memories first and leaded her to choose a career in FBI and at the end of investigation revealed to her the whole picture. it would be not as interesting for the devil to control Lee directly as he did with those families. and i suppose longlegs is only a servant of the devil. longlegs was using devil's essence while making the dolls. longlegs was only wicked man.
@@Blink-dd6qfstill a solid score. I liked the movie but I did fall into the hype and was looking up everybting about the movie, shouldve gone it to it more blind. 7/10 tho and I stil think it’s one of the better horror movies of recent years
Also that a cat somehow survived in a cage while being in a room with rotting bodies for A MONTH. Also why does no one in that scene wear masks, the stench would've been toxic.
@@majimasmajimemes1156 I just assumed that the cat had been roaming free in the house and that the FBI put it in the cage to prevent it further contaminating the crime scene.
I saw it on theater and honestly found the noise spikes during jumpscares really annoying, specially when there was nothing creepy onscreen to justify the sound. It's like the horror equivalent of sitcom laugh tracks to make up for the bad jokes
This seems incredibly nitpicky. I actually don’t think Harker was psychic at all. I feel like the final act of the movie confirms that Harker was never psychic but that she has essentially been mislead/ controlled/ beckoned, without her knowledge, by Longlegs/ the devil ever since he first visited her. Similar to the mom in Hereditary, Harker has never been in control. It was all a part of Longlegs plan. In the end when Harker can’t shoot the doll she realizes she lost and Longlegs won. The final “Hail Satan” is further confirmation that the evil was never escapable and will continue to exist and there is nothing Harker can do about it.
I thought it was pretty clear this was supernatural from the marketing. I think it would have been annoying if the supernatural element was fake or a screen for just one crazy person. Like Hereditary, the evil is beyond the protagonist.
I don't think it was that either. I just think since she lived with 2 serial killers since she was kid for a long time. She knows how one operates. It's how she found the house in the opening, it's like she felt something familiar. And she was right.
@@rayvonvelez3129 this is a reach. She didn’t KNOW she was living with killers. Literally just before she was drawn to the house in the beginning she hears a sinister whisper. In fact you can hear whispering or see the shadow of the devil nearly every time she has a “hunch”
Lee isn't psychic though, that's the devil whispering to her. Didn't you notice that she looks over her left shoulder every time? That's metaphorically where the devil sits, an angel on our right.
You watched it twice and still didnt realize she was never psychic. The whole point was she was manipulated by the “being” and had repressed memories. Hell they literally told the viewers that after her psychic test results when she only scored 50%
I’m starting to see that not everyone picked up on the campy silliness of this movie and it kills me 😭 did the wink and kiss at the end not give it away??
maybe because there was no sillyness aside from long legs? we are not talking about evil dead lol, everything in this movie is super serious and weird, no silly campiness just weird writing that says "It was the devil all along"
@@bleeem I personally think that's why it works as well as it does. Longlegs himself is this icon of evil throughout the movie that never seems to take anything seriously despite the suffering he causes. He's supposed to be a wildcard that contrasts the humanity of (mostly) everyone else in the movie, which makes him equal parts humorous and scary in his unpredictability. It's the same reason Joker works so well in the general seriousness of the Batman series; it's just enough silliness that it doesn't compromise the overall tone.
I think the only reason she's psychic is because of the doll's influence on her. I think it's even revealed in the end that Longlegs was influencing her all along thru the doll he made for her.
yeah, they almost overtly mention that, and when Lee describes how she can discern the the things she can, she described it as "someone tapping her on the shoulder" or something like this it's clearly satan/longlegs influencing her decision making, not a reach, they basically say it , weird seeing people not get this
Yes. I find Sinister much scarier. Certain scenes (lawnmower!) make me jump now matter how many times I rewatch. I loved the humor in LL, tho. Cage was the best thing. The way the film opened & ended (including credits) were perfect and helped make it better IMO, despite its underwhelming elements.
YES!!! If we'd had Longlegs himself instead of Jack White ( Bazule/Bagel or whatever his name was) it would be perfect! I just wrote my reaction on another review, saying how incredibly unnerving Sinister is, even on repeat watches. Despite the supernatural element originally wrong footing me, it does contain the author doing genuine research and detective work, piecing together the events and hitting a dead end because he has no concept that the supernatural is involved. In Longlegs, despite all the visual comparisons to Silence of The Lambs/Se7en/Zodiac and even The X Files (I'm sure I heard Eugene Toomb's spidery theme at one point) the FBI angle is just set dressing, Lee just makes connections from thin air and so we know pretty early on that the supernatural is involved and any logic could soon go out of the window. Plus, why would you have your title character exit with still so much of the film to run? Weird choice as Cage is incredible here. I did enjoy Longlegs, quality film making but the script needed strengthening and maybe put that gory exit toward the end, he's too big a presence to waste. If I want to be scared though, I'l just rewatch Sinister with the lights out.
I hate to say it, but yes, you do need to watch the film the second time. Lee was not psychic at all, it is actually spelled out in the film that the doll connection is what made her see things, because the doll knows as it is supernatural. Once the link is broken, we can assume that Lee is no longer able to “see” anything.
Nicholas Cage is the BEST, just INCREDIBLE. I always liked him as an actor but wow he was just wow. I love horror/serial killer movies and to me this is the very BEST. Beats Seven and Silence of the Lambs in my opinion. I will never forget this movie and Nick Cage’s character Long Legs.
After the "wow I was super uncomfortable the entire time, 10/10" wore off, I realized how ridiculous the agent (forgot his name the moment the movie ended, he feels like a kinda wasted character in hindsight) was for not getting his wife and kid the hell out of dodge the moment he learned his kid would be the exact target type for an uncatchable serial killer. Lots of little details that kinda make the movie fall apart once you look at it for too long. I wish they'd gone with a Manson family/son of sam vibe instead of *genuinely* using the "satan made me do it" card. It took away so much of what made this movie so unnerving for me. Nothing is scarier to me than knowing the worst kind of monster out there is the one who blends in with you, the guy you walk past in the grocery store could have bodies in his basement, your neighbor could be doing god knows what on the dark web or whatever. I hoped it'd have some kind of religious psychosis connection that passed on from mother to daughter, an imagined "gift" that plays on her intuition as a neurodivergent woman who grew up in an abusive household (she felt VERY autistic-coded to me, as an autistic woman). It could've been so much scarier to watch this play out with long legs as "just some guy, but a bit fucked up", just like anyone else could be.
I liked long legs and I'd even recommend people go see it. I felt this same way tbh. I left kind of wondering if I even liked it or not. Cage was absolutely unsettling and the lead actress was good in her role. I had trouble really nailing down why I felt underwhelmed by it but I think you hit the nail on the head.
I mentally clocked out when the supernatural stuff kicked in. It was so well planned out until all that got involved. Like the Satanism worked with the unhinged villain, but once it was all "the silver ball was magic", I lost interest.
I really enjoyed this film and I completely agree it’s a visual feast. When it came to the Occult stuff, however, I prefer it when a film just drops the hammer on stuff like that. When the Evil just feels heavy and hopeless like it did in Hereditary. When I saw that little wisp of black smoke, I thought, “awww, don’t do THAT”…same experience with Gretal & Hansel, the witchcraft should have been much darker. That’s just my preference.
It fell apart in the third act. The aspects of it became very predictable and like that of other blockbuster horror movies: the mom is mental and dresses like a nun and it's all tied together to be easy to understand (appealing to the naive), and the dolls trope. I wish it also wouldnt have had any actual supernatural aspects but only used the idea of brainwashing and supernatural concepts as a backdrop and remained solely in reality.
I'm hardy naive. Been watching horror and crime thrillers for decades. Yes, the exposition dump was disappointing. But it takes nothing away from the performances or atmosphere. That one doesn't like the supernatural elements is irrelevant. All that matters is the execution of ideas, whatever they are, on film.
I agree, the end definitely killed it for me. The horror of the unknown, the helplessness of being a pawn for a demonic entity beyond our world, it was really unsettling until it was explained and turned kinda predictable as you said.
I wholeheartedly agree - judging this solely on its aesthetics & visuals, it's a 10 out of 10, but the underdeveloped concepts & characters keep it from being on the level of top-tier horror/thriller films like Silence of the Lambs, Seven, and Zodiac. The trailer got me very excited for a police procedural with Eldritch horror / supernatural elements, but the movie fell short for me due to the missteps in the writing. Regardless, it is very refreshing that Hollywood took a chance on something this different, and hopefully Oz Perkins will continue to hone his craft and make a film in which his writing is up to par with his direction & artistic vision.
it’s actually very much not underdeveloped it’s just not super spelled out…there’s a UA-cam video that’s about 2 or 3 hours long i think that really goes into the stuff we got before the movie came out and it further delves into the lore with pages from books about magic and pagan shit…some of it is stuff people could figure out from the movie but if you really want to understand it fully that is the place to go for it
@@brynniefresh9746 I enjoy lore, but I feel as though movies should be self-contained to the degree that you don't have to seek out supplementary material to fill in the blanks in the narrative. Expanding on your understanding of it with existing lore & literature is great, but I didn't think Longlegs earned its twist or lived up to its premise as we're just given an exposition dump at the end that feels very forced. That said, I have watched videos that go into a lot of detail about the things it references, and I'm pretty sure I watched the video you're referencing.
This movie is wasted potential. I loved the atmosphere but I felt like Harker as a character could’ve been more fleshed out. Also, I feel like nic cage peeked out sometimes during his performance as longlegs and it kind of took me out of the movie. We also needed more world building with longlegs (like all the ties to satanism.) Once the third act hit and it was basically like “oh it was all the devil and the mom was in on it” felt cheap and like a cop out (pun intended 🤭) to me. There should have been more there in that regard. Also, we’re made to believe that it was all about harker but like why did longlegs want to kill her specifically to begin with? That seemed glazed over and it made the other murders just like not make sense? Like “the other murders happened because her mom was convinced to help longlegs so she could save harker” huh?? Idk the movie left me with too many questions and I didn’t buy what they were selling if that makes sense.
