I recommend watching Longlegs as less of a horror or place procedural but more as a coming of age movie about a secret lover leaving notes. He did it all for her, he helped her, and in doing so it helped him.
That was VERY effective because it came out of nowhere for me but still makes sense because it’s essentially the big reveal. It’s such a slow burn up until then that I didn’t expect any jumpscares at all, and then the movie slaps you awake with that scene.
SPOILER!!! One of my fav parts is when in the car coming back from that one store where the girl got freaked out and called out for her dad. I love when Longlegs starts screaming “DADDDYYY!!” Mocking the girl. Idk why but there was something really eerie about that.
Yea ngl I’ve been rewatching that section using a cam copy on some sketchy website. It’s so weird and freaky and captivating. That and the part where he sings about letting him inside to Lee in the past
@@goob8945 oz perkins said in an interview that longlegs was an ex-glam rocker, which makes sense at why he just busts out in song sometimes and as to why he looks that way.
@@TheSlooderMan yes I think I read that interview, oz and Nicolas put a lot of extra details into that character. Makes him feel a lot more believable and real, and in turn it’s all so much more horrible.
Huh, that was legitimately one of the worst parts of the movie In my opinion. It felt dumb and jarring, and not in a good way. It was jarring in a sense that it was obvious the movie was trying to play it off as creepy, but it just came across as cringy and immature.
I think it was partially due to him being frustrated that he was unable to kill her like he would want to probably because her birthday wasn’t on the 14th
My god that opening was so good it was the only moment where the movie felt like its marketing…I think about it everyday- the set up, the way nic cage is in the background slowly walking closer, the reveal and the score, the aspect ratio and the red white contrast…10/10 the rest of the movie was not scary tho
@@platipi1875the opening genuinely had me giddy in my seat thinking yes yes it's living up to the hype!! then the entire rest of the movie happened, lol
Loved everything but the last act felt very unearned and heavily rushed. This film needed another 25 minutes to flesh out that finale. It was sudden. Other than that, Nic Cage is excellent, the atmosphere, cinematography, score, and overall feel is memorable
I suspect it is meant to be 'rushed' and 'incomplete' to mirror the protagonists journey. Spoilers for other people reading comments and not seen the movie Within a very short space of time she finds out - her identity has been suppressed and life journey and choices deliberately ordained by her antagonist (her metaphysical daddy but not her physical one) - deliberately lied to by her mother - has to chose between physical family ties and metaphysical ones of her 'work' (which is not 'her's as she was preordained by DL to go where he wanted and do what he wanted - like the other girls and dolls) - kill her mum not because she was forced by Satan but forced by choice and in doing so 'choses Satan' by murdering her mother and 'being born again' and having a 'birthday'- her mother's death is her baptism - and still has a girl with a doll that she can't break (her gun not firing) which means Satan is still suppressing the girl despite her being alive, just like Lee has just woken up from It's meant to be in pieces so you spend time putting them back together, the same way her identity and history is also fractured and she would to. Was it perfect, no, and I'm still not sure it got all the pieces in place to make the end work ... but it is pretty close to coherent with some careful consideration by the audience. The chief's daughter's trophy missing a ball and it not being found (in the early bedroom scene with LH and the daughter) makes me wonder if that is used to cast the ball for her doll ... or if it is just LH picking up on 'missing parts' and 'metal balls'
There's something about his look that is so uncanny valley to me. It's not a look that needs a big reveal but it's one that still makes me uncomfortable whenever I see it and will stick with me
Just saw this yesterday and it was excellently creepy, but the ending felt weirdly abrupt and anticlimactic. I felt like I was watching an episode of a TV series rather than a complete film. Still really well made though.
Yeah I was really disappointed that the ending wasn’t satisfying despite everything it was building up. I was more upset by its ending because I was enjoying it so much until this “end” 😑
I thought that was the point, he wants us to sit and ruminate on the ending because since she was unable to shoot the doll, you know that it's never going to end. It's the horror of a supernatural force that can't be stopped so there's no catharsis, the ending has stuck with me more than any other part of the film so it's pretty effective to me.
I thought the ending was purposely abrupt and dreadful. There’s nothing she could do to stop this, and she realizes that… you can see it on her face, she knows that this fight is over.
