#LONGLEGS SPOILERS IN THE TAGS

[bloodcoveredgf]

longlegs is a movie about mother/daughterhood for real. throws up thinking about it actually

[ollierachnid]

close enough, welcome back silence of the lambs

[maikamonroesource]

Maika Monroe and Kiernan Shipka behind the scenes of Longlegs

[thatcatbasil]

heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i

[rabbitbonesandsheabutter]

Going off your last post about dales nose surgerys making it difficult for him to breathe, i wonder if he has some form of sleep apnea?

obviously he got the fucked button nose special from his surgeon(s), there are corrective nose jobs for sleep apnea so i’m not sure honestly. but given that he seems to only mouth breath probably. i’ve seen a few people hc that he’s a light sleeper and that could be why, he literally just can’t breathe.

ok i went and read some more and inflammation may be one of the causes of sleep apnea. just in terms of the mouth breathing and his voice, i’m thinking either Dale’s had at least one poorly done so that he’s chronically inflamed , or when he’s seen in the events of the movie he’s had another surgery within the last year and theres still less visible swelling in his sinuses. so that may mean he ends up with sleep apnea either short or long term. either way someone get him a cpap machine stat

[bjorkvespertine]

all of your things

[wordwizards]

Watching a bunch of Nic Cage movies has unfortunately given me a bunch of weird fears. Like I watched Longlegs and I thought what if I went to my mom's place and Nic Cage was in the basement. Then I watched Face/Off and I was like what if my dad was suddenly secretly Nic Cage with my dad's face, and he licked me.

[gaygoat-irl]

first watch of longlegs i said i could *somewhat* see the side of people not liking it but on my second watch. i dont understand the longlegs hate AT ALL!! that shit was SOOO GOOOD.

[juliakristeva]

i think we are very used to, predominantly, men making horror movies that use shock value to frighten, that utilize the mangled body as a tool to instil fear, because horror by men is coming from an authoritative position where you look down at the horror. you are not in and among the horror because you are not really subject to the circumstances of fear and vigilance. if we are talking about ari aster, midsommar and hereditary both approach fear objectively. they ascribe fear to situations, not contexts. outside of a situational context, there is no horror. horror is a room to be walked into and the circumstances are sudden: they could have avoided had you made better choices, and now you are changed because you had a choice in your experience. for someone like aster, horror is kind of a shrug. you made a bad choice. maybe you thought you had no other options, but there as a moment you could have walked away.

but fear is not really objective: fear is a subjective experience. fear is about context, and real horror is about not having a choice in your experience. this is where longlegs excels. the context of longlegs is terrifying. it is similar to twin peaks: fire walk with me because there is a sense of inevitability absolutely lacking in consent (but critically, there is nothing overtly sexual in the subject matter of this film, which makes it, to me, much more frightening than something overtly exploitative). its a very female horror, in the sense that what is frightening is that you never had a choice: you could never walk away from what you are currently enduring. you were always going to be changed. it was always hopeless. this is something i appreciate from oz perkins' oeuvre in general, because it doesn't talk down: it talks from in the middle, from the tar, from the quicksand. the worst horror is in medias res. you were never going to escape it. and you won't.

i hate when men give their opinions on anything

[superblysubpar]

I watched longlegs too! Please please tell me what you thought of it. And what you thought about Nic Cage's performance

Okay I'm popping my thoughts under a keep reading / tagging spoilers!

Thank you for indulging me because I have THOUGHTS ™️

So:

I really really Really loved the cinematography of this movie. Like there were certain scenes that I was just "yessss" to the lighting, the shot, all of it. I loved how they framed the flashback sequences in the smaller/older film style. I loved the title sequence. Just overall, a lot of the movie making things about it I was literally the 👌👌 emojis for the entirety of the film.

I really thought they cast it well, I did think Nicholas Cage was great, I just think he could have been much scarier/terrorizing. Especially after hearing he said he never wanted to do a role like this again because it was so creepy? I was like...sir. This is scratching the surface of creepy. I also don't know if I would have realized it was him until I heard the voice slip a few times, which I think was great. They really did the make up/costume good 👌

But I just overall felt like the movie was over hyped to be much scarier/keep you on edge than what it was/did. Like, there were definitely moments I was a little spooked, grabbed my husband in the theater, jump scares and really good build up. But then it felt like all that tension and amping would dissipate or fall flat.

I feel like the choice to have there actually be a demon/long legs wasn't in full control/etc was a bad one. I really really wish they leaned more into the serial killer/terror/suspense aspect of him and that, more so than the horror/supernatural theme. Like what if long legs was just a Satan worshipper but he had convinced himself this was the will of the devil and he was the one actually obsessing and killing. Like he was still in control? To me that would have been far more terrifying.

ALSO, what if Long Legs still convinced the mom to help, but there was no deal with the devil, it was just how convincing he could be?

Like isn't that more terrifying? Wouldn't that make you feel more creepy? This serial killer using dolls to get into people's homes and terrorizing you, making you think you're going crazy?