I also don’t like when they name Satan in a satanic thriller. It kind of diminishes the mystery and is too on the nose. Part of why Hereditary was so scary is because they were worshiping a demon we’d never heard of.
True but this was the 90s, satanic panic was a thing around this time give or take a few years, rock artists and the devil were associated and the fbi was still figuring out why criminals commit crime to begin with so I think it all goes hand in hand with the time period
I completely agree. Hereditary did it better of course the exorcist did it better. And I’m saying this from someone who knows religion and understands that Satan isn’t an actual being. So when a film decides to call their demon “satan” it just looks cartoony to me.
If it had just been longer, with more time to flesh out the story and characters. Oz Perkins really needs to trust other writers for his stories. And it looks like thankfully and finally he'll be doing that for his upcoming film: Keeper. Also: Nicholas Cage is my mfn guy.
It was very good but unfortunately did over explain at the end. If you’re gonna over explain the mother’s connection you need to explain why he ended up living in the mother’s house and also, some backstory to Cobble? Like, maybe how he became what he is? Was he part of a cult? The ciphers are kind of blown over, it would’ve been neat to see some connection to perhaps ancient Sumerian texts or something, some deeper drive to Cobble’s mission than simply ‘Hail Satan.’ I would find it interesting if perhaps Cobble as a boy had an encounter with someone doing what he now does & it gets passed on like a demonic virus/contract required to not be killed by the predator. I dunno, a lot explained yet not explained leaving an unfinished feeling. Perhaps a prequel for Cobble? Interesting name too. Cobblepot/The Penguin. Cage’s character had Joker & Penguin all over it. I was waiting for Batman to show up during the interrogation. Didn’t understand the clothes at all. Weird pinkish white, multiple button up shirts, the powdered face. Came off less Marc Bolan glam & more Liberace. He had guitars (a Flying V), awesome. But why? Was in he in a band at some point? Did Satan promise him fame & fortune for doing his ‘dirty work’? What was the metal ball? What material? How does it channel the voice of the devil? So much left to imagine which is annoying as what’s left to imagine about Cobble is juxtaposed against what is explained which is that the mother is arguably more of a player here in the murders. She actually enters the home. She is an accomplice!! In classic Manson fashion, Cobble never actually kills anyone. Anyway, so many holes, so many questions, so many missed opportunities. This film needed another hour to artfully fill in some blanks and it would’ve been a masterpiece. I give it a solid B+ or three stars. Also, not really scary but definitely ambient, eerie & at times, although brief, creepy.
exactly! i feel like there were so many cool elements but it never gave any of them enough room to breathe and flourish which made everything feel disappointing and underwhelming
To me it came off that Cobble is the devil in human form. He loves rock music & kinda looks like a cursed Aerosmith band member. Movie takes place in early 90’s rock music was crazy during that time. Idk that’s how I took it . Since Lucifer is the god of music and shit. Idk
She has to be actually psychic, because the very first thing she does as an agent is to identify the house of a serial killer unrelated to the Longlegs case. She's not just sharing thoughts with Longlegs. She knows weird things that he doesn't know.
@@t3hpenguinofd00mbro Longlegs is being controlled by the devi that’s how he’s able to put his voice into the sphere when he kisses it in the basement. Longlegs made a doll of Lee and is able to kinda like tap her on the shoulder and point out shit to her. And once the doll is destroyed and the link is severed she her “brain fog” is lifted too.
@@IRidez interesting theory. So does that mean that every decision in Lee's life was being influenced by Longlegs, and Satan actually wanted her to go into the FBI from the beginning?
This movie could have been legendary... They should have kept it as a grounded serial killer film It would have been up there with silence of the lmbs... But instead we get given an amazing character that does absolutely nothing.... And instead they turn the film into a generic possession film like every other horror film what a disappointment... The horror was done really well as well so this could have been unbelievably good.... The only thing that would save this now is if they did a prequel backstory to long legs based in the 70s and had him as an actual serial killer now that would be phenomenal
Disagree. That you don't prefer supernatural/possession elements has no bearing on whether or not the film is good. All that matters is the story and its execution.
@@realitysvenno the movie is better because it’s supernatural. Evil is basically permeating the whole movie and environment and atmosphere. Satan continues with new people. Nothing she could do to stop it.
It should’ve leaned completely in the character LongLegs. Was way to on the nose with the satanic stuff and they should’ve made it just about longs legs and him manipulating the mom and such
@@eazymethod01 wdym. I understand completely you can’t stop Satan but I liked the whole detective and serial killer part of the movie. I still think it would be cool to keep it supernatural but think they should’ve made longlegs himself into the demon Baal (demon of child sacrifice) and had it where he himself was supernatural and he still wasn’t allowed to kill Lee because her moms deal and that drove Longlegs so crazy he started toying with her as a cop because he never got to kill her. Just my opinion and what I think would’ve been cooler instead of it feeling like the movies like “Satan was the villain all along”
@@eazymethod01 because we had 90 films about satan and satanic shit, a supernatural serial killer like michael myers who is just supernatural is way more interesting than "I made a pact with the devil"
I dont think any film is perfect. But i thought this was really good movie. I was very surprised by the end how it impressed me. I thought i would hate it. But came out opposite
(spoilers) The whole twist of BOOM the devil's in the dolls and he forces people to kill really took me out of this movie. I feel that a better twist would have been that all the families in the town were members of the occult and longlegs was the leader and each crime was a sacrifice. And the ending could be Harker and her partner arrest longlegs but the town attacks them and they are sacrificed at the end.
That would have been much better than what we got. A better version would be that Long Legs was a typical serial killer and took all the supernatural nonsense out of it.
That makes no sense considering the town families were the murder victims. Why would they need someone else to k*ll themselves? Just say you like the cult stuff from Resident Evil 4.
I get it, but then it would be too similar to the story of Charles Manson and it would definitely be predictable in a way. I like the idea of adding supernatural elements to the plot, especially as a twist, because it has made it more authentic than any other serial killer-related movie. The subtle fluidity between realistic, material world on one hand, and the occult on the other is the “juiciest” twist in my opinion.
While i feel movies and art are subjective, did we watch 2 seperate movies? I thought it was abundantly clear she wasnt psychic and it was the man downstairs tapping her on the shoulder. Also, the trailers had so many demonic things, and the being surprised by the occult stuff makes me confused.
the satanic staff was not surprising at all and felt lazy for me, I felt the script was like "take all the cool stuff about bible and satanic panic and put it in one film" instead of showing true nature and source of evil - it was mostly voodoo dolls and cage laughing and screaming "hail satan". IMHO it was just way too stereotypical in this regard.
The detective's psychic element is the central axis of the whole story, it is the final link to close the circle of the plot and give Longless its own identity. To begin with, the psychic element places the story in a world of its own, on another plane of reality that makes the whole demonic thing credible. It is also a key element in the plot to understand that the detective is part of a previously developed plan that uses these psychic abilities as a game factor that will work against her, which adds constant tension to the plot.
I really loved this movie, I didn’t go in expecting anything. I think that’s where a lot of people get lost in it. They have expectations for how it SHOULD end. I loved it.
Every aspect of this movie would've had to change if the detective wasn't psychic. The idea is that she's psychic when it comes to crime because her brain is directly tied to the devil via the "brain" in the doll. If there was no psychic element, there'd be no way to explain that Longlegs had been living in her basement for years without her knowledge. I do agree that the way they tied everything together in the last 20% of the movie was not very satisfying. Best horror movie I've seen in years, though.
The director/writer has stated that they pushed the comparison to "Silence of the Lambs" in the marketing of the film to set up the audience expectation of seeing something semi-familliar they had a reference to, then pulling the rug out and showing something quite different with the supernatural element detective story.
urghhhh I don’t agree that she was psychic, I think carter jokes she’s psychic but she’s chalks up it up to intuition. Later we find out that the “psychic” abilities was her doll that told her where to look etc.
@@MegaRandom432 It really took me out of the movie, especially since you could tell that the ending was going to involve him since everyone else that Lee had been close to had gotten killed. Anyone in the FBI, especially after the acknowledgment that Lee herself had a birthday on the 14th, would've checked out Blair Underwood's daughter for a birthday on the 14th. Even in the years between 1993-2001 (based on the picture of Bill Clinton in the FBI office, signaling he's the current President), that information would've been available in a cursory search, especially when the serial killer is targeting girls with birthdays on the 14th. I really hoped they would've subverted that particular expectation, because it was so obvious, but they didn't. I really enjoyed the movie, but that ending didn't work for me at all. Also, what kind of modern 90s community in the US would've let random people associated with "the church" into their homes on the birthdays of their daughters, especially if they weren't religious? If this is a really small, religious community, would the FBI (even in the 90s), send a black guy in an interracial relationship as the lead investigator? Lastly, the fact that Lee could somehow pass the battery of tests and requirements to make it into the FBI beggars belief. Even if she had no memory of Longlegs, the fact that she would get so easily bothered by mundane things doesn't lead me to believe she could stand up to the rigors of FBI training, let alone the fact a background check would find that her mother is fucked in the head.
Just a hint, the doll is her powers. You know the premise of the whole film?? When her mum shoots the doll the black smoke is released from the doll and Lee, satan is control is released.
This was a good retrospective. Nicely put together and injecting some things I hadn't considered. I thought the movie was really solid. Been thinking about theories and explanations for the past couple days!
