Longlegs is a terrifying madness with Nicolas Cage in a peak performance

If we stick to the promotion of Longlegs, it’s practically a secret that Nicolas Cage appears in the movie. He is hardly part of the promotion and is barely seen in the trailer. His appearance promises to instill great terror, but he there is barely a glimps of him in a campaign that targets a classic horror audience.

Netflix DOWNLOAD

However, once I watched the movie, I can say loud and clear that only Nic Cage could have elevated this film to it’s current level of popularity. I’m not sure if calling it “the scariest movie of the year” makes any sense, but it is it is a great horror film, due entirely to having Nicolas Cage unleashed in a role that he clearly enjoys.

You will be trembling

During the last decades, Nicolas Cage’s career has been completely unpredictable. After winning the Oscar in 1995, he became a repudiated figure in the internet era, turned into a constant meme by those who believed that his exaggerated performances could only be a source of laughter. But ups and downs happen too quickly in this era, and just as he fell, he rose again. He is someone who knows what he is capable of, and is not afraid to expand in his roles.

After Mandy, Color Out of Space, and Dream Scenario, great genre gems that have taken Cage to a universe he never imagined, the actor has reached his peak with Longlegs. In the film, Cage’s appearance is a surprise, but the plot soon becomes apparent, and he is worth the wait.

Longlegs puts us in the life of Lee Harker, a very young FBI agent with a special intuition to uncover great secrets behind some of the darkest cases. The story begins when Harker is assigned an unsolved case of a serial killer who leaves encrypted messages at the scenes of his crimes, yet who never seems to have been there.

This great mystery adds to small supernatural pills that are maintained in the tone of the film. It is an atmospheric film that recalls the significance of Gretel & Hansel that its director Oz Perkins also signed. Throughout the film, there is a dark aura that makes you uncomfortable in your seat. Like the protagonist, you don’t really know what’s going on, but the direction is so measured that you may have a heart attack without anything actually happening.

And, of course, when the show begins, Longlegs becomes an explosion that Cage fully embraces. At first, his character seems out of place; his mannerisms, ways, and gestures seem to belong in another movie. But as this psychopath starts interacting with the other characters, everything makes terrifyingly attractive sense.

Do not pay attention to those who cite Longlegs as another version of The Silence of the Lambs. It is a much more playful film with an unreal depth that allows itself a mix of thriller and horror in all its forms. Obviously, the game between the protagonist and the psychopath character played by Cage is similar, but it is a much more relaxed version that can be classified, without hesitation, as classic horror.

Netflix DOWNLOAD

In short, Longlegs is a dark gem that will leave you unsettled and seeing Cage’s disfigured face every time you’re in a dark room. This seems to have become the actor’s new obsession after years of searching for a new path in Hollywood… and I’m grateful for that.