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Blackcoat's Daughter/Longlegs -- a review

Osgood Perkins is the eldest son of actor Anthony Perkins, who was best known for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, Psycho. Osgood Perkins would make his acting debut as a twelve year old Norman within a flashback sequence in 1983’s Psycho II. After writing several screenplays, Osgood Perkins made his directorial debut (also writing the script) in 2015 with The Blackcoat’s Daughter, a mesmerizing horror film that wound up being an elegant, if horrifying, twist on The Exorcist.

Original, imaginative, and deeply disturbing, The Blackcoat’s Daughter contains images that are truly chilling. It’s a hard film to talk about without giving away a major plot point, so I won’t, but it’s highly recommended. The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a darkly brilliant horror film with some great performances by its entire cast: Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, Lauren Holly, and James Remar. It’s also one of the most coldest films ever made--by taking place in the dead of winter in upstate New York. And it’s also a very cold film in its deadpan depictions of horror and violence.

Osgood Perkins returned as a director this year with Longlegs. Maika Monroe, from It Follows, stars as a young FBI agent named Lee Harker, who starts showing signs of clairvoyance. Instead of being dumped in a backwater field office, she’s given tests by the FBI, who want to see just how good her talents are. She must have impressed her superiors, because Lee is assigned to a case of several murder-suicides of families by her supervisor (the always sturdy Blair Underwood). Each family was murdered by the father, who then killed himself.

But what’s really strange is that there are these creepy notes left at the scene of each crime, written in a form of Satanic code, with the handwriting not belonging to any of the victims. They are all signed by someone called Longlegs. Taking place in the early 1990s, Longlegs has a stark, chilly feel to its cinematography. Maika Monroe gives another standout performance as Lee Harker, who begins to feel as if she’s in over her head as signs of the supernatural begin to appear.

While Longlegs was very good, it wasn't as good as The Blackcoat’s Daughter. Perkins’ first film as a director was his masterpiece; it was a true tour de force in filmmaking. And while Longlegs was good, and chilling in its own way, it had some problems. The main one being Nicolas Cage, who plays Longlegs in such a gonzo manner that he feels like he’s in a completely different movie. Longlegs works better when it’s an understated thriller film that builds up its dread slowly.

But then Cage appears, and his over the top performance is so screechy and bizarre that it breaks the delicate build up of terror that the film was going for. Instead of dreading him, I was staring at Longlegs in disbelief and wondering: WTF is going on, here? Still, Longlegs is worth watching just for Maika Monroe’s performance alone. Perkins states in the 'making of' documentary that he’s a huge fan of The Silence of the Lambs, and it shows in Maika Monroe’s stead-fast, honorable Lee Harker. Longlegs also fondly recalls for me some of the scarier serial killer episodes of The X-Files, as well. So, despite its flaws, Longlegs still has its merits, and I happily look forward to whatever Osgood Perkins has in store for us. --SF

Both The Blackcoat's Daughter and Longlegs are available on physical media.

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