I feel like I needed one good jump scare at the end, but I think maybe that’s what makes this movie so uncomfortable. They edge you for so long and there’s not really a climactic ‘scare’ to get it all out, so you kind walk away blue balled and take the discomfort home with you. And for a horror movie, that’s pretty genius .
That's funny cuz it felt like they tried a jump scare in the first opening scene of the film. I didn't get scared tho. But it was interesting that was the only jump scare attempt I feel. I did like that tho.
The first half - especially Lee’s house, the library, and the barn - was peak horror. I liked the psych ward scene too, minus the flashback. The second half of the film was disappointing in comparison.
People underestimate promos for film but other studios need to take notes on how well they marketed this movie. I loved this movie. Ive called the number on the billboards and seen basically all of the trailers for it and it's all done so well. The movie itself is far from perfect. But with that budget, and how every scene builds suspense in different ways with it's wide camera angles and spectacular sound design, I wish more horror movies were this good.
I've been seeing too many people complain about how the marketing overhyped how scary it was and I'm like...good? I want every horror film to be marketed like the scariest shit on earth, regardless of how quality the actual film is. That "Maika Monroe heartbeat" ad is the exact type of fun gimmicky bullshit that William Castle would've been doing. Make horror promo fun again!
@@dabunnydabunny1243 If that were the case, I think that type of marketing would become the status quo and bore out audiences after some time, backfiring on these movies box office-wise.
@@dabunnydabunny1243 that ad was so cool and your completely right. Some great films were so under marketed and it's a real shame to see such good cinema go under the radar from poor promotion. Whoever was in control of this marketing team knew what they were doing and absolutely killed it.
@@dabunnydabunny1243 The problem is that the promo ends up being better and scarier than the movie, which IMHO is the case of Longlegs. I wish I got the movie those cryptic trailers sold, because this wasn't it.
I've never left a movie with absolutely no idea how I feel about it. I think because a lot of it went over my head on first watch, im excited for someone to make a 2 hour video essay going over the themes to help me appreciate it more. Because I KNOW there's more to this than I understood
The upside down shot towards the end was incredibly immersive. What a great way to put us directly into Harker's shoes as she tries to compose herself.
I absolutely loved this movie. It had the most oppressive atmosphere I’ve experienced in a LONG time. Was worried I was gonna be disappointed but it absolutely lived up to my expectations
I think RedLetterMedia summed up my feelings well by saying the cinematography, direction, sound design, acting, editing, and tone were extremely well done… for a subpar Criminal Minds script.
Literally me and my family went to see saw X last year and there was a family that brought their two 5 or 6 year old kids. We were like “did we accidentally walk into paw patrol?” I mean I’m all for not completely censoring absolutely everything from your children but like, a muhfuckin saw movie?
The fact that the movie's credit went reverse (that us it went up to down instead of the usual down to up) was such a great easter egg it made me nerd out
Just watched today and my fav parts were where the camera angle made you feel paranoid and look around the character to see if there’s anything creeping around
Without giving too much away, I felt Lee Harker was coded in two specific ways that as you learn more as the film goes on makes more sense without explicitly telling you why she is the way she is
@@mons1117 She is technically a victim in this movie, and all the victims are literally possessed as we discover when her doll is shot. Adds a lot to consider when we retrospectively ponder why her character is how she is for most of the film.
@@starrytaya lot of people thinks she is on the spectrum. I did love the implication that the only reason she was good at her job was because the man downstairs made her see all the shit he wanted her to see.
I agree. They didn’t really build up to anything meaningful or give a good payoff for the amount of intrigue that was set up. The puzzle aspect was cool and creepy but the payoff just felt dumb and like it could have been any number of made up “evil” things.
