Longlegs

Certainly unsettling! <em>'Longlegs'</em> is solid horror fare. Nicolas Cage's Cobble is extremely creepy, that one scene in the car unnerved me and then some. I will say that the more we see of his character the less creeped out I was, though credit to Cage & Co. for having that effect! Maika Monroe puts in a very good showing as Lee, I have zero issues with her performance - she nails it. Alicia Witt merits praise as well. The pacing could've been better, it felt a little longer than its 101 minute run time, but other than that I'd kinda this a success. I had a fun time watching it all unfold, Monroe and the character of Cobble are the main reasons for that.

There's a fair amount of screen time given to Bill Clinton in this thriller. Luckily, there are no cigars to be seen as his Presidential visage looks down on FBI agent "Carter" (Blair Underwood). He's in charge of an investigation looking into the slaughter of entire families in their homes. There's no evidence of any third party anywhere, with the father invariably found having killed himself after slaughtering just about everyone else. Thing is, fellow agent "Harker" (Maika Monroe) thinks that there's way more to it than that. She's got a sort of sixth sense when it comes to these things and soon she and "Carter" are on the trail of the eponymous character (the sparingly used but effective Nicolas Cage) who may - or may not - be the source of some cryptic messages left near the site of each atrocity. Central to her theories are some eerily looking dolls. There are child size, perfectly made with porcelain and contain mysterious aluminium spheres. What's the purpose of them? It turns out that "Harker" might be able to elicit some answers from her mother "Ruth" (Alicia Witt). She's not quite the full shilling but as the detective recalls an encounter with a stranger many years earlier, we begin to wonder if mum might be more involved... It's quirky this story with elements that make sense and others that dart about making it almost impossible to figure out who's doing what to whom nor, more importantly, why? The rather brutal denouement does let it down. It's rushed and serves to fill in years worth of intrigue with five minutes of dialogue - indeed, I couldn't help but wonder if a sequel was in the offing as the story wrapped all too abruptly. Monroe delivers well here, as does photographer Andres Arochi who helps create an almost claustrophobic atmosphere to add quite a bit of tension to the plot. It's not especially scary, but it takes a different approach to creating horror for the mind rather thanks the eyes - and it works quite well.