Was a really good movie. The trailer depicted exactly what the movie was intended to be, you just have to watch the movie to understand the trailer. Was a thriller from the start and ended in a horror style.
I agree with the vast majority of this review. I thought the movie was great for the first 2/3rds to maybe 3/4ths of the movie. Everything after Lees interview with longlegs was a gradual downhill to me
I was so hyped and anticipated this film. But theres alot that hurts it imo. Spoiler alert ⚠️ I didnt like the supernatural twist. But even with that we needed more story and explanation. Thinks just dont add up or make sense at parts. Im sure Oz wanted her to act like that. But Mikas character just has no effort of acting at all. I believe anyone could have gave tgat performance. Theres just nothing there. Nick did hos job and overall is a phenomenal actor that doesnt get that credit. But i wanted a film of serial killer being chased by detective like Seven and silence of the lambs. Longlegs just doesnt kill anyone and don't get enough screen time. He gets maybe 15 mins if that. If they made longlegs the actual killer and had him throughout the whole movie and didnt go supernatural with it i would have enjoyed it more.
i completely agree the movie felt really flat majority of the time and even rushed.. love the way it was filmed but i just wish the pacing and story was more thought out
first time i saw it I had similar reservations about Lee's character being really flat. But after a second viewing, i started to pick up on the clues throughout the film I missed from the first viewing. "no effort into acting." well, she is literally putting effort into acting very stiff, showing no emotion, basically being a robot, but I get what you're saying. I think there might be a connection here, when Lee meets the Camera girl at the ward, the man at the counter says she wouldn't budge and was incredibly quiet, but then suddenly she was full of life. Lee mentions to her boss how that likely happened once they found the doll in the old barn, but its dismissed as a coincidence. In the final act of the film when her mother shoots her doll, she passes out, then comes to and is full of life and rushes to the scene to help her bosses' family. I think this is Lee's character snapping out of her robotic, frozen "perfomance" so-to-speak, just like with the Camera girl. Meaning the doll/ Satan/ whomever is controlling them in ways, making them forget, etc etc. Essentially, i think its incredibly intentional that she is really awkward. When she gives her awkward responses, they usually cut to the person she's speaking to and they give her a "rrrright...uhhhh anwayyyy" sort of face, indicating that she's behaving strangely. i dunno, tho. lol
Have to disagree with Maikia's acting not being excellent. She is always very solid but in this especially. Her eyes tell a lot and she does not overact. There's a reason she's being put in some of the best horror movies inlcuding "It Follows."
@edelmantoamendola she is a great actor. It follows and the watcher are two films of hers a really like. I also liked Villins with her and Skarsgard. I understand what Oz wanted so she delivered the performance he wanted. She's being affected by her doll. So she doesn't have much emotion etc until her doll was destroyed by her mother. But I still feel her character and performance just falls flat and too dull at moments. Even after her doll is destroyed imo. But that's just my thoughts.
I wish the ending would’ve been that longlegs was her father and her family was the last one to be killed. So to complete the triangle longlegs kills her mother and her then himself. I think that would’ve been a better ending than what we got. Having said that I loved the movie
I completely agree that this movie could have been so much more. There were many things that just left me wanting. I absolutely love the atmosphere of it, though.
when he has the mom tied up he says “You could have been rich with me” Longlegs is either the Father himself, meeting Lees mom when he was in a band or something, found out he had a daughter and wanted to sacrifice her or something, then instead the mom comes up with the idea of helping him instead , she says “ the devil wanted him for himself but i couldn’t allow that to happen” or something 🤷🏻
"LongLegs" ultimately left me a little disappointed, because I my expectations were too high. This is a very good movie, but I feel that it falls a little short of its potential. The directing, cinematography and acting are all EXCELLENT. I did feel that it would have been better served to have a longer run-time. The final act seems too rushed and therefore detracts from the earlier excellence. I wonder if there is a longer director's cut that has the necessary additional footage to alleviate the rushed feeling of the final act. For me, I have a lot of great things to say about this film, but in the end I feel that it could have been even better. As is, "LongLegs" falls short of "Seven" for me. Still a very good horror film that is well-worth watching.
if you look closely, the movie is a homage to satan. hints and demonic grimaces are hidden everywhere, and the plot is also shot just to celebrate satan's fun with the sacrifices. Visually excellent and the story is also tailored to Satan. You can like it or not
We can’t all be True Detective Season 1. I think that they want to heavily lean on the supernatural. I agree it should have been explored more. It was a good film regardless and reminded me of the old school movies I think it suffered from being a bit overly complex.
I enjoyed the movie and you’re the first that I’ve seen to share my exact opinion on it. It may have been that the build up was a little too strong but it felt like the ciphers didn’t amount to much. There could have been excellent payoffs with cracking ciphers to contribute towards the cat and mouse chase. The movie left me wanting more. The build up and disingenuous headlines/reviews really didn’t help this movie. I loved it but like you, felt like it was a bit of a wasted opportunity. It’s as if you’re making a meal and you bought all the best ingredients from all over the globe, spent hours perfecting the recipe, and when you share your meal with friends and family they all say it was just good, not the best thing I’ve ever had but far from the worst.
11:33 As a horror writer Ive spent a good chunk of my life pondering the same question: What is horror. The answer I came up with is tone and intention. Let me give you an example scenario: Theres a school shooter lose and two teenage girls need to try and survive. This premise could be handled in multiple ways depending on the writer/directors intention. Action: These movies tend to shoot for excitement. the movie is well lit, and the music will be update or exciting at moments to highlight when the teenagers inevitable fight back or make impactful decisions. They will be chased through moments and come near death, but the killer isnt focused on them specifically for long. At some poimt, theyll figure out the identity of the killers and use this to their advantage in wordplay. Eventually the movie culminates in them getting ahold of weapons and fighting back to a chorus of heavy metal music and they ambush the shooters. Horror: These movies are meant to scare, which means a lot of suspense and tension. The movie will be more darkly lit and the music will range from soft to heavy to amp up the tension at moments. The shooters will be wearing masks and if we learn their identity at all it wont be until the very end of the movie, and they may not even be students from that school. The teenagers may decide to fight back at some point, or they may be forced into it, but in either scenario they will be at a disadvantage and will only survive through quick wit or some last minute mistake by the shooters. When watching these movies, the intention of the director will always be clear, do they want to excite you (action), thrill you (thriller) or scare you (horror). Thriller and horror are bedfellows often blurring lines between one another, using Silence of the lambs there is plenty of suspense and tension throughout, but the only time it REALLY crosses into horror is the very end. Its more thriller than horror. And I absolutely think this was by design. Se7en as well is more Thriller than horror. But just a few small tweeks to the music, setting, and a couple of small tweeks to the script and they easily could have been more horror than thriller. Longfellow however, is more psychological horror than thriller. It intends to worm its way into your head and scare you more with what is going on compared with say a slasher that relies on jump scares and brief moments of tension or suspense. Longfellow is horrific in concept, and the tone tells us it wants us to be uncomfortable and a little scared at times. Sorry for my rant, Im genuinely passionate about this stuff 😂
Like a few comments here, I was disappointed by the supernatural twist. I don't know about this film. I feel like it's a little overhyped. I don't and would not compare it to silence of the lambs.
Honesty the ending felt incomplete, and i felt like if it leaned more into the occult angle like hereditary it could have been perfect. The marketing definitely made me feel like it was gonna be how i said, kinda more like hereditary, especially with the really creepy marketing.
@@Imfromtheportlandorarea Yeah longlegs has its creepy moments. It makes you feel uncomfortable and uneasy. But if we’re talking “scary” it doesn’t come close to the first Conjuring
I think you’ll get the “psychic” stuff upon a second viewing……. SPOILERS DOWNSTAIRS………… The psychic link comes from Lee’s doll. Lee’s mom specifically said that it makes her forget along with the girl she visits in hospice. I think it was intentional to portray Lee as psychic until the reveal of The Man Downstairs and his ability to insert Satan into a metal brain into a doll into a family’s home into the father… like a Trojan horse…….. she should’ve paid attention when Snape was teaching occlumancy 💪🤣💪but fr fr tho……
I don’t think people didn’t get this. The point is that some people don’t find that very satisfying. It’s cheap and it’s easy to just say ‘oh, the devil did it.’
!SPOILER ! You picked up on 100% of my issues with the film. Stylistically superb, but the occult mumbo jumbo- magic dolls with magic balls was no payoff at all. ‘Because evil magic’ is not satisfying when the film starts by setting up some great FBI detective scenes. And to what end was Longlegs giving her psychic powers and pushing her towards stuff. Alright he’s doing that. Why tho? Literally didn’t have any purpose at all. Hail Satan.
That’s exactly how I felt. We were handed one of the coolest detective films I had seen in a while and the whole thing was taken away by the halfway point. I even thought the psychic angle was a cool setup but the payoff all being chalked up the dolls let me down.
IT RULED. it was dang near perfect. i am so tired of hearing people whine about it. its like a more unsettling "Prisoners" with an even heavier satanic leaning. its unreal
I disagree, the cypher letters were all referencing a murder that had not been linked to the cases yet (the Camera family farm) so I believe Lee solving them was very important! It set the hunt in motion with X marks the spot and finding the doll of Carey Ann.
This video hits the nail on the head. I have just come from the cinema and had exactly the same reaction to this film. Close but no cigar. Yes, a lot better than a lot of what we've seen in the last 10 years. But the last third of the film goes downhill pretty quickly, mainly because of the 'anything can happen' supernatural elements. Also, the statement that the film uses a lot of 'different lenses' is not true, the whole film is almost exclusively wide lens, even when they change the aspect ratio. This actually works against the film, in my opinion, and leaves very little to the imagination, giving most scenes a very similar look and feel and less dynamics. All in all, a watchable film though.
