Leading the film is Monroe, and she continues to thrive in the small independent horror genre. As Harker, Monroe fully embodies the intelligent and perceptive young woman with unique abilities that gives her an edge during her investigations. It’s all played with a quiet eeriness that keeps you questioning what Harker’s ties to the Longlegs serial killer could potentially be, as while you know she is not hiding anything from the audience, you know there is more to her story than she is aware of. Easily carrying the narrative on her shoulders, Monroe is truly hypnotizing in her performance, drawing the audience in with a soothing calmness despite the terror that unfolds in the story. Blair Underwood is good as Agent Carter, Harker’s superior with an authoritative yet caring performance, while Alicia Witt leans heavily into the offbeat nature of her character with a strong performance. Kiernan Shipka is unsettling as Carrie Anne, the one surviving child of all the families that Longlegs has killed, leaving her mark on the film in a single scene.

But, every second he is on screen, this is Cage’s film. From his brief appearance in the opening scene, Cage drowns the film in a chilling and absolutely terrifying energy thanks to his unhinged performance. The makeup and prosthetic work for his character instills a visual fear in viewers, but when you hear the inflections in Cage’s voice that creates this soft spoken yet sadistic voice for his character, it instantly sends a chill down your spine. But he doesn’t stop there, as the body movement he does feels unnatural, truly making his character come across as one of the most disturbing individuals you have ever met in a film before. Cage slowly builds the uneasy tension in his character until that interrogation scene, where he unleashes everything he’s got and it is unlike anything you have seen in a horror movie in recent years. He will make your skin crawl, hold your breath in absolute terror and leave you absolutely speechless by the end of that sequence, which is destined to be the scariest scene of the entire year. It’s a truly one of a kind performance that in a perfect world would earn Nicolas Cage major awards consideration in the Best Supporting Actor category, because even a week after seeing the film, Cage’s performance as Longlegs is still pulling a number on me.

It’s hard to imagine that it’s been over twenty years since the last great horror serial killer film with The Silence of the Lambs, but we finally have the first horror film to be worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as it. Osgood Perkins has crafted an impeccable horror film that instantly gets under your skin resulting in one of the most nerve wracking theatrical experiences in recent memory and one of the greatest serial killer horror movies of all time. There is no question that Osgood Perkins’ direction and story ensure that this film will instantly get under your skin and that Maika Monroe’s lead performance is stellar, but it is the unhinged and mortifying performance from Nicolas Cage as the titular serial killer that is the fuel of nightmares that makes Longlegs not only one of the greatest horror films in recent history, but one that you won’t ever forget!