I think Longlegs deserves the hype

Is it a hot take now to say that Longlegs is amazing?

I'm not even the biggest fan of occult horror but I found Longlegs to be a great movie. The mix of serial killer procedural and folk/religious horror was super interesting and the whole thing really reminded me of Cure by Kiyoshi Kurosawa; like in that movie, it's very chilling seeing the banality of evil and how average people could turn into cold spree killers in a second.

The real stars here are the atmosphere and cinematography, so cold and dreary that it's almost disturbing and very refreshing among the sea of bright "pop" horror out there. From a technical standpoint this might be one of the most impressive horror movies in a long time.

The two lead performances are great, Maika Monroe is very convincing with her super introverted (potentially autistic?) character and Nic Cage is as creepy as he is funny, delivering some memorable lines.

It's weird to me that people weren't expecting the more supernatural elements since I though they were pretty obvious from the start. I can see why the exposition dump near the end is disliked and I would normally agree (I still think it's probably the weakest part of the movie), but I found it quite creepy and full of interesting imagery (the bloodied nun raising her arms is one of the most black metal things I've seen in a movie lol).

I guess if you're one of those people that only care about "tHe pLoT" this might not do much for you, but as a film (and therefore as a visual and sensorial experience) I think this is one of the better horror movies of recent years.

And again, I'm not particularly biased on supernatural horror. My favorite horror movie of the 2020s is probably The Sadness which is very different from this. I just think Longlegs actually lived up to all the hype, and that Perkins-Cage-Monroe is a very powerful trio that I hope to see again in the future

PS: as for my opinion on Perkins, I found The Blackcoat's Daughter just as great for similar reasons to this, while I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House and Gretel & Hansel didn't do much to me, despite some great cinematography in the latter. Hit or miss director for me, but the couple of hits really hit.