Longlegs and the Exhausting Experience Of Watching It

Leading up to the release of Longlegs, directed by Oz Perkins, I and many others on the internet were bombarded by advertisements of the film. Either it being placed on advertisement boards, posters around theatres, or the Youtube ads that would be played in almost every video I was watching, you just could not escape the film. But once the film released, that was when many people and reviewers, especially on TikTok, were raving over the film being the scariest film they have ever watched or it being on par with such films such as Silence Of The Lambs (1991), Se7en (1995), The Shining (1980) and much more. So I had immense hype when going into this film and what it would offer.

But after watching the film, I let out the biggest sigh I have given after a film ended. Not a sigh of it being done because of it being a harrowing experience, but rather because of how incredibly disappointed I was.

If anyone reading this does not know the premise of Longlegs, then firstly why are you reading this? Go and watch it so that you can understand my resentment towards this film, but the premise is about a series of family murders in Oregon and FBI Agent Lee Harker, played by Maika Monroe, is tasked to investigate the case but the further she delves into it, the more her personal life is involved. Now one of the problems that I had with this film was how incredibly predictable the story was going towards and it happened in the very beginning of the film. Another character named Agent Carter, played by Blair Underwood, was introduced and the film sets him up as a family man. Once Agent Carter was introduced and knowing the case that Agent Lee Harker was investigating is a series of family murder cases, I already knew where the film was leading immediately. That then made me so uninterested with the film because it already showed its hands in the first thirty minutes. And even if the film has great cinematography and performances that are exceptional, when the viewer already knows what is going to happen within the story, then what is the point?

The reason why films, such as Se7en, worked so well, in similar cases of detectives investigating a murder case, is because it doesn’t show its full hand but rather gives out bits and pieces of information to the audience for them to interpret and imagine what might have happened or what will happen. Plus by revealing the murderer right at the end, it creates a sense of shock and also a cumulative bombshell to the iconic “WHAT’S IN THE BOX!” scene. But when Longlegs revealed the killer right in the middle of the film, it ruined any expectations or horror at that point since we already know this figure that has been doing the killings.

The sigh that I left out after seeing this film was a sigh of, “What the fuck is this cluster of a film.”

A film that had so much potential with the eerie atmosphere and cinematography that was sometimes breathtaking, but the story was so dumb downed to a point where there was no reason to be invested in it. Rather this film being my WTF Cinema Moment in terms of a harrowing and chilling experience, it was an painstakingly exhausting watch and a WTF moment to why people regarded this as the scariest film they have seen and it being praised for it.