Despite its title, 2024’s Longlegs doesn’t involve spiders. Instead, it offers a creepy mix of horror, fantasy and thriller.

Set in 1993, neophyte FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) ends up on the dormant case of a serial killer known only as “Longlegs” (Nicolas Cage). As she investigates crimes called “The Birthday Murders”, however, she discovers some unsettling personal connections to the affair.

All of these lead Lee on a dark and harrowing journey. Along the way, potentially supernatural forces emerge as well.

When I saw it theatrically, I went into Longlegs nearly blind. I knew the movie came with a lot of hype and that it existed in the horror genre but that was about it.

Heck, for all I knew at the time, it might have been about spiders!

While technically a horror film, Longlegs really does lean toward thriller a lot of the time as well. Indeed, it will create obvious links to 1991’s classic The Silence of the Lambs.

It doesn’t take much to see Lee as a character in the same vein as Silence’s Clarice Starling. Even the decision to place events in the same relative era as Silence feels like an overt callback to the 1991 Oscar winner.

In addition, aspects of Longlegs will definitely remind viewers of the infamous Zodiac Killer, and the movie can often exhibit a Kubrickian vibe, with some nods toward The Shining. We get a dollop of Se7en too.

Does all this mean the movie ends up as nothing but a series of scenes that rip off other films?

No. Despite the potentially derivative nature of Longlegs, writer/director Osgood Perkins manages to make it seem surprisingly fresh.

Longlegs becomes Perkins’ fourth feature, and I saw two of the prior three: 2015’s The Blackcoat’s Daughter and 2020’s Gretel and Hansel. Though both came with flaws, they also both provided fairly intriguing and engaging flicks.

The same holds true for Longlegs. It provides a movie with some issues but it still turns into an involving and evocative experience.

It’s probably best to enter Longlegs without too much adherence to the pursuit of a logical, clear-cut story. Osgood creates more of an off-beat dreamy vision of a movie than a clear-cut “by the numbers” thriller.

Which usually would drive me a bit nuts, and some of this flick’s leaps of logic do wear on me a bit. However, Longlegs sticks with enough of a straightforward narrative that its weirder elements accentuate the experience in a positive manner.

Make no mistake: Longlegs follows some warped paths, and these seem likely to alienate a lot of viewers. This feels like one of those movies that people either love or hate, without much between those two polls.

And I can’t dispute that polarizing nature, though I admit I don’t actually love Longlegs. That happens mainly because the movie’s oddness can seem self-conscious at times.

Nonetheless, Perkins creates a tale that burrows under the skin. It doesn’t hold up to logical scrutiny at all, but it infests the mind of the audience and forms a dark, unsettling journey.

Even though Longlegs clearly echoes films like Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, it doesn’t attempt to function in the “real world” ala those movies. Indeed, Longlegs often feels more like the Brothers Grimm than it does Demme or Fincher.

Cage goes more over the top than usual as the title role, but for once, this makes perfect sense for the part. Longlegs offers a truly bizarre personality so Cage’s eccentricities make him even cteepier and scarier, and the film’s fantasy side allows this performance to fit.

Given the relentlessly dry nature of Harker, Monroe finds herself in a semi-thankless spot. Nonetheless, she adds a haunted edge to Lee and ensures that she doesn’t just end up as a Clarice impersonation.

Longlegs comes with a few too many chinks in its armor for me to call it a genre classic. Nonetheless, it becomes an evocative nightmare of a tale that packs a pretty solid punch.

Longlegs appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film came with appropriate visuals.

Sharpness usually fared nicely. A few dimly-lit interiors leaned a bit soft, but those remained in the minority during this largely tight presentation.

I witnessed no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and no edge haloes materialized. The image lacked source flaws.

The film’s palette leaned heavily toward amber/orange, with some teal elements as well. The Blu-ray reproduced these as intended.

Blacks felt deep and dense, while low-light shots offered solid clarity. Across the board, the presentation satisfied.

I also felt positive about the pretty good DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Longlegs. Given the nature of the story, moody environmental information dominated the mix.

These elements filled out the speakers in a fairly involving manner. The movie didn’t become a constant whiz-bang soundfield, but it created a creepy sense of place.

The more active “scare moments” used the spectrum in the most dynamic manner, but they failed to appear on a frequent basis. Instead, music and spooky ambience became the most prominent components.

Audio quality was fine, as speech seemed natural and concise. Effects depicted the elements with acceptable accuracy and boasted pleasing low-end when necessary.

Music showed positive clarity and range, and they also packed solid bass response at times. This was a perfectly positive mix for the material.

As we move to extras, we begin with an audio commentary from writer/director Osgood Perkins. He offers a running, screen-specific look at visual design choices, costumes, influences and inspirations, story/characters, locations and sets, cast and performances, various effects, music, and connected domains.

Perkins brings us a good discussion, especially because he doesn’t blow smoke. He freely acknowledges that he openly “borrowed” from earlier movies and offers occasional self-criticism. This adds up to an engaging and useful track.

We find four On Set Interviews. One comes from Perkins (6:08) whereas the other three feature actors Maika Monroe (4:12), Blair Underwood (4:31) and Alicia Witt (4:21).

Across these, we hear about story/characters, cast and performances, and Perkins’ impact on the shoot. The actors tend toward fairly general praise without a lot of substance.

Perkins offers more compelling material. However, he still keeps things largely promotional and tends to repeat material from the commentary anyway.

Evidence gives us a still gallery and Clues provides three short clips: “Every Year There Is Another” (0:37), “Remember to Say Your Prayers” (0:37) and “We’ve Been Waiting For Her” (0:25).

The 18 images of “Evidence” show photos of the movie’s crime scenes. The “Clues” appear to be unusual promotional clips I assume ran online.

The disc opens with an ad for Cuckoo. We also find three trailers for Longlegs.

Four films into his career, Osgood Perkins has yet to produce a consistently great movie. Nonetheless, Longlegs brings another flick that takes us into a creepy and dark universe in a manner that makes it a compelling ride. The Blu-ray comes with positive picture and audio as well as a smattering of bonus features. Though not for everyone, I think Longlegs becomes a strong genre effort.