I don't know! It was compared to Silence of the Lambs SO MUCH so that's why I really wish they leaned more into the FBI Agent/serial killer of it all. Because now, to me, Silence of the Lambs isn't that scary because there's more like it out there. So it would have been cool to see more of a modern/scarier take on a story like that without so much supernatural/horror elements.

So I think, overall, I liked the movie, it just wasn't what I expected, so my view of it is a little critical!

I'd love to hear what you and other people think too, so please send more messages or comment! 🥰

[monsterslament]

gonna see longlegs tomorrow im so excited :) im gonna tag any stuff i rb after with the movie name if yall dont wanna see spoilers or anything

[roguelov]

Ok but your tags on that Longlegs post 😂

I said what said and I’m a proud owner of a dumbass brain 😂 I even said it was jfk with my full chest then my sister (who saw it with me) was like ‘… dude that was Bill Clinton’ and I was like ‘😶 … you’re right’

I’ll put some rambling thoughts below so no spoilers

Like to be fair the movie was good but I thought it was going to lean more towards mystery serial killer thriller not spooks and shit (although once I did see it was satan I did play the game of trying to find that goat man in the background)

I can do thrillers and killers but demons/ghosts I don’t mix well (I blame paranormal activity given that was my first big horror movie after swearing to not touch a single horror movie ever cuz like I said I’m a baby but I’m slowly getting into horror like some of Mike flangans stuff)

I will be fighting the head of fbi in a parking lot because why the fuck was his daughter’s birthday never brought up???? MY GUY THE BRIGHT WARNING SIGNS ARE FLASHING AND YOU WENT ‘couldn’t be for me’ (it probably was like oh satan already has him so that why he didn’t say anything and blah blah blah bullshit)

Him: why did you tell me your birthday was on the 14th?

Me: ok so like your daughter apparently doesn’t matter 🤨

Also was everyone uninvited to the party or was there no party to begin with? I like the former for shits and giggles like ‘yeah sorry Bethany the party has been canceled due to satan yeah you’re going to have to return your gift you bought’

And like Harker just not stopping the dad from killing his wife was bonkers. Yeah yeah I know the mom was like ‘she’s already dead’ while frankly I don’t give a fuck how about you stop that man cuz I sat there like ‘… we’re just letting this happen?? Not even going to try??? Not even a lil bit????’

I did not watch homie bash his brains in cuz he hit his head once and I went ‘you know what … I’m actually good on seeing this’

I did love the cool upside shot of her on the bed and just the whole aesthetic and cinematography of the movie it was stunning

Also for some reason when they first showed Harker’s cabin I swore her home as a child was in the background so I thought we lived near it for motivation and what not but alas it was just a random ass white house that held no importance

WAIT ALSO I REMEMBERED WHY THE FUCK DID HARKER NOT CALL IN FOR THE SHOOTER IN THE FIRST 10 MINUTES I WAS LIKE ‘GIRL CALL FOR BACK UP YOUR PARTNER JUST GOT SHOT’ SHE HAD ME PANICKING AS SHE SEARCHED THAT HOUSE

[miamignonette]

i watched it!! and i really enjoyed it! i don’t think it’ll be for everyone, but i thought it was brilliant. very slow paced and suspenseful, so when something big happened it was really impactful. and it was just deeply unsettling, like none of the human interactions felt human at all and i grew to love that

i’m waiting for longlegs to be added to one of my favorite and very legitimate legal film watching websites

[eileennatural]

here's my longlegs review. i liked it, my sister did not. very aestheticically cool, plot that ummm is fine. i guess. really good sound design. spoiler-y thoughts in the tags

[gordonstanheight]

GUYS LONGLEGS WAS ???!(/8 for the record i loved it. this will continue to be a spoiler free zone (UNLESS TAGGED OTHERWISE, BUT WILL ALWAYS BE TAGGED. MUTE LONGLEGS SPOILERS) until at least it’s on VOD but in the meantime . WHAT.

[eight-freakin-gids]

Horror Double Feature Review: Longlegs and Angel Hare

      I think I really like comparing and contrasting things. All the great (and bad) stories I get to experience, I don't always feel compelled to review them. But give me two things to review at the same time? Now we're talking. Compared to my previous review about Another Crab's Treasure and Slay the Princess, at least there's more overlap between these two stories. I won't be summarizing, but I will talk about some story spoilers. 

      I'll tag this with trigger warnings, but I briefly mention death and suicide in this review. I'll also be talking about Christianity, if that's something you don't care to read about.

      So the other day I watched the film Longlegs, and in short I found it average. I didn't really know much going into it, aside from what my sister had told me about the film's marketing. That, and that Nicholas Cage was in it.

