Cast:
Maika Monroe (Lee Harker), Nicolas Cage (Longlegs), Blair Underwood (Agent Carter), Alicia Witt (Ruth Harker), Michelle Choi-Lee (Agent Browning), Dakota Daulby (Agent Horatio Fisk), Kiernan Shipka (Carrie Anne Camera), Jason Day (Father Camera), and Lisa Chandler (Mother Camera) Written and Directed by Oz Perkins.
Review:
"I really just tried to make something that would be noticeable and enjoyable, especially to a horror audience. Horror audiences put up with a lot of bad stuff and they take it because they need it; they need the horror fix. But every once in a while, you want to give them something that’s a little bit more manicured and curated for them."
I will admit that I waited a bit to write this review because I wanted to process just what this film managed to do in its execution and understand just where the film rests as probably one of the more breakout kind of films to hit the theater. For one thing, this is the fourth film directed by Oz Perkins, who became a director in 2015 with The Blackcoat's Daughter. He had done a few stints in acting prior to becoming a writer/director, as one might expect from the son of two actors. One description of the film by Perkins (as writer/director) was one where the aim was to "create a pop art piece." There apparently was a guerilla marketing campaign (as coordinated by distributor Neon) when it came to marketing the film that involved stuff one could find in billboards and "true crime" websites to go with masking a certain presence for trailers (no television). Well, I found the movie having buzz because of a bit of rumblings on the thing they call the Internet and was thinking "if it makes my theater, sure"; the result was a film that has been said to be relative hit for all involved since being released this July.
I want to preface this by saying that the movie is pretty good on the technical levels. It is the kind of movie that doesn't really ripple away from its period setting and it does have a level of dread present within that conclusion drawn from sacrifices. Anyway, I was fine with the movie, but I really should temper my expectations on a movie that gets some really good buzz. You get a few familiar feelings when watching it such as Se7en (1995), or other serial killer-related topics but don't find something lacking in atmosphere when it comes to details for a calmly lived-in 101-minute feature. The film is a showcase of sorts for Monroe (who actually starred in a film I should probably have covered before with It Follows [2014]), mostly because her clinical performance works wonders for the film in inquisitive grace. She just has that zip without even needing much dialogue to really make it all work in someone thrust into such a growing rumble of startling realization that comes with being gripped with the actual place in the art of procedure. And then of course there is Cage, caked in some interesting makeup and a few scenes to lurk around with the presence of a spider weaving yet another web for itself. He achieves an unsettling feeling with the way he approaches the camera with an aura of expression and timing that you can believe could lurk among the rest of the pawns in the board of life and death (consider how one sees him from his first sighting and, say, the one where he lurks in a small store). Underwood and Witt are crucial keys in forming the fair amount of dread that comes in procedure, particularly with the latter because of the on-screen dynamic between the two that shows the right amount of understanding in what really lurks beyond the nature of parental sacrifice. As a whole, I found that waiting to assess the film made me realize that a film that wanted to play patient within general patience in procedure did in fact manage to do just enough to work in good execution despite my misgivings that arose from the handling in between a certain moment and the climax, which is pretty unsettling in the ultimate long run when it comes being, well, the end of a story in more ways than one. It isn't exactly my favorite horror film of the year, but it is still pretty efficient in most of its unsettling foundation to make a worthwhile feature in the eyes of procedural dread and the beast that lurks in both secrets and sacrifices that could work well for those with the patience to just let it sink in.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