If I had to guess, the psychic element to this movie was cause longlegs manipulated the main character so she will eventually become the next vessel for the devil. Idk guess she needed the help supernaturally so she would be where longlegs needed her. Although tbh that’s just me justifying.
Extremely bad. They really put no effort into this in terms of internal movie logic. Lee Harker is supposed to be a trained FBI agent but clearly hasn't learnt the pure basics of close quarter combat/room clearing. She never calls in for backup, not even when her partner gets shot in the head infront of her. Does she call it in ? No, she basically blindly goes into a house with a violent suspect trying to clear each room on her own not checking corners, not checking doors she passes... This was the point the movie's immersion completely broke for me. Don't even want to get started on the writing or acting or editing.... Maika Monroe normally is fine, but she basically had no personality. And the end? What was that? Seeing her mother shoot the dolls head and the metal orb "freeing" Lee just a scene before, the viewer would expect Lee to shoot the doll in her boss' house the first thing she enters the room. But no, she freezes up, lets sh!t happen and then for some reason runs out of bullets to shoot the doll ? And when did she trade in her SigSauer P226 for a 6-shot revolver? I must have missed that.... I won't rewatch this movie so for the sake of not being totally negativ I will chalk this up to me actually missing her losing or switching her handgun. But yeah, complete disaster. Falls apart in so many ways.
The character is clearly autistic. She didn't run out of bullets, genius. She couldn't shoot the doll, Longlegs won. She didn't clear rooms because of the intuition, but she was more of a puppet. You missed the whole point.
Great film... Perkins and the DOP Arochi are absolute ultra-formalists filmmakers: the geometry, the structure, the orchestration, both of frames dynamics and lensing are adamantine. Plot and editing in this movie follow the same algorithm of the satanic inverted triangle (shown in a cut): that is that the flow of the film is a sort of spiraling back and forward towards the ending. One of the greatest virtues of this movie is the strictness of the structuring fo a cinematic experience; conversely totally absent in contemporary cinema
Unfortunately, I was having the same literal thoughts as you were during the screening. I was analyzing too much while watching and now I realize that it was actually a good movie. Totally agree with your view about the detectives. It didn't even feel like it was case they were trying to solve. You also never really see other policeman aside from two scenes, which makes it feel even less of a case. It felt like a homework assignment for Harker. I also wish we saw Longlegs actually committing crimes, or give a little context into what he did before he encountered Harker. I love every second of cage in the movie, but he sort of just felt like he existed in the story.
To your comment about why Texas Chainsaw is horror and not thriller, there is no mystery to solve and no overall pressure to "Crack the case". I'd say the thriller genre thrives on the feeling that if your main agent solves the crime on time, they'll prevent more death. That isn't the case in horror. As you said there are often fantastical things like evil, ghosts, creatures...but there's also the slasher films that purely exist to be disgusting and uncomfortable. Texas chainsaw as a horror is more about survival of a victim or group of victims amidst monstrosity. The inclusion of a mystery element and the possible prevention of more death is what I think separates thrillers and normal mysteries.
Supernatural isn’t what makes a movie a horror movie, it’s a sub genre of horror that we see very often. Slashers, thrillers, supernatural, psychological, and creature features are all horror. Horror is horrible content that’s supposed to horrify you. Make you scared, uncomfortable, disturbed, shook, give you anxiety and nightmares, imprint visuals in your mind you wish you could forget. And some non horror movies may have horror elements in them, but it’s not the focus of the film or apart of the intent of its makers. It’s all about intent and production
The movie made all the FBI agents so incompetent, it had to be spooky magic. Otherwise, they all would have seen the very obvious clues we all saw. I agree, movie shots and visuals were great, but it felt rushed, predictable, and, are we ever going to get a Nicholas Cage character that doesn’t break into song or screech?
I havent seen the movie, but i find it odd that you state that you thought the trailers showed too much. For literally EVERY other person whose review I've read/heard/watched has stated the exact OPPOSITE--that one of the greatest things Longlegs and their producers/creators did was NOT give away or say too much in the previews/trailers. And while I havent seen the movie myself, I'd have to agree with the other reviews, as I dont think the trailers gave away hardly anything, and the only way Ive learned anything about the movie has been from watching/hearing/reading reviews from people on UA-cam and elsewhere whove already seen the movie. I mean, all i could pick up from the trailers was that there was a young female FBI agent investigating a series of rather heinous murders, and that the movie had an extremely ominous and foreboding vibe to it. But I didnt even know if it was supposed to be about a serial killer, had no idea Nic Cage was going to be in it, i didnt know if it was going to be a supernatural/paranormal sort of movie or more of a thriller ala Silence of the Lambs, or what. So yeah, i really dont know how you could have came away from the trailers feeling like you gleaned too much info, as they really said hardly anything about the movie.
Honestly, as good as the marketing for this movie was... I kinda wish I saw it with no knowledge on it at all I feel like I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
We see detectives looking for a serial killer and our expectations go to Seven, Silence of the Lambs, Zodiac, etc. We think this falls short of other movies with those elements. That may paint our first impressions. This is normal, but then we have to give the movie a chance to be seen on its own terms. When that happens, sometimes the movies grow on us and maybe we learn to take them as they are. Yes, the detective work could've been better but the whole case was cold BECAUSE of the supernatural elements. They needed supernatural powers to break it. Then I think of the ending of the movie and I think that this isn't about FBI work, it's about Lee's relationship with her mother, and what her mother has done for her, basically condemning herself to be a puppet so her daughter would be "allowed to live", and why Lee ends up killing her own mom because of this. Focus on that relationship and the rest of the movie becomes decoration. I watched it once and It's stuck in my mind. I know I'll watch it many times again in the coming years.
Thank you all for watching! I have since made a new video on Longlegs which I think is much better than this one. That video contains more of my finalized thoughts since I have watched the movie again. Check it out if you can, ty!
I think you’re misunderstanding Lee. She isn’t actually psychic, her doll was giving her those nudges and abilities. It was guiding her the whole movie and that’s why she was able to finally recall her memories again after her mom finally destroyed the doll. Idk that kinda agitated me bc she isn’t actually psychic
her description of her abilities makes more sense tho she said ‘it’s like someone tapping me on the shoulder telling me where to look’ and i am a very intuitive person and i would never describe it like that…it’s more like my first thought or gut reaction is usually right and it’s fairly detailed…so i think that was a hint early on that she didn’t actually have powers, she’s just being guided by the devil who is literally seen in the shadows throughout the movie
I came to the comment section to say pretty much the same thing.
It may be the case that she also has a strong tuition. But the film hinted (rather clearly) that she isn’t psychic when she told them she only got 50% of the answers right on the test.
That’s being psychic Bestie
But why did the mom shoot the doll.she didn't want her to remember but she then did it confused me.also was it long legs essence in the ball or the devil the said first it was long legs but then said the devil was in the doll so it was both of them.the orb I wanted to know what exactly it is why it made that sound and the black mist in it was that the devil or long legs a few confused things
@@DouglasBull-rk6tv I watched the movie and some interpretations. now i tend to think that shot her doll because the devil wanted Lee to kill her mother willingly after. the whole movie is about a plot to manipulate Lee into killing her mother and to make her suffer immensly because of that. so the devil took her memories first and leaded her to choose a career in FBI and at the end of investigation revealed to her the whole picture. it would be not as interesting for the devil to control Lee directly as he did with those families. and i suppose longlegs is only a servant of the devil. longlegs was using devil's essence while making the dolls. longlegs was only wicked man.
A 100% score on rotten tomatoes doesn't mean the movie is perfect, it just means that 100% of reviewers rated it a good movie.
It went down to 87% anyway lol
@@Blink-dd6qfstill a solid score. I liked the movie but I did fall into the hype and was looking up everybting about the movie, shouldve gone it to it more blind. 7/10 tho and I stil think it’s one of the better horror movies of recent years
Rotten tomatoes is for casuals. Metacritic is more accurate take
@@titwillo it had 100% when the trailer was released.
Just saw it - I thought it was good - but overhyped.
My favourite thing about this movie is that no one at the FBI solved a basic substitution cypher.
Also that a cat somehow survived in a cage while being in a room with rotting bodies for A MONTH. Also why does no one in that scene wear masks, the stench would've been toxic.
That really got to me 😭
The cat wasn't in the cage for a whole month it was put there by the police officers when they arrived to the scene.@@majimasmajimemes1156
@@majimasmajimemes1156 I just assumed that the cat had been roaming free in the house and that the FBI put it in the cage to prevent it further contaminating the crime scene.
@@TheMogul23this is probably the case lol
The sound design was THE BEST. Especially in a movie theater.
Yeah, no sound problems at all where I watched it
I saw it on theater and honestly found the noise spikes during jumpscares really annoying, specially when there was nothing creepy onscreen to justify the sound. It's like the horror equivalent of sitcom laugh tracks to make up for the bad jokes
This seems incredibly nitpicky.
I actually don’t think Harker was psychic at all. I feel like the final act of the movie confirms that Harker was never psychic but that she has essentially been mislead/ controlled/ beckoned, without her knowledge, by Longlegs/ the devil ever since he first visited her.
Similar to the mom in Hereditary, Harker has never been in control. It was all a part of Longlegs plan. In the end when Harker can’t shoot the doll she realizes she lost and Longlegs won. The final “Hail Satan” is further confirmation that the evil was never escapable and will continue to exist and there is nothing Harker can do about it.
perfectly said
I thought it was pretty clear this was supernatural from the marketing. I think it would have been annoying if the supernatural element was fake or a screen for just one crazy person. Like Hereditary, the evil is beyond the protagonist.
Yes, that is my thought too.
I don't think it was that either. I just think since she lived with 2 serial killers since she was kid for a long time. She knows how one operates. It's how she found the house in the opening, it's like she felt something familiar. And she was right.
