My fingers are almost shaking as I type this up because, not to be dramatic (jk, I live for the dramatics), but Longlegs has been my most anticipated movie of 2024. Amazingly enough, that has been the case for a lot of people and as someone who remains eyeballs deep in the horror scene, it’s been a long time since we’ve gotten to experience this kind of hype.
The hype was built slowly and wisely, with marketing I can only compare to that of Smile, which I’ve mentioned before. My biggest complaint these days is the people creating trailers now don’t leave any mystery, they basically give the entire story away so by the time we get to the film it’s literally just the sandwich crust left. The current worst offender imo is the American adaptation of Speak No Evil. First of all, the Danish version just came out in 2022 so what are we remaking that for? It spread like wildfire in the community due to its rage-inducing ending. Second point, the trailer is a condensed version of the film, revealing many of the ragers and leaving little to the imagination. So, unless the ending is different, do better Blumhouse.
Didn’t I tell you that Neon was crushing it? Our introduction to Longlegs was brilliant and remained so, the excited buzz on the internet never dulled. My best friend and I constantly sent each other LL related TikToks to keep each other geeked. The best part being, no one had any idea what the movie was about for the longest time.
Closer to release date we got a very important little tidbit that upped the ante and horror fans across the globe took a collective bated breath. Seemingly overnight people were comparing Longlegs to Silence of the Lambs and it deepened the curiosity. Was this simply because Maika Monroe played an FBI agent, or did Longlegs play macabre dress up reminiscent of Buffalo Bill? Or both? Or some fun new adjacent concept? I was pretty much foaming at the mouth to find out.
Unfortunately, my viewing experience was not at all how I imagined it would be. I’m a creature of neurodivergent habits, and I expected to watch it for the first time in my favorite chain theater (Regal Dania Beach). The vibes ended up being the actual worst. I was on vacation with my boyfriend to his hometown in Connecticut for a few days but I couldn’t wait until we were back home to see it. Not even 20 minutes into being at the Airbnb I missed a step that left me with an injured foot and bruised ribs. That couldn’t keep me away from Longlegs on opening night, but I was in excruciating pain through the whole watch and ended up having to crawl out of the theater because I couldn’t walk. Dedication to the bit or actual madness? Idk and idc.
With new films I’ve really tried to keep this blog spoiler free so this isn’t going to be a deep dive piece into the brain of Oz Perkins. Incidentally I’ve seen everything he’s directed and it just keeps getting better. He seems to have the kind of passion and vision that keeps the horror genre evolving.
One thing I will say that I love about this movie is that it didn’t hide Longlegs from us. For a while I didn’t even know Nic Cage was in the movie, so when I realized he was the titular “big bad” I fully expected his reveal to be one of the surprises. Especially when marketing dropped that clip about Maika’s heart rate spiking when she first saw him in costume. But they just drop him on us almost nonchalantly and that was a shock in and of itself.
I will fully admit that the hype surrounding this movie led me to make a lot of assumptions here that were unfulfilled and I did leave the theater unsatisfied (not just because I couldn’t walk). The ending felt very rushed to me and underdeveloped in comparison to the start, a borderline copout IF I’M BEING HONEST. But the interviews that have come out since the premiere have given me so much to digest and have given me such a sense of wonder and appreciation that I haven’t felt in a long time. The three components to this film (marketing, movie, post-premiere-press) are new blueprint to a cinematic experience that I pray I see more of in the near future.
If you would like a spoiler-full yap sesh on Longlegs, you can check out our analysis on A Ghost in the Magazine.
Stef Nuñez (she/they) is the Editor-In-Chief of Sage Cigarettes Magazine as well as unhinged co-host of A Ghost in the Magazine & The Annegirls Podcast. M-F 9-5 she works in the South Florida high fashion scene, but at night and on the weekends she is a feral horror mami who frequents film and music festivals. OH, and she’s a poet.