Massive letdown IMO, and didnt think it was scary tbh. Spookiest bit was the car and the person behind, but otherwise felt it was all really underwhelming. Nic cage was a bit Too Nic cage which just kind of took me out of it. Needed more time, and something to actually make Nic Cage creepy, rather than campy/comedic
Shoutout to the sound design in this movie, some of the creepy scenes are taken to the next level with the unnatural noises they come up with. It’s not just scary violins it’s harrowing stuff
it was hard to sleep the night after, I keep my door open so my room doesn't get so hot and I was imaging long legs coming in my room and asking me when I birthday was all night
Mayhe I'm just a baby when it comes to horror but this movie really scared me. I saw it yesterday and I'm still turning on all the lights to make sure nobody's lurking around. Sound design and cinematography had my nerves shot from the very first scene. I felt like I was gonna die and I would love to see it again
I loved everything about the style and I thought specific characters were great but I struggled with the supernatural elements a bit. Unlike movies like Hereditary or any Stephen King novel where the supernatural is well-established, this felt like the Silence of the Lambs or Zodiac in the best way possible until the end, but then the semi-unresolved supernatural ending just left me a little irritated. I don't mean to compare it to those movies, though, since I know there are huge differences, but between the overpromising horror of the trailers and the creepy procedural feel of the actual movie, it just didn't stick the landing for me.
I feel the exact same way. I was almost laughing by the end of it. The whole final part with *SPOILER ALERT* Lee’s boss and his family felt like a “I Think You Should Leave” sketch.
100% I loved the movie but the way all the cool mystery and intrigue of the investigation boils down to "satan magic". I'm fine with them taking a supernatural angle but I wanted more of a logical throughline that made it feel more like a solved mystery.
Felt really underwhelming for the ending. Felt too rushed for final act, when first two were fairly Zodiac-like in tone/plot. Nic Cage kinda ... made me come out of it, and it felt mismatched. Cage was great in Colour out of space, fit really well there, here it just felt too campy, too mushed, and like ... idk, a bit lazy and trying so hard to be creepy. Nic Cage's makeup also is just a bit weird, looks anaemic rather than creepy imo
It was okay. I avoided the trailers. Only knew the title and Nick Cage playing a serial killer. So at first, I thought it was maybe inspired by Alice Cooper's Along Came A Spider which dealt with a serial killer collecting 8 legs to create his own spider.
Honestly this movie was so good, the cinematic kinda reminded me of like analog horror for some reason, but besides that this movie is so good at makin u feel disturbed. it’s not even scary it’s just creepy, there were no “real” jump scares which makes this movie sm more unsettling bc the fear is never let go it just still lingers even after the movie ends
Oz Perkins is a really interesting director. I highly recommend "The Blackcoat's Daughter" if you haven't seen it. It's his first film and there are some similarities I found between it and Longlegs. It was one of those movies I had to watch a second time to "get" fully but I think it did some things better than Longlegs and vice versa. I watched them both in a close period of time which made me appreciate them both a lot more I think.
Agreed. It really felt like a Walmart version of Cure if it was more in your face. What made Cure a masterpiece was the level of ambiguity, it left it on the fence if what was happening was something truly paranormal or something a person was actually capable of. The third act of Longlegs in my opinion left a lot to be desired.
Yeah, I liked Longlegs fairly well, but I went and rewatched Cure for the first time in like 10 years afterwards and it was just so much better. The sequence of Sakuma's vision by itself is eerier and more oppressive than anything in Longlegs.
Honestly the film is part of an elite club of films that deeply disturbed me. Really loved this one. The more I think about the film the more unsettled I am. It’s not in your face horror but more psychological which I prefer.
even tho their not the same type of horror film. it felt truly like just as good as the first time i saw "get out" for me. it felt truly unsettling and creepy. it's not the throw at your face jump scares or loud and abrasive thrills. it's the real creepiness this film gave me and how unsettling things unfold throughout the story. i thought the cinematography was outstanding brilliant and the acting was great. the satanic serial killer idea and play out was fun and intriguing and creepy. 10/10 for me and easy top 3 for the year for me so far. so glad to see others who loved it too
I'm very curious what was deeply disturbing to you about it? Everything about this movie felt shallow and uninspired to me, I completely failed to get lost in its world because it's world was so inconsistent and unconvincing.
@@steaming_mangos The way evil is portrayed here is pretty unsettling. How evil can just walk around in public and we don’t even notice it. To evil always lurking in the shadows stalking us down. Longlegs is a deeply disturbing human being but he can walk into a store and we just think he is a weird guy. The twisted supernatural elements used here and their implications are scary. It’s more about thinking through the ideas and things presented. Also just watching the film I felt immense unease and was super tense due to the cinematography and score.