@@rayvonvelez3129 this is a reach. She didn’t KNOW she was living with killers. Literally just before she was drawn to the house in the beginning she hears a sinister whisper. In fact you can hear whispering or see the shadow of the devil nearly every time she has a “hunch”
Lee isn't psychic though, that's the devil whispering to her. Didn't you notice that she looks over her left shoulder every time? That's metaphorically where the devil sits, an angel on our right.
thats a very specific detail, still the devil is communicating with her aka PSYCHIC
You watched it twice and still didnt realize she was never psychic. The whole point was she was manipulated by the “being” and had repressed memories. Hell they literally told the viewers that after her psychic test results when she only scored 50%
Hello she was psychic
@@Imfromtheportlandorarea As psychic as Satan needed her to be 😫
@@ApahtieParty huh
@@Imfromtheportlandorarea 🤦♂️
@@toneohm what
I’m starting to see that not everyone picked up on the campy silliness of this movie and it kills me 😭 did the wink and kiss at the end not give it away??
maybe because there was no sillyness aside from long legs? we are not talking about evil dead lol, everything in this movie is super serious and weird, no silly campiness just weird writing that says "It was the devil all along"
@@bleeem I personally think that's why it works as well as it does. Longlegs himself is this icon of evil throughout the movie that never seems to take anything seriously despite the suffering he causes. He's supposed to be a wildcard that contrasts the humanity of (mostly) everyone else in the movie, which makes him equal parts humorous and scary in his unpredictability. It's the same reason Joker works so well in the general seriousness of the Batman series; it's just enough silliness that it doesn't compromise the overall tone.
I think the only reason she's psychic is because of the doll's influence on her. I think it's even revealed in the end that Longlegs was influencing her all along thru the doll he made for her.
yeah, they almost overtly mention that, and when Lee describes how she can discern the the things she can, she described it as "someone tapping her on the shoulder" or something like this
it's clearly satan/longlegs influencing her decision making, not a reach, they basically say it , weird seeing people not get this
If the best parts of Sinister and Longlegs were combined, I can imagine how perfect it would be.
Yes. I find Sinister much scarier. Certain scenes (lawnmower!) make me jump now matter how many times I rewatch. I loved the humor in LL, tho. Cage was the best thing. The way the film opened & ended (including credits) were perfect and helped make it better IMO, despite its underwhelming elements.
@@kennethlocke6926 I expected Longlegs more Sinister vibes.Authentic true crime scenes or something like that.
Damn that would’ve been top tier.
YES!!! If we'd had Longlegs himself instead of Jack White ( Bazule/Bagel or whatever his name was) it would be perfect! I just wrote my reaction on another review, saying how incredibly unnerving Sinister is, even on repeat watches. Despite the supernatural element originally wrong footing me, it does contain the author doing genuine research and detective work, piecing together the events and hitting a dead end because he has no concept that the supernatural is involved. In Longlegs, despite all the visual comparisons to Silence of The Lambs/Se7en/Zodiac and even The X Files (I'm sure I heard Eugene Toomb's spidery theme at one point) the FBI angle is just set dressing, Lee just makes connections from thin air and so we know pretty early on that the supernatural is involved and any logic could soon go out of the window. Plus, why would you have your title character exit with still so much of the film to run? Weird choice as Cage is incredible here. I did enjoy Longlegs, quality film making but the script needed strengthening and maybe put that gory exit toward the end, he's too big a presence to waste. If I want to be scared though, I'l just rewatch Sinister with the lights out.
What were the best parts of Sinister and Longlegs in your opinion?
I hate to say it, but yes, you do need to watch the film the second time. Lee was not psychic at all, it is actually spelled out in the film that the doll connection is what made her see things, because the doll knows as it is supernatural. Once the link is broken, we can assume that Lee is no longer able to “see” anything.
Nicholas Cage is the BEST, just INCREDIBLE. I always liked him as an actor but wow he was just wow. I love horror/serial killer movies and to me this is the very BEST. Beats Seven and Silence of the Lambs in my opinion. I will never forget this movie and Nick Cage’s character Long Legs.
After the "wow I was super uncomfortable the entire time, 10/10" wore off, I realized how ridiculous the agent (forgot his name the moment the movie ended, he feels like a kinda wasted character in hindsight) was for not getting his wife and kid the hell out of dodge the moment he learned his kid would be the exact target type for an uncatchable serial killer. Lots of little details that kinda make the movie fall apart once you look at it for too long.
I wish they'd gone with a Manson family/son of sam vibe instead of *genuinely* using the "satan made me do it" card. It took away so much of what made this movie so unnerving for me. Nothing is scarier to me than knowing the worst kind of monster out there is the one who blends in with you, the guy you walk past in the grocery store could have bodies in his basement, your neighbor could be doing god knows what on the dark web or whatever.
I hoped it'd have some kind of religious psychosis connection that passed on from mother to daughter, an imagined "gift" that plays on her intuition as a neurodivergent woman who grew up in an abusive household (she felt VERY autistic-coded to me, as an autistic woman). It could've been so much scarier to watch this play out with long legs as "just some guy, but a bit fucked up", just like anyone else could be.
I liked long legs and I'd even recommend people go see it. I felt this same way tbh. I left kind of wondering if I even liked it or not. Cage was absolutely unsettling and the lead actress was good in her role. I had trouble really nailing down why I felt underwhelmed by it but I think you hit the nail on the head.
I mentally clocked out when the supernatural stuff kicked in. It was so well planned out until all that got involved. Like the Satanism worked with the unhinged villain, but once it was all "the silver ball was magic", I lost interest.
I really enjoyed this film and I completely agree it’s a visual feast. When it came to the Occult stuff, however, I prefer it when a film just drops the hammer on stuff like that. When the Evil just feels heavy and hopeless like it did in Hereditary. When I saw that little wisp of black smoke, I thought, “awww, don’t do THAT”…same experience with Gretal & Hansel, the witchcraft should have been much darker. That’s just my preference.
It fell apart in the third act. The aspects of it became very predictable and like that of other blockbuster horror movies: the mom is mental and dresses like a nun and it's all tied together to be easy to understand (appealing to the naive), and the dolls trope. I wish it also wouldnt have had any actual supernatural aspects but only used the idea of brainwashing and supernatural concepts as a backdrop and remained solely in reality.
I'm hardy naive. Been watching horror and crime thrillers for decades. Yes, the exposition dump was disappointing. But it takes nothing away from the performances or atmosphere. That one doesn't like the supernatural elements is irrelevant. All that matters is the execution of ideas, whatever they are, on film.
I agree, the end definitely killed it for me. The horror of the unknown, the helplessness of being a pawn for a demonic entity beyond our world, it was really unsettling until it was explained and turned kinda predictable as you said.
Well no shit it had to end. It’s a movie
It was not a horror movie tho 😂😂
@@ronintheyorky4426”the scariest movie of the decade”
I wholeheartedly agree - judging this solely on its aesthetics & visuals, it's a 10 out of 10, but the underdeveloped concepts & characters keep it from being on the level of top-tier horror/thriller films like Silence of the Lambs, Seven, and Zodiac. The trailer got me very excited for a police procedural with Eldritch horror / supernatural elements, but the movie fell short for me due to the missteps in the writing. Regardless, it is very refreshing that Hollywood took a chance on something this different, and hopefully Oz Perkins will continue to hone his craft and make a film in which his writing is up to par with his direction & artistic vision.
it’s actually very much not underdeveloped it’s just not super spelled out…there’s a UA-cam video that’s about 2 or 3 hours long i think that really goes into the stuff we got before the movie came out and it further delves into the lore with pages from books about magic and pagan shit…some of it is stuff people could figure out from the movie but if you really want to understand it fully that is the place to go for it
@@brynniefresh9746 I enjoy lore, but I feel as though movies should be self-contained to the degree that you don't have to seek out supplementary material to fill in the blanks in the narrative. Expanding on your understanding of it with existing lore & literature is great, but I didn't think Longlegs earned its twist or lived up to its premise as we're just given an exposition dump at the end that feels very forced. That said, I have watched videos that go into a lot of detail about the things it references, and I'm pretty sure I watched the video you're referencing.
This movie is wasted potential. I loved the atmosphere but I felt like Harker as a character could’ve been more fleshed out. Also, I feel like nic cage peeked out sometimes during his performance as longlegs and it kind of took me out of the movie.
We also needed more world building with longlegs (like all the ties to satanism.) Once the third act hit and it was basically like “oh it was all the devil and the mom was in on it” felt cheap and like a cop out (pun intended 🤭) to me. There should have been more there in that regard.
Also, we’re made to believe that it was all about harker but like why did longlegs want to kill her specifically to begin with? That seemed glazed over and it made the other murders just like not make sense? Like “the other murders happened because her mom was convinced to help longlegs so she could save harker” huh?? Idk the movie left me with too many questions and I didn’t buy what they were selling if that makes sense.
I also don’t like when they name Satan in a satanic thriller. It kind of diminishes the mystery and is too on the nose. Part of why Hereditary was so scary is because they were worshiping a demon we’d never heard of.
Agree - it seemed like old men were trying to make a scary satanic movie but it just comes across dumb
True but this was the 90s, satanic panic was a thing around this time give or take a few years, rock artists and the devil were associated and the fbi was still figuring out why criminals commit crime to begin with so I think it all goes hand in hand with the time period
I completely agree. Hereditary did it better of course the exorcist did it better. And I’m saying this from someone who knows religion and understands that Satan isn’t an actual being. So when a film decides to call their demon “satan” it just looks cartoony to me.
@@michaelmacias8 the director is a lo…ser with no imagination.
So the dark figure with horns wasn't enough? It's a film about the Occult, who else would it be?