      Ultimately, I do have quite a bit to say to this film's credit. Everyone who contributed to the look of this film really outdid themselves. There are so many shots in this film that make viewers uneasy in subtle and interesting ways. To sum it up in one word, I'd call it vulnerability. We've got a number of claustrophobic environments, but there are also so many scenes depicting characters in open spaces with their backs exposed. The example that sticks with me the most sees our protagonist in her home sitting at a desk while an open doorframe to the kitchen looms ominously in the background. We see this shot before and after learning that someone has intruded in her home, so the doorframe dares you to keep your eyes on it in case anything approaches. Nowhere in this movie feels safe, and it feels as if danger could appear from anywhere at any time. Fortunately, the film doesn't use this tension to jumpscare you every 5 minutes. It knows when to withhold its scares, waiting for you to grow accustomed to the tension and finally let your guard down before pulling the rug out from under you.

      I'm relatively new to horror as a genre, so I don't know if these are common tropes or not. Whether or not I'm Boss Baby-ing this movie, I can at least say I think these are ideas that were well implemented.

      That being said, there were some more obvious tropes that were not implemented well. While it was used sparingly, we're not free from the loud, stock horror violin stings used to create shock in scenes that didn't need help being shocking. But perhaps the most egregious trope was the twist that Satan was the driving supernatural force for the story all along.

      I like to see horror movies explore Christian themes, when it's done well. I'd say this was not done well. We begin the story with an intriguing mystery: how does this serial killer force families to commit murder-suicide, all the while they never set foot in the family's home? With such a mystery, I don't blame this film for taking a supernatural angle, but I do blame them for doing it in an underwhelming way. It would have been interesting and much more terrifying to explore the awful, depraved things that anyone is capable of when they're pushed to do so— to challenge the viewers on the notion that "Oh, I could never do anything bad. I'm a good person!" I believe that everyone is equally capable of doing good and bad things, but this movie implies that people only do bad things if they worship Satan or are under the direct, forceful influence of Satan. 

      Sure, they do touch upon the idea that people will go to extreme lengths to protect the people they love. (The biggest spoiler is inbound, if you got this far but feel like jumping ship now. Or you could jump to the next paragraph and keep reading.) We learn that the protagonist's mother has been aiding the serial killer the whole time, and that she chose to do so in order to spare her daughter from being killed by Satan and his fanboy. However, by the end of the movie, the mother is just a full-blown Satanist for some reason. I guess you kill enough people, and you just decide this Satan guy isn't so bad? No nuance about evils committed in the name of love, just evil because it's evil. I don't feel this, or any of the uses of Satan in this movie were well executed. I think some of these problems could have been avoided if they had unpacked these ideas a bit more, but alas. 

      This is perhaps subjective, but it's the way I feel. And ultimately, this is why I chose to review Longlegs alongside Angel Hare. They're both horror stories with Christian themes, and I feel that one handles those themes much better than the other. Moreover, my subjective opinion on each story contributes a lot to my enjoyment of the story (or lack thereof).

      Angel Hare is somewhat strange for a horror series. The opening episodes are well executed to be unnerving and deliver some haunting revelations, but the story progresses from there in an oddly wholesome way. Personally, I enjoyed this transition quite a bit. The wholesomeness of Angel Hare does depend on your particular read on the story, however.

      After watching Angel Hare, I watched a few different videos to see what others had to say on the series. I suppose I was looking for answers. Is this story really wholesome, or is there some dark twist I'm missing? I was expecting there to be more to the story, only to learn that the series was finished. I wanted to see what I had missed, but delving for secrets didn't change much. I tried forming my own theories about the story, but ended up writing myself in circles about what information could or couldn't be trusted. But then, I watched an excellent synopsis video by Crowmudgeon where he ends his video with the idea that he just wants to trust his gut feeling about the show. This inspired me to do the same.

      There's a lot about the story and world of Angel Hare that we don't know, but I want to share what I feel and what I think is true. I don't believe any of the characters we see are true angels or demons. I believe that Gabby is functionally a normal person who was simply doing her best to help a child who needed it, and that she was doing so in the only way that she could— even if that way was extreme and violent. Similarly, I don't think Francis or Zag are up to anything nefarious. I think that Francis tells us about demons and calls Zag's monitors "demon hare boxes" because he's a forest-dwelling badger from a Christian kid's TV show. He doesn't know what a TV is, and assumes it's some kind of unholy magic. Each of these characters act in accordance with their roles, but all of them ultimately are good people who mean well.

      I adopt this stance on Angel Hare because it aligns with my favorite thing that a story with Christian themes can do: it holds to Christian ideals, but doesn't outright confirm whether or not Christianity is "real" or "fake." We don't know whether God exists in the world of Angel Hare. We don't know whether or not Gabby is a real angel, or if she's secretly a demon. But I know that she chose to be kind and help a child in his time of need. And in turn, when that child grew up, Gabby's actions had inspired him to reciprocate that kindness to her and share it with the world. 

      Being kind to one another is what God wants us to do, but I find it beautiful that people will still be kind even when God isn't a part of their equation. And that's why I think Angel Hare will stick with me for a long time.

If you want to check out Longlegs as well, I do think it's worth your time.

I've enjoyed writing reviews like this, and it's a good way to kill time when work is slow. No idea what I'll review next or when, but I suspect I'll do one eventually.