This is also what did it for me. My skin crawled in a way it hadn't before, not with other horror movie antagonists. It felt like my brain was in fight or flight but I couldn't pin down a reason, and that instead of getting familiar with the threat the more I looked at it, I felt more disturbed each time
THANK YOU for being the only person mentioning how oz perkins is in legally blonde! i have watched that movie a million times and david kidney (his character) is one of my favorite characters and everyone just talks about how his dad is famous, but HE plays an icon in legally blonde 😂
I think people are giving the movie way more credit than it deserved. I guess it's because we tend to lean on to "this must have been intentional, right?" but in this case, I really believe it wasn't. It was a bad movie that tried to take inspiration from its psychological horror predecessors, but ultimately failed to do so. Pretentious artsy scenes is not equal to uncomfortable scenes. It's just a horror comedy that tried to be a psychological thriller. And a painfully boring and slow horror comedy at that.
I've said it elsewhere, but I am a scaredy cat. I was really uncomfortable in the best way for the first 35 minutes. But after that, it's like it stopped trying to make me scared.
oh how i wish we got to see more of this movie, i think the pacing was the main issue. The reveals are okay i guess and only sometimes cliche but if they had made it just about half an hour longer it wouldve been greater than it is.
I love horror movies and watched a lot of them but Longlegs horrified me. Saw it yesterday in the theater with my girlfriend and couldnt look at her in the eyes for the rest of the evening because i saw the eyes of the devil in them. I know its a flawed movie but it delivered what I expected of it. Pure horror. What we fear is really subjective because our lives are all different so I can understand that it didnt work for some people but Longlegs hits a part of my psyche that horrifies me. “Well you’re slim and you’re weak / You’ve got the teeth of the hydra upon you / You’re dirty, sweet, and you’re my girl.”
Also the only scary parts in the movie is actually the jumps cares ! Cinematography is great in capturing the atmosphere and the acting is good but that’s it
The use of mainly wide shots works so well because it feels like you are looking through someone's eyes (like the doll looking in the mirror or he murder through the doorway). It feels more personal? The murder through the eyes of the doll looking the the doorway could have had shots in the room of the murder showing it much more but it makes it so much scarier to stay in one POV for the entire thing. Love it
I will say this movie absolutely benefits from a second watch. I was kind of disappointed the first time but the second watch made me appreciate the details and make me like the whole movie quite a bit more than I did after the first watch
I didn’t know anything about this movie going in but I loved this movie. Felt like an 80s movie and was shot perfectly. Thought the story was great and it’s kept me thinking about it since the credits rolled.
kiernan shipka creeped me tf out at a time in the movie when nothing frightened me anymore, only because she ended up being so unexpectedly direct in the end. her performance was short but impactful as hell!
Yes that's what I thought while watching the movie, couldn't hold my laughter when I see Nic Cage role but apparently person sitting next to me expressed how disturbing it was for him to see me laugh. I told him u don't understand Nic Cage as I do.😅
saw this today, we had three teenaged girls sitting a few seats down from us in the corner who laughed and talked the entire way through the movie after coming in 5 minutes late and started taking photos with the flash on. it was infuriating and completely ruined the viewing experience
I really liked the movie but after how scary everyone made it out to be I was severely disappointed by how not freaked out I was at all but I do think that’s my own fault because I just can’t seem to get scared by any movies but my roommate left the theater beyond unsettled and I wish I could relate
This a really nice and though-provoking video, thank you. I just wanted to add a little comment on the case-solving element of the film. It seemed important to me that the codes were solved quickly. That wasn't a puzzle that the audience could meaningfully work out along with the character; and so it was important that it wasn't presented as a puzzle to us. What was important was the speed with which Harker solved it, and the level of intuition rather than careful methodology involved. The film was in very large part about remembering, about finding out who your are and how you relate to others by going back to the source. For that reason, I think that having the pseudo-detective story in the present was vital to it being the film that it is. But it isn't about solving a mystery by learning that which isn't known; it is about remembering that which is known but hidden from consciousness.