If it had just been longer, with more time to flesh out the story and characters. Oz Perkins really needs to trust other writers for his stories. And it looks like thankfully and finally he'll be doing that for his upcoming film: Keeper.
Also: Nicholas Cage is my mfn guy.
It was very good but unfortunately did over explain at the end. If you’re gonna over explain the mother’s connection you need to explain why he ended up living in the mother’s house and also, some backstory to Cobble? Like, maybe how he became what he is? Was he part of a cult? The ciphers are kind of blown over, it would’ve been neat to see some connection to perhaps ancient Sumerian texts or something, some deeper drive to Cobble’s mission than simply ‘Hail Satan.’ I would find it interesting if perhaps Cobble as a boy had an encounter with someone doing what he now does & it gets passed on like a demonic virus/contract required to not be killed by the predator. I dunno, a lot explained yet not explained leaving an unfinished feeling. Perhaps a prequel for Cobble? Interesting name too. Cobblepot/The Penguin. Cage’s character had Joker & Penguin all over it. I was waiting for Batman to show up during the interrogation. Didn’t understand the clothes at all. Weird pinkish white, multiple button up shirts, the powdered face. Came off less Marc Bolan glam & more Liberace. He had guitars (a Flying V), awesome. But why? Was in he in a band at some point? Did Satan promise him fame & fortune for doing his ‘dirty work’? What was the metal ball? What material? How does it channel the voice of the devil? So much left to imagine which is annoying as what’s left to imagine about Cobble is juxtaposed against what is explained which is that the mother is arguably more of a player here in the murders. She actually enters the home. She is an accomplice!! In classic Manson fashion, Cobble never actually kills anyone. Anyway, so many holes, so many questions, so many missed opportunities. This film needed another hour to artfully fill in some blanks and it would’ve been a masterpiece. I give it a solid B+ or three stars. Also, not really scary but definitely ambient, eerie & at times, although brief, creepy.
exactly! i feel like there were so many cool elements but it never gave any of them enough room to breathe and flourish which made everything feel disappointing and underwhelming
And who killed families before the mother took part in the acts?
The run time forced the rushed exposition dump. Had the movie been 20 minutes longer so as to tell more story it would have been excellent.
i pretty much agree. Cage was maybe on screen for a total of 5 mins, we need that prequel
To me it came off that Cobble is the devil in human form. He loves rock music & kinda looks like a cursed Aerosmith band member. Movie takes place in early 90’s rock music was crazy during that time. Idk that’s how I took it . Since Lucifer is the god of music and shit. Idk
she’s not psychic she shares thoughts with long legs once her doll is broken that link is severed
She has to be actually psychic, because the very first thing she does as an agent is to identify the house of a serial killer unrelated to the Longlegs case. She's not just sharing thoughts with Longlegs. She knows weird things that he doesn't know.
She is psychic. The FBI ran that test on her at the beginning.
@@t3hpenguinofd00mbro Longlegs is being controlled by the devi that’s how he’s able to put his voice into the sphere when he kisses it in the basement. Longlegs made a doll of Lee and is able to kinda like tap her on the shoulder and point out shit to her. And once the doll is destroyed and the link is severed she her “brain fog” is lifted too.
@@IRidez interesting theory. So does that mean that every decision in Lee's life was being influenced by Longlegs, and Satan actually wanted her to go into the FBI from the beginning?
@@t3hpenguinofd00m It was an unrelated case but through that case she is assigned to the Longleg investigation. So yeah not totally unrelated
I'll keep it short and sweet. LONGLEGS is a *Flawed Masterpiece*
Good god.. there's an oxymoron if i've ever heard one..
This movie could have been legendary... They should have kept it as a grounded serial killer film It would have been up there with silence of the lmbs... But instead we get given an amazing character that does absolutely nothing.... And instead they turn the film into a generic possession film like every other horror film what a disappointment... The horror was done really well as well so this could have been unbelievably good.... The only thing that would save this now is if they did a prequel backstory to long legs based in the 70s and had him as an actual serial killer now that would be phenomenal
I disagree that it was a generic possession film. Was there possession? Yes, in a way, but I've never seen it be done like this in a movie before.
We absolutely need prequel 👍
Disagree. That you don't prefer supernatural/possession elements has no bearing on whether or not the film is good. All that matters is the story and its execution.
@@77Creation So you disagree for no particular reason then that's kind of stupid isn't it
@@realitysvenno the movie is better because it’s supernatural. Evil is basically permeating the whole movie and environment and atmosphere. Satan continues with new people. Nothing she could do to stop it.
6:32 I don’t think she’s psychic or a good detective. I really think it’s that the demon is giving her answers.
This exactly
I thought she was just autistic and the "devil is helping her the whole time" thing pissed me off, because it kinda lead to nowhere
Was just about to say the exact same thing.
The whole movie was in the trailer and the trailer was the best part of it.
Disappointing
For the hype
Cinematography great 👍🏼
It should’ve leaned completely in the character LongLegs. Was way to on the nose with the satanic stuff and they should’ve made it just about longs legs and him manipulating the mom and such
Why can’t people accept that sometimes it’s a supernatural Horror film and it’s Satan and therefore the hero can’t stop it?
@@eazymethod01 wdym. I understand completely you can’t stop Satan but I liked the whole detective and serial killer part of the movie. I still think it would be cool to keep it supernatural but think they should’ve made longlegs himself into the demon Baal (demon of child sacrifice) and had it where he himself was supernatural and he still wasn’t allowed to kill Lee because her moms deal and that drove Longlegs so crazy he started toying with her as a cop because he never got to kill her. Just my opinion and what I think would’ve been cooler instead of it feeling like the movies like “Satan was the villain all along”
@@eazymethod01 I also think they butchered the moms character with having her say “hail Satan”
@@eazymethod01 because we had 90 films about satan and satanic shit, a supernatural serial killer like michael myers who is just supernatural is way more interesting than "I made a pact with the devil"
I dont think any film is perfect. But i thought this was really good movie. I was very surprised by the end how it impressed me. I thought i would hate it. But came out opposite
(spoilers) The whole twist of BOOM the devil's in the dolls and he forces people to kill really took me out of this movie. I feel that a better twist would have been that all the families in the town were members of the occult and longlegs was the leader and each crime was a sacrifice. And the ending could be Harker and her partner arrest longlegs but the town attacks them and they are sacrificed at the end.
That would have been much better than what we got. A better version would be that Long Legs was a typical serial killer and took all the supernatural nonsense out of it.
That makes no sense considering the town families were the murder victims. Why would they need someone else to k*ll themselves? Just say you like the cult stuff from Resident Evil 4.
I get it, but then it would be too similar to the story of Charles Manson and it would definitely be predictable in a way. I like the idea of adding supernatural elements to the plot, especially as a twist, because it has made it more authentic than any other serial killer-related movie. The subtle fluidity between realistic, material world on one hand, and the occult on the other is the “juiciest” twist in my opinion.
Thats just the bee movie without the 🐝
Definitely not a better twist at all lmao
While i feel movies and art are subjective, did we watch 2 seperate movies? I thought it was abundantly clear she wasnt psychic and it was the man downstairs tapping her on the shoulder. Also, the trailers had so many demonic things, and the being surprised by the occult stuff makes me confused.
She's still "psychic" in the sense of knowing things; just because her gift comes from the devil doesn't make her less psychic.
Yeah I don't understand how people didn't get that there was something supernatural going on in the trailer. It was pretty obvious.
the satanic staff was not surprising at all and felt lazy for me, I felt the script was like "take all the cool stuff about bible and satanic panic and put it in one film" instead of showing true nature and source of evil - it was mostly voodoo dolls and cage laughing and screaming "hail satan". IMHO it was just way too stereotypical in this regard.
LONGLEGS was good. Was it great? No. Did Nicholas Cage do a great job? Absolutely.
This should have been just a straight-up serial killer movie without all the demon s***
Exactly what I said. All the demonic doll stuff ruined it.
The detective's psychic element is the central axis of the whole story, it is the final link to close the circle of the plot and give Longless its own identity. To begin with, the psychic element places the story in a world of its own, on another plane of reality that makes the whole demonic thing credible. It is also a key element in the plot to understand that the detective is part of a previously developed plan that uses these psychic abilities as a game factor that will work against her, which adds constant tension to the plot.
Yep. Could have been. Sadly the ending is wasted potential. The hype is too strong
I kind of became obsessed with this movie, ngl. There are a lot of hidden details under tge surface. It feels more like a puzzle than a movie. Live it
I really loved this movie, I didn’t go in expecting anything. I think that’s where a lot of people get lost in it. They have expectations for how it SHOULD end. I loved it.
Every aspect of this movie would've had to change if the detective wasn't psychic. The idea is that she's psychic when it comes to crime because her brain is directly tied to the devil via the "brain" in the doll. If there was no psychic element, there'd be no way to explain that Longlegs had been living in her basement for years without her knowledge. I do agree that the way they tied everything together in the last 20% of the movie was not very satisfying. Best horror movie I've seen in years, though.
The director/writer has stated that they pushed the comparison to "Silence of the Lambs" in the marketing of the film to set up the audience expectation of seeing something semi-familliar they had a reference to, then pulling the rug out and showing something quite different with the supernatural element detective story.
urghhhh I don’t agree that she was psychic, I think carter jokes she’s psychic but she’s chalks up it up to intuition. Later we find out that the “psychic” abilities was her doll that told her where to look etc.
The lead detective guy, the black guy, should have mentioned that his daughter’s birthday was on the 14th! Big plot hole!
I chalked that up to his disbelief in anything supernatural and refusal to believe he could be susceptible
@@MegaRandom432 It really took me out of the movie, especially since you could tell that the ending was going to involve him since everyone else that Lee had been close to had gotten killed.
