The Babble Bruh Reviews

Nicholas Cage as a murderous prosthetic-covered villain is the vibe I’m here for. It’s just a shame he didn’t have more screen time.

As a long-time fan of anything and everything Nicholas Cage, I was so excited to see this movie. The plot isn’t anything new; it’s the tried-and-true “Rookie FBI agent takes on a unique case that she’s uniquely equipped to solve.” The twist here is the murderer of said case is the weird-as-shit “Longlegs,” played by Cage. His character’s method of killing is the mystery that our hero must solve.

Random families across a wide area are being found dead via brutal suicide/familicide, and the only evidence suggesting another party was involved are Zodiac Killer-style coded notes signed “Longlegs.” It’s weird, and had me hooked in the first half of the movie.

The movie is shot beautifully; every scene is so smooth and eerily calm. That, combined with an almost non-existent soundtrack, had you scanning the environment for something that doesn’t belong in every scene. It really added to the film’s intensity and was one of my big takeaways from the viewing. The vibes of the movie felt like a cool mix of X-Files meets Mindhunter. It was very serious and slow, but there were sprinkles of comedy and levity with an added mix of “weird” that you’d see in something the X-Files cast would run into. The vibes were on point, and the movie starts off with several bangs that really made me think, “Oh shit, this is solid.”

Unfortunately, the second half of the movie really started to feel like a drag, and the finale was honestly a wet fart compared to the grand slam you know and felt it wanted to be. The plot starts out so strong with this interesting mystery surrounding the notes and who Longlegs is, but around the one-hour mark, it takes a turn into things that aren’t that… and it just lost me. To avoid major spoilers, because I do believe the movie is worth a watch, Longlegs does get some screen time, but unfortunately, his character becomes more of an afterthought by the end, which I thought was a terrible choice considering the name of the movie.

But let me tell you, every time Longlegs got some screen time, my brain was screaming, “What the fuck am I watching”… and I loved it. Cage did his thing and just absolutely sold his “Buffalo Bill” adjacent serial killer character. I would love to see him in more evil roles because of it. Several scenes were just absurd, and my wife and I are still quoting him around the house. Just thinking about it while writing this makes me go back to my last point and question why the plot went the way it did. I really wish they had utilized Longlegs more. If they had gone a different route with the third act (the movie is shown in three parts), I believe this would have been a fantastic horror movie.

With that said, I would give this film a 6/10. It was pretty, it was weird, I liked a lot of the scenes, but the plot just kind of soured halfway through and bummed me out knowing how much cooler it could have been. If what I previously mentioned interests you, I would still recommend watching the movie, even if it’s just to admire Nicholas Cage going batshit like he usually does. Just maybe try to watch it for free or at a discount.