Longlegs [Blu-Ray]

Director: Osgood Perkins

Cast: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood

Release Date: September 24, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 8.5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying killing spree.

‘Longlegs’ tells the haunting story of young FBI agent Lee Harker who after being accepted into the bureau becomes engulfed in a terrifying set of murders which occurred over the course of decades and  revolve around a mysterious killer calling himself Longlegs who appears to get entire families to murder themselves without ever setting foot in the home. As she begins to try and decipher the cryptic puzzles left by the killer, Lee quickly gets in over her head, but with her talent and unique abilities she just may be the only one capable of piecing together the clues and finally stopping his reign of evil.

Written and directed by Osgood Perkins (Gretel & Hansel, The Blackcoat’s Daughter) who does a tremendous job at the helm of ‘Longlegs’ guiding along the eerie tale with style, terror and intrigue. The film’s cast includes Maika Monroe (It Follows), Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario), Blair Underwood (TV’s American Crime Story), Alicia Witt (TV’s Stargirl) and more who each offer capable, if not noteworthy performances in their respective roles.

‘Longlegs’ is an intriguing horror mystery that kicks off with a tense flashback and then builds on the tale a great deal going forward while fully developing a world of terror, cryptic cult links and clues. Revolving largely around an offbeat FBI agent that finds herself unable to turn away from the mystery of this mysterious killer known simply as “Longlegs” once she becomes immersed in the decades of murder that seem to link to the killer in curious and often illogical ways.

It utilizes a slow-burn approach that takes its time allowing the viewer to become familiar with the characters and their worlds, while slowly providing more information, details and glimpses of the brutal horrors that this curious madman has unleashed until eventually arriving at a wild and largely unexpected conclusion that is equally shocking and clever, not to mention eerie in its calm, controlled execution. It’s a beautifully crafted and uniquely shot tale that never attempts to follow a Hollywood style or approach and filmmaker Osgood Perkins uses interesting and unusual camera shots and filming styles to connect this tale together and make it feel grimy and bleak, with an eerie sense of uncertainty always lingering behind what’s in front of us.

As a whole ‘Longlegs’ is a quite marvelous serial killer mystery that benefits from a carefully built story and a powerful performance by Maika Monroe, while Nicolas Cage is frequently terrifying and unnerving as Longlegs, although his tendency to go so over the top occasionally doesn’t help and when he goes all out it can cause the film to shift noticeably from creepy to goofy and laughable on a handful of occasions, but it fortunately has so many positive elements working in its favor that it never fully causes the tale to fall apart or the terror to be derailed. If you’re a fan of similar horror-like serial killer tales then ‘Longlegs’ definitely isn’t to be missed and is well worth going out of your way to check out when possible.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Longlegs’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original varying 2.39:1 and 1.33:1 Aspect Ratios. The video presentation looks very good as a whole and provides a largely clean, sharp and nicely detailed presentation from start to finish. Detail is solid throughout with character faces and scenery looking clean and crisp, while coloring and style is appropriately dreary as seems to be intended; while black levels and shadowing are mostly good although do slip or see some minor imperfections on occasion, but never in a way that detracts from the experience or look in an overly troublesome manner. Overall, this is a mostly great high definition presentation that holds up well throughout and should satisfy the majority of fans as well as newcomers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack makes a nice complement to the creepy tale and it delivers a clean, crisp and at times notably aggressive audio presentation throughout. It takes advantage of all five available channels on numerous occasions in order to send some music, creepy effects and vehicle noise along with more throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate, while never allowing any dialogue or other audio elements to become negatively affected or rendered inaudible in the process, with even the calmer, whisper-like dialogue remaining clean and audible. Overall, this is a solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that delivers nicely as a whole and should have fans and first time viewers very pleased.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Longlegs’ features a few entertaining extras including an ‘Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Osgood Perkins’, in addition to ‘On Set Interviews’ with ‘Maika Monroe’ (running approximately 4 minutes in length), ‘Osgood Perkins’ (running approximately 6 minutes), ‘Blair Underwood’ (approximately 4 minutes) and ‘Alicia Witt’ (4 minutes). Also included are some brief Teaser Videos dubbed “Clues” which include ‘Every Year There is Another’, ‘Remember to Say You’re Prayers’ and ‘We’ve Been Waiting For Her’ (approximately 30 seconds each), in addition to a Still Gallery of ‘Evidence’ and Three Trailers for the film; ‘Teaser’ (1 minute), ‘Dirty/Sweet’ (2 minutes) and ‘Trailer’ (2 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 8.5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Longlegs’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from NEON – Decal Releasing

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You can purchase ‘Longlegs’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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