Anyone in the FBI, especially after the acknowledgment that Lee herself had a birthday on the 14th, would've checked out Blair Underwood's daughter for a birthday on the 14th. Even in the years between 1993-2001 (based on the picture of Bill Clinton in the FBI office, signaling he's the current President), that information would've been available in a cursory search, especially when the serial killer is targeting girls with birthdays on the 14th.
I really hoped they would've subverted that particular expectation, because it was so obvious, but they didn't. I really enjoyed the movie, but that ending didn't work for me at all. Also, what kind of modern 90s community in the US would've let random people associated with "the church" into their homes on the birthdays of their daughters, especially if they weren't religious? If this is a really small, religious community, would the FBI (even in the 90s), send a black guy in an interracial relationship as the lead investigator?
Lastly, the fact that Lee could somehow pass the battery of tests and requirements to make it into the FBI beggars belief. Even if she had no memory of Longlegs, the fact that she would get so easily bothered by mundane things doesn't lead me to believe she could stand up to the rigors of FBI training, let alone the fact a background check would find that her mother is fucked in the head.
idk I feel like that was pretty obvious from the beginning.
@@MegaRandom432 na just bad writing.
Her birthday is the 13th.
Just a hint, the doll is her powers. You know the premise of the whole film?? When her mum shoots the doll the black smoke is released from the doll and Lee, satan is control is released.
I think that is better than most of the movies lately.
So sad that the movie went down in the middle.
This was a good retrospective. Nicely put together and injecting some things I hadn't considered. I thought the movie was really solid. Been thinking about theories and explanations for the past couple days!
Was a really good movie. The trailer depicted exactly what the movie was intended to be, you just have to watch the movie to understand the trailer. Was a thriller from the start and ended in a horror style.
I agree with the vast majority of this review. I thought the movie was great for the first 2/3rds to maybe 3/4ths of the movie. Everything after Lees interview with longlegs was a gradual downhill to me
I was so hyped and anticipated this film. But theres alot that hurts it imo. Spoiler alert ⚠️
I didnt like the supernatural twist. But even with that we needed more story and explanation. Thinks just dont add up or make sense at parts. Im sure Oz wanted her to act like that. But Mikas character just has no effort of acting at all. I believe anyone could have gave tgat performance. Theres just nothing there. Nick did hos job and overall is a phenomenal actor that doesnt get that credit. But i wanted a film of serial killer being chased by detective like Seven and silence of the lambs. Longlegs just doesnt kill anyone and don't get enough screen time. He gets maybe 15 mins if that. If they made longlegs the actual killer and had him throughout the whole movie and didnt go supernatural with it i would have enjoyed it more.
i completely agree the movie felt really flat majority of the time and even rushed.. love the way it was filmed but i just wish the pacing and story was more thought out
first time i saw it I had similar reservations about Lee's character being really flat. But after a second viewing, i started to pick up on the clues throughout the film I missed from the first viewing. "no effort into acting." well, she is literally putting effort into acting very stiff, showing no emotion, basically being a robot, but I get what you're saying. I think there might be a connection here, when Lee meets the Camera girl at the ward, the man at the counter says she wouldn't budge and was incredibly quiet, but then suddenly she was full of life. Lee mentions to her boss how that likely happened once they found the doll in the old barn, but its dismissed as a coincidence.
In the final act of the film when her mother shoots her doll, she passes out, then comes to and is full of life and rushes to the scene to help her bosses' family. I think this is Lee's character snapping out of her robotic, frozen "perfomance" so-to-speak, just like with the Camera girl. Meaning the doll/ Satan/ whomever is controlling them in ways, making them forget, etc etc.
Essentially, i think its incredibly intentional that she is really awkward.
When she gives her awkward responses, they usually cut to the person she's speaking to and they give her a "rrrright...uhhhh anwayyyy" sort of face, indicating that she's behaving strangely.
i dunno, tho. lol
Have to disagree with Maikia's acting not being excellent. She is always very solid but in this especially. Her eyes tell a lot and she does not overact. There's a reason she's being put in some of the best horror movies inlcuding "It Follows."
@edelmantoamendola she is a great actor. It follows and the watcher are two films of hers a really like. I also liked Villins with her and Skarsgard. I understand what Oz wanted so she delivered the performance he wanted. She's being affected by her doll. So she doesn't have much emotion etc until her doll was destroyed by her mother. But I still feel her character and performance just falls flat and too dull at moments. Even after her doll is destroyed imo. But that's just my thoughts.
@@joshuat5140 I feel you to each their own. The watchers was Dakota fanning though.
I wish the ending would’ve been that longlegs was her father and her family was the last one to be killed. So to complete the triangle longlegs kills her mother and her then himself. I think that would’ve been a better ending than what we got. Having said that I loved the movie
I was literally expecting that lol
I interpreted the psychic aspect of it as a gift that the devil gave to her in return for her mother's service
I completely agree that this movie could have been so much more. There were many things that just left me wanting. I absolutely love the atmosphere of it, though.
when he has the mom tied up he says “You could have been rich with me” Longlegs is either the Father himself, meeting Lees mom when he was in a band or something, found out he had a daughter and wanted to sacrifice her or something, then instead the mom comes up with the idea of helping him instead , she says “ the devil wanted him for himself but i couldn’t allow that to happen” or something 🤷🏻
I think satanism is over done in modern horror, i think if they leaned into the psychic it would have been more interesting
"LongLegs" ultimately left me a little disappointed, because I my expectations were too high. This is a very good movie, but I feel that it falls a little short of its potential. The directing, cinematography and acting are all EXCELLENT. I did feel that it would have been better served to have a longer run-time. The final act seems too rushed and therefore detracts from the earlier excellence. I wonder if there is a longer director's cut that has the necessary additional footage to alleviate the rushed feeling of the final act. For me, I have a lot of great things to say about this film, but in the end I feel that it could have been even better. As is, "LongLegs" falls short of "Seven" for me. Still a very good horror film that is well-worth watching.
spoiler alert:
regarding your comment: she being psychic is crucial to the plot
True
"Your best agent is yourself. - Nicholas Cage"
He owns the production house.
if you look closely, the movie is a homage to satan. hints and demonic grimaces are hidden everywhere, and the plot is also shot just to celebrate satan's fun with the sacrifices. Visually excellent and the story is also tailored to Satan. You can like it or not
Hahahahahah
Make sense it's all Holly weird
Oh stop it
I agree 100% Just add a little white noise and deepest sleep ever.
We can’t all be True Detective Season 1. I think that they want to heavily lean on the supernatural. I agree it should have been explored more. It was a good film regardless and reminded me of the old school movies
I think it suffered from being a bit overly complex.
It started well but fell apart along the way
I enjoyed the movie and you’re the first that I’ve seen to share my exact opinion on it. It may have been that the build up was a little too strong but it felt like the ciphers didn’t amount to much. There could have been excellent payoffs with cracking ciphers to contribute towards the cat and mouse chase. The movie left me wanting more. The build up and disingenuous headlines/reviews really didn’t help this movie. I loved it but like you, felt like it was a bit of a wasted opportunity. It’s as if you’re making a meal and you bought all the best ingredients from all over the globe, spent hours perfecting the recipe, and when you share your meal with friends and family they all say it was just good, not the best thing I’ve ever had but far from the worst.
Ciphers are the signature of the unsolved Zodiac killings in San Francisco, late 60's early 70's. Poor judgment to add that in this film.
11:33 As a horror writer Ive spent a good chunk of my life pondering the same question: What is horror. The answer I came up with is tone and intention.
Let me give you an example scenario:
Theres a school shooter lose and two teenage girls need to try and survive.
This premise could be handled in multiple ways depending on the writer/directors intention.
Action: These movies tend to shoot for excitement. the movie is well lit, and the music will be update or exciting at moments to highlight when the teenagers inevitable fight back or make impactful decisions. They will be chased through moments and come near death, but the killer isnt focused on them specifically for long. At some poimt, theyll figure out the identity of the killers and use this to their advantage in wordplay. Eventually the movie culminates in them getting ahold of weapons and fighting back to a chorus of heavy metal music and they ambush the shooters.
Horror: These movies are meant to scare, which means a lot of suspense and tension. The movie will be more darkly lit and the music will range from soft to heavy to amp up the tension at moments. The shooters will be wearing masks and if we learn their identity at all it wont be until the very end of the movie, and they may not even be students from that school. The teenagers may decide to fight back at some point, or they may be forced into it, but in either scenario they will be at a disadvantage and will only survive through quick wit or some last minute mistake by the shooters.
When watching these movies, the intention of the director will always be clear, do they want to excite you (action), thrill you (thriller) or scare you (horror). Thriller and horror are bedfellows often blurring lines between one another, using Silence of the lambs there is plenty of suspense and tension throughout, but the only time it REALLY crosses into horror is the very end. Its more thriller than horror. And I absolutely think this was by design. Se7en as well is more Thriller than horror. But just a few small tweeks to the music, setting, and a couple of small tweeks to the script and they easily could have been more horror than thriller. Longfellow however, is more psychological horror than thriller. It intends to worm its way into your head and scare you more with what is going on compared with say a slasher that relies on jump scares and brief moments of tension or suspense. Longfellow is horrific in concept, and the tone tells us it wants us to be uncomfortable and a little scared at times.
Sorry for my rant, Im genuinely passionate about this stuff 😂
I totally disagree about not seeing it in theatre, its an entirely different experience seriously
No... You Must see it in the theater... it's a different atmosphere and typically superior sound...
You didn't understand she's actually not a psychic? Watch the movie again.
Like a few comments here, I was disappointed by the supernatural twist. I don't know about this film. I feel like it's a little overhyped. I don't and would not compare it to silence of the lambs.
