Satan and his minions have been scaring the pants off audiences from the earliest days of cinema. “Häxan” (1922) features some of the most enduring imagery of demons and black masses ever put to screen all the way back in the silent era. Cinematic devils have always been the fodder of blockbusters and folk horror classics, so much so that rarely has there been a filmmaker who has not taken a crack at Old Scratch. Through the generations, the flavors and temperaments of the moviegoing office have helped mix and meld our perceptions of the occult into gloriously entertaining soups of hellfire and malicious decadence. Sometimes so much so that it spills over into reality and imagined phantoms give rise to literal violence i.e. The Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Post-modern perspectives on the oldest mythology have come a long way since the zeitgeist-smashing spook fest that was William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” (1973). The most culturally prominent depiction of the devil from the last several decades would probably be Robert Egger’s “The VVitch” (2015), where Lucifer was more of a liberating figure of modernity than a destructive one. It’s been a minute since we’ve had a movie steeped, practically oozing, with some good old-fashioned satanic dread and menace.
Enter “LONGLEGS.”
Essentially a modern “Silence of the Lambs” (1991) if Hannibal Lector was more Aleister Crowley than Jeffrey Dahmer, the most commercially viable film from arthouse horror aficionado Osgood Perkins (“Gretel & Hansel”) features a showcase of his patented brand of high minded style, enough tension to cut with an axe, and plenty of gore to keep the kids coming back for more. Starring genre legend Maika Monroe (“It Follows”, “Watcher”) as a young FBI recruit with burgeoning paranormal abilities, the film follows her investigation into the mysterious LONGLEGS killings, where families are seemingly coerced into slaughtering themselves in ritualistic ways. Featuring hints of “Sinister” (2012), these heinous, devilish murders are most often seen in the aftermath, with the pristinely placed corpses leaving plenty to the imagination as to the manner and method of mutilation. But like “Silence of the Lambs”, this is no whodunnit. We know precisely who is behind everything before the credits even roll. As the titular character, Nicolas Cage (“Pig”, “Renfield”) offers us an alabaster boogeyman with the voice of Tiny Tim and the aura of that guy at the bus stop you’d wish would stop staring at you. “Restrained” in a way that only befits Cage, his LONGLEGS is seductive and sickly sweet; more like The Child Snatcher from “Babes in Toyland” than Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill, and features a murderous modus operandi that would send any delusional eighties demon hunting cop running for his momma. Cage’s cat-and-mouse game with Monroe’s FBI agent spirals and twists through one bloody crime scene to another, culminating in a face-to-face confrontation that is more than worth the price of admission and ends precisely how you wouldn’t expect it to.
Featuring long shots of vulnerable doorways, the creeping unease of dark rooms lit only by flashlight, and interludes of 8mm home movie footage from hell, “LONGLEGS” is too esoteric to reach the commercial heights of Hannibal Lector glory but is all the better for its idiosyncrasies. The audience I saw it with, nearly packed at a Thursday night show, was rapt with attention from the truly terrifying pre-credit sequence until the final crescendo of violence that caps off the spectacle. The devil is back on the big screen and his hoofs haven’t missed a beat.
Check out “LONGLEGS” for a mid-summer scare. Just be sure to double-check your locks when you get back home and maybe spare a prayer or two.
You’ll be glad you did.
LONGLEGS is playing at Prytania Theatres at Canal Place and The Broad Theater.
