It's been a good year to be a horror fan with the likes of Late Night with the Devil, Immaculate, A Quiet Place: Day One all impressing, and with the much-anticipated Alien: Romulus and Smile 2 still to come.
But even in such a strong year, Longlegs stands alone from the rest of the pack.
Arriving in cinemas this week with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating (at the time of writing) and a wave of enthusiastic responses, we wouldn't blame you for thinking Longlegs can't possibly live up to the hype – but it absolutely does.
In keeping with the excellent marketing campaign for Longlegs, we'll be brief on the details of what to expect. If you picture The Silence of the Lambs, only much darker tonally and plot-wise, then you're on the right track.
The movie opens at an indeterminate time as a young girl comes face-to-face with the serial killer known only to the police as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). He's been on a killing spree for decades, and the only clues left behind at each murder scene are notes filled with occult symbols with seemingly no rhyme or reason.
Enter gifted FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) who is recruited by Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) to hunt for Longlegs. But as she starts to delve into the murders, Longlegs appears to take as much of an interest in her.
What to Read Next
It's a case that shakes Harker to her core – and you'll be left equally rattled.
Before we even get to the technical craft on display, Longlegs is elevated by two excellent performances by Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage. Without stars of their talent, you'd still be scared, but you wouldn't be emotionally invested too.
Lee Harker is a difficult character, socially awkward and standoffish, but Monroe – already a genre star with the likes of It Follows and The Guest – conveys the emotion and pain behind who she is. You might initially want to compare her drive to that of Clarice Starling, yet Monroe ensures she's her own unique hero.
On the other side is a truly unrecognisable Nicolas Cage as Longlegs. It's a fearless, transformative performance by one of the most dynamic actors around, and up there with his very best. Vocally, there are the occasional 'Cage rage' flourishes, but it's the softness of Longlegs that proves the most unsettling.
The visual transformation has smartly been kept out of marketing and writer/director Osgood Perkins teases you with glimpses here and there. It's a way into the movie that Longlegs is revealed in all his glory, and the effect is impactful.
Another thing that might surprise you about Longlegs is that, despite it covering very dark ground, it's rarely gratuitous. There are stark images – a blood-spattered 'Happy Birthday' banner here, a family of corpses in a bed there – but it's not overly gruesome.
Often, Perkins leaves it to your imagination and relies on tone to creep you out. From the crisp, wide cinematography by Andrés Arochi (which leaves vast spaces around characters) to the haunting sound design from Eugenio Battaglia, the movie crafts an oppressive atmosphere where everything is just so slightly 'off'.
You can't relax at all during Longlegs, and you'll come out of it feeling a bit dirty as though there's something you can quite shake off. If that sounds like an unpleasant viewing experience, conversely you'll also not want to look away as it's so compelling in its bleakness.
If you're after jump scares, you won't find many here aside from an extremely effective one in the cold open. But that relative absence of a quick jolt is replaced by a lingering dread throughout, so you will still be terrified.
As Longlegs begins to wrap up, you might start to worry that it might not stick the landing. After an intense confrontation, it appears as though the story is done, but Perkins surprises you with a smart, surprising development that leaves you wanting a rewatch.
It's the bloody bow on proceedings that cements Longlegs as not just one of 2024's best horror movies, but one of the year's best movies overall.
You are not ready for the unforgettable and chilling experience that is Longlegs.
Longlegs is out now in cinemas.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