Someone has to know what was discussed between Longlegs and Carrie-Ann. I can’t figure it out; one day she’s not there 🧠 then she’s normal (farm doll discovered) then she commits suicide … NO 🆔 was SO sus! And what happened to the doll after the medical examiner analyzed it? Cool breakdown dude this film just made my top 3 😊
I was really excited for the reveal of longlegs after how much they hyped up his look so I was pretty disappointed by what I saw but I will say longlegs/nic cage was the best part of the movie. I completely forgot it was even nic cage (outside of him yelling in the car) but god did I want more of him in the best way. I didn’t necessarily *need* more of him I think the way they used him and the amount they used him was very purposeful and almost perfectly done but with a character and performance like that I’m always going to want more
I watched this movie at a sleepover with my friends we tried to joke as much as we could so we wouldn’t get so scared but the movie kept silencing us and making it hard to laugh when it was over we had to take a friend home since they couldn’t stay the night walking outside after just watching this movie was awful we felt like we were being watched that something from the movie would jump out at us honestly this movie was really good and it just stays with you for days
Okay I knew I wasn’t off. Cuz I was like yeah it’s a little unsettling but like I’m not blown away. There loads of style in this and some substance but I still felt a little longing for more. I kept comparing to better made crime thrillers that had an intriguing detective and a villainous killer. Still a good time.
@@steaming_mangos You wanted an explanation for the existence of the devil? If you need your hand held and to be explained everything about why anything happened then I don’t think films are for you.
@@jimlogan4985 That's not what I'm trying to say, I'm sorry I didn't really phrase it well. What I'm trying to say is that whenmagic is involved in the plot of a story It needs to be involved in a very meaningful and well thought out way. In long legs, magic is used as a crutch for explaining the story, rather than a plot device that is interesting and moves the plot forward.
@@steaming_mangos I think rather than explaining the story the “magic” IS the story, I get that for some people it’s less interesting to just say “the devil did it” but I don’t think its necessarily used as a crutch more just a part of the story. It all comes down to personal taste tho so I get where ur coming from.
@steaming_mangos it's less 'magic' and more if Satan existed then how would it play out, the play or the movie is the 'how' not the 'why', DL is a how character who does the work, not a why character. He's as much a tool as the mother, the girls, and Lee. Maybe he chose to help Satan whereas they were forced
I just got out of the theater less than an hour ago seeing this movie. I found it so unnerving and leaving the theater I was thinking "This movie is gonna stick with me forever."
It seems like people who enjoyed the movie didn’t mind the supernatural aspect of it (myself included) and the people who disliked it were expecting something like Se7en and just wanted a crime thriller, so I can understand the disappointment. I can see how people think the devil spin was cheap/lame, but I’m a sucker for the occult so it didn’t ruin the movie for me.
Straight up just saw it. It’s late at night and I am a religious person. And I’ve also wanted to be a mortician for part of my life..but it had me holding onto my mom who was sat beside me it wasn’t the cuts or anything it was the unnerving presence of evil..of something I’ve always feared being something physical almost. But anyways I loved it my mo said it was like the joker movie and she said it was wack 😂❤
If ever there was a time for Cage not to play Cage it was this one. I can only imagine how much better it would've been if he'd played it straight hiding behind those looks.
Technically speaking, this was a stunning movie. I think a lot of time directors feel like they have to compromise on the cinematography for the sake of the horror of it all. But this is one of those movies that shows that doesn’t have to be the case. The tension build up in this movie is genius. There were so many moments that I expected a cheap jump scare but none came. However, moments that I didn’t expect one, it would occur. The ending, however, was sooo disappointing. They spent the first two acts building the tension beautifully, playing with the paranormal but not making it clear which camp we were in: reality or paranormal. But the final act destroyed everything for me. I feel like “it was satan all along!” is such an overdone trope. I was truly expecting both a paranormal and logical explanation, one that would let the viewer decide based on their own beliefs. For instance, in Haunting of Hill House, while there are some paranormal things the house is also infested by black mold which can cause paranoia and hallucinations. I love books or movies or shows that allow both a realistic explanation if you so choose or a paranormal one. Truthfully, I was hoping for a realistic ending with paranormal elements. There’s an episode of Criminal Minds called “the Fox” in which the unsub breaks into family’s homes before they go on vacation, making the families act like he is the father and “plays house” with them before killing them. This is a route I was more so expecting with this movie, and, one, I honestly think would have been a more satisfying ending. I also think the marketing did this movie a disservice. When you build the hype this much, people are bound to be let down.
i wish it had been scarier, the marketing was genuinely unsettling and it made me hope they kept that specific style of, i guess, analog horror??? i wish i liked it more but its still really good
