Cinebuffs Recommends
Osgood Perkins clearly watched Silence of the Lambs once too often, each and every time thinking "I could do this better." To be fair to him, he has the mood on point, but this is a little more 'Se7en' in its hard-boiled reality, clinically baked in for extra crispy freshness.
It's methodically on something of a knife-edge too. The whole thing makes you feel like something is coming to get you and when it gets here, you're defintely not going to like it. It feels like you're five all over again and your parents are coming to tickle you to death, but they have fingernails made of razors.
Maika Monroe's presentation of a young, inexperienced but capable FBI agent is perhaps a little over-anxious compared to Clarice Starling, assuming that her quarry is at least as clued-up and focused as she silently imagines. Caution is a virtue, it seems, as when she gets a message from Longlegs himself, it proves he is just as aware of her as she is of him. Even more so, in fact.
Given his form, he is not the kind of person you want to demand undivided attention from, so perhaps her barely contained paranoia is justified, as further investigation on her part suggests there is more than just a crazy lunatic at large.
Perkins successfully gets under our collective skin, sparing the visceral horror most of the time, in favour of puppeteering his audience into a nightmare of his own imagination, never allowing them to relax in exposition as it is equally sparse. The use of sound is intermittent but effective, with regards to the score, making the moments of disquiet all the more barren.
There were times of course when I was reminded of Skinamarink. this is far more obvious for the purpose of its entertaining, but the terrible, unavoidable feeling that something is very, very wrong is persistent and unrelenting, just the same.
Altogether, this is quite an uncomfortable watch which will most likely hit hardest when you are alone and your brain has time to wander on an uneventful evening. Some may well find it snoozeworthy, but they aren't really paying attention if that is the case, as there is a complicated character arc going full swing. What it lacks in hack and slash, it makes up for in a foreboding atmosphere that just knows, in it guts, that the worst is always yet to come, until inevitably, it does.
It does its best to keep you guessing, particularly in light of the darkly spiritual influence, but like the Captain states matter-of-factly - "Longlegs is just a man, not a witch-doctor." Of course. Sure. Right?
Nicholas Cage is a little cartoonish, but certainly magnetic and eminently watchable when he gets his moments and the more patient viewer will be far more satisfied by the conclusion than those here with a more bloodthirsty appetite.
For the first time this year, I think I will watch this again, as I am guessing quite alot has passed me by the first time. For now, I would recommend a viewing yourself. Like the start of a recurring nightmare you've had too often, sometimes you can shake yourself awake, but at other times, you fall helplessly headlong, powerless to alter the course of your fears and the horror that awaits you. Sometimes the dark will terrify you, but sometimes, you are the dark.