Osgood Perkins directs Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage and Alicia Witt in this 90’s-set satanic horror thriller where a paranormally gifted FBI rookie tracks a serial killer who never seems to enter their victims’ homes.

“Daaaaaddy! MOMMMMMYYY! Un-make me, and save me from the hell of living!” Wears it’s influences heavily on the sleeve. There’s a generous chunk of Fincher, Lambs and The X-Files here, especially in the composed visual mix. A shot in a barn attic recalls the space jockey set in Alien with it sense of overwhelming scale. But the biggest touchstone is obviously Lynch and Twin Peaks. This is a tribute to all the darkest imagery and fucked-up ideas that floated around that discordant, anachronistic prime time classic. And I’m so there for that. A work of constant nightmare, permanent unease, with bursts of pure nasty trauma. Cage is unrecognisable, rationed in his screen time, but the energy he brings to the titular monster will make him the creepy Freddy Krueger of this decade. Monroe plays against type in a sympathetic lead turn that is geeky, sexy and totally crawling to escape her own skin. The eventual plot revelations admittedly are a stroke too par for the course but there are plenty of unresolved mysteries and barely absorbed shock that mean Longlegs should be revisited many times over the next few years.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Cure (1997)

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