I agree i expected a little more.
The screen write could have been written on a piece of napkin during lunch. Maybe I am getting old or just not in awe of cheap thrills.
Honesty the ending felt incomplete, and i felt like if it leaned more into the occult angle like hereditary it could have been perfect. The marketing definitely made me feel like it was gonna be how i said, kinda more like hereditary, especially with the really creepy marketing.
Saying Longlegs is scarier than the Conjuring is a WIIIIIIILD take
It’s not it’s very very super creepy
@@Imfromtheportlandorarea Yeah longlegs has its creepy moments. It makes you feel uncomfortable and uneasy. But if we’re talking “scary” it doesn’t come close to the first Conjuring
@@CATTingle hmm
I think you’ll get the “psychic” stuff upon a second viewing…….
SPOILERS DOWNSTAIRS…………
The psychic link comes from Lee’s doll. Lee’s mom specifically said that it makes her forget along with the girl she visits in hospice. I think it was intentional to portray Lee as psychic until the reveal of The Man Downstairs and his ability to insert Satan into a metal brain into a doll into a family’s home into the father… like a Trojan horse…….. she should’ve paid attention when Snape was teaching occlumancy 💪🤣💪but fr fr tho……
I don’t think people didn’t get this. The point is that some people don’t find that very satisfying. It’s cheap and it’s easy to just say ‘oh, the devil did it.’
!SPOILER !
You picked up on 100% of my issues with the film. Stylistically superb, but the occult mumbo jumbo- magic dolls with magic balls was no payoff at all. ‘Because evil magic’ is not satisfying when the film starts by setting up some great FBI detective scenes.
And to what end was Longlegs giving her psychic powers and pushing her towards stuff. Alright he’s doing that. Why tho? Literally didn’t have any purpose at all.
Hail Satan.
That’s exactly how I felt. We were handed one of the coolest detective films I had seen in a while and the whole thing was taken away by the halfway point. I even thought the psychic angle was a cool setup but the payoff all being chalked up the dolls let me down.
IT RULED. it was dang near perfect. i am so tired of hearing people whine about it. its like a more unsettling "Prisoners" with an even heavier satanic leaning. its unreal
The reviewer missed it completely she wasn’t psychic it was the devil leading her as she was still under the spell until the doll was killed
The last little “hail satan” *wink* could be taken out. That’s the only thing in the movie I didn’t like.
I also felt that part cheapened his overall impact. Too cheesy.
It could have been longer. It kind of fell apart in the third act
5:22 thank you for VISITING Washington. have a safe trip back home
I disagree, the cypher letters were all referencing a murder that had not been linked to the cases yet (the Camera family farm) so I believe Lee solving them was very important! It set the hunt in motion with X marks the spot and finding the doll of Carey Ann.
This video hits the nail on the head. I have just come from the cinema and had exactly the same reaction to this film. Close but no cigar. Yes, a lot better than a lot of what we've seen in the last 10 years. But the last third of the film goes downhill pretty quickly, mainly because of the 'anything can happen' supernatural elements. Also, the statement that the film uses a lot of 'different lenses' is not true, the whole film is almost exclusively wide lens, even when they change the aspect ratio. This actually works against the film, in my opinion, and leaves very little to the imagination, giving most scenes a very similar look and feel and less dynamics. All in all, a watchable film though.
If I had to guess, the psychic element to this movie was cause longlegs manipulated the main character so she will eventually become the next vessel for the devil. Idk guess she needed the help supernaturally so she would be where longlegs needed her. Although tbh that’s just me justifying.
Extremely bad. They really put no effort into this in terms of internal movie logic. Lee Harker is supposed to be a trained FBI agent but clearly hasn't learnt the pure basics of close quarter combat/room clearing. She never calls in for backup, not even when her partner gets shot in the head infront of her. Does she call it in ? No, she basically blindly goes into a house with a violent suspect trying to clear each room on her own not checking corners, not checking doors she passes... This was the point the movie's immersion completely broke for me. Don't even want to get started on the writing or acting or editing.... Maika Monroe normally is fine, but she basically had no personality.
And the end? What was that? Seeing her mother shoot the dolls head and the metal orb "freeing" Lee just a scene before, the viewer would expect Lee to shoot the doll in her boss' house the first thing she enters the room. But no, she freezes up, lets sh!t happen and then for some reason runs out of bullets to shoot the doll ? And when did she trade in her SigSauer P226 for a 6-shot revolver? I must have missed that.... I won't rewatch this movie so for the sake of not being totally negativ I will chalk this up to me actually missing her losing or switching her handgun. But yeah, complete disaster. Falls apart in so many ways.
so true
The character is clearly autistic. She didn't run out of bullets, genius. She couldn't shoot the doll, Longlegs won. She didn't clear rooms because of the intuition, but she was more of a puppet. You missed the whole point.
I saw it twice Oscar Worthy
Great film... Perkins and the DOP Arochi are absolute ultra-formalists filmmakers: the geometry, the structure, the orchestration, both of frames dynamics and lensing are adamantine. Plot and editing in this movie follow the same algorithm of the satanic inverted triangle (shown in a cut): that is that the flow of the film is a sort of spiraling back and forward towards the ending. One of the greatest virtues of this movie is the strictness of the structuring fo a cinematic experience; conversely totally absent in contemporary cinema
Unfortunately, I was having the same literal thoughts as you were during the screening. I was analyzing too much while watching and now I realize that it was actually a good movie. Totally agree with your view about the detectives. It didn't even feel like it was case they were trying to solve. You also never really see other policeman aside from two scenes, which makes it feel even less of a case. It felt like a homework assignment for Harker.
I also wish we saw Longlegs actually committing crimes, or give a little context into what he did before he encountered Harker. I love every second of cage in the movie, but he sort of just felt like he existed in the story.
I agree with your outlook 1000%. Given the hidden meaning etc etc... it still could have been written/directed better.
To your comment about why Texas Chainsaw is horror and not thriller, there is no mystery to solve and no overall pressure to "Crack the case". I'd say the thriller genre thrives on the feeling that if your main agent solves the crime on time, they'll prevent more death. That isn't the case in horror. As you said there are often fantastical things like evil, ghosts, creatures...but there's also the slasher films that purely exist to be disgusting and uncomfortable. Texas chainsaw as a horror is more about survival of a victim or group of victims amidst monstrosity. The inclusion of a mystery element and the possible prevention of more death is what I think separates thrillers and normal mysteries.
Supernatural isn’t what makes a movie a horror movie, it’s a sub genre of horror that we see very often. Slashers, thrillers, supernatural, psychological, and creature features are all horror. Horror is horrible content that’s supposed to horrify you. Make you scared, uncomfortable, disturbed, shook, give you anxiety and nightmares, imprint visuals in your mind you wish you could forget. And some non horror movies may have horror elements in them, but it’s not the focus of the film or apart of the intent of its makers. It’s all about intent and production
Great movie something about 70s movies creepy 😊
When Harker asks what do all the victims have in common? You think they would notice all of them have a creepy ass doll
They don't remember the dolls
Horror movies deal with the unknown, and taboos.
The movie made all the FBI agents so incompetent, it had to be spooky magic. Otherwise, they all would have seen the very obvious clues we all saw.
I agree, movie shots and visuals were great, but it felt rushed, predictable, and, are we ever going to get a Nicholas Cage character that doesn’t break into song or screech?
I havent seen the movie, but i find it odd that you state that you thought the trailers showed too much. For literally EVERY other person whose review I've read/heard/watched has stated the exact OPPOSITE--that one of the greatest things Longlegs and their producers/creators did was NOT give away or say too much in the previews/trailers.
And while I havent seen the movie myself, I'd have to agree with the other reviews, as I dont think the trailers gave away hardly anything, and the only way Ive learned anything about the movie has been from watching/hearing/reading reviews from people on UA-cam and elsewhere whove already seen the movie. I mean, all i could pick up from the trailers was that there was a young female FBI agent investigating a series of rather heinous murders, and that the movie had an extremely ominous and foreboding vibe to it. But I didnt even know if it was supposed to be about a serial killer, had no idea Nic Cage was going to be in it, i didnt know if it was going to be a supernatural/paranormal sort of movie or more of a thriller ala Silence of the Lambs, or what.
So yeah, i really dont know how you could have came away from the trailers feeling like you gleaned too much info, as they really said hardly anything about the movie.
Honestly, as good as the marketing for this movie was... I kinda wish I saw it with no knowledge on it at all I feel like I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
Pretty sure it’s the Midwest but whatever
its set in Oregon
She's not psychic at all. It's all explained at the end of the movie.
yeah, poorly
The sound problem was 100% your theater’s fault
My thoughts exactly. Great atmosphere, great performance from Nicholas Cage, great use of T. Rex, poor writing.
We see detectives looking for a serial killer and our expectations go to Seven, Silence of the Lambs, Zodiac, etc. We think this falls short of other movies with those elements. That may paint our first impressions. This is normal, but then we have to give the movie a chance to be seen on its own terms.
When that happens, sometimes the movies grow on us and maybe we learn to take them as they are. Yes, the detective work could've been better but the whole case was cold BECAUSE of the supernatural elements. They needed supernatural powers to break it. Then I think of the ending of the movie and I think that this isn't about FBI work, it's about Lee's relationship with her mother, and what her mother has done for her, basically condemning herself to be a puppet so her daughter would be "allowed to live", and why Lee ends up killing her own mom because of this. Focus on that relationship and the rest of the movie becomes decoration.
I watched it once and It's stuck in my mind. I know I'll watch it many times again in the coming years.
Any movie could’ve been perfect
Cool man. It was good but I’m still undecided on how they used the supernatural aspect of it.
Saw it last night. Tend to agree with you. Great review thanks man. :-)