Review: Nicolas Cage is at his unique, unnerving, unforgettable best in 'Longlegs'

When it comes to high-wire acting with no net, Nicolas Cage is a rock star. And he's at his unique, unnerving, unforgettable best in "Longlegs," a demonic dazzler now goosebumping its way through theaters with a chilling blast of icy terror that will creep you out big time.

Writer-director Osgood Perkins ("The Blackcoat's Daughter," "Gretel and Hansel") is the son of the late Anthony Perkins, the immortal Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic "Psycho," so the fright gene is in his blood. You've been warned. But it's the ghost of the Oscar-winning "The Silence of the Lambs" that most haunts "Longlegs," and not always in a good way.

Cage plays the title role. And like the shark in the first "Jaws," we don't see him full-on until about 40 minutes into the film. The exception being a quick opening shot of Longlegs suddenly appearing behind a little girl in a field.

Cage's spidery daddy Longlegs is a specter of evil that's impossible to shake, a stringy-haired, pastry-faced Satan worshipper with a high-whiny voice who makes porcelain dolls of victims and gives Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter a run for the title of prince of darkness.

Longlegs has his own Clarice Starling in the form of Lee Harker, a rookie FBI agent soulfully played by Maika Monroe, a scream queen herself in such scarefests as "It Follows," "The Guest" and "Watcher." Like Jodie Foster's Clarice, Lee knows she's in over her head when she confronts Longlegs -- that's Monroe's own spiking heartbeat we hear on the soundtrack.

Lee has her own freaky backstory, including her psychic abilities and a religious fanatic mother (Alicia Witt) straight out of "Carrie." But when her FBI boss (Blair Underwood) assigns her to the unsolved Longlegs murders -- they began in Oregon in the '70s and continue right up to the '90s, in which the film is mostly set -- she's all in.

It seems this serial killer has been murdering young women born on the 14th day of a month and involves the uncanny ability of Longlegs to persuade fathers to kill their families and then themselves, leaving behind clues written in code only Longlegs understands. There's also that past connection between Lee and Longlegs alluded to at the start.

Being in mortal fear of spoilers, I will say no more except to point out that what Cage is doing in "Longlegs" will haunt your dreams and every waking nightmare. He's certainly pushed the envelope before in such horrors as "Vampire's Kiss," "Mandy" and "Renfield," but here he lets the sinister vibes rip to infinity and beyond. His commitment is total and terrifying.

The downside is that Perkins, a skilled purveyor of dread, likes stitching together parts of other better horror films. His borrowings from "The Silence of the Lambs" "Se7en" and "Hereditary" drift into rank copycatting and he lets chaos overtake logic in the film's final moments. But when Perkins does find his own way into the violence of the mind -- and does her ever -- the effect is nerve-shattering.

Perkins uses all the elements of image and sound design, dipping into the glam rock of "Bang a Gong" by T. Rex to underscore a presence Longlegs calls "the man downstairs." Proceed at your own risk to "Longlegs." It's scary as hell and refuses to apologize for it. Perkins and bizarro king Cage sneak up on you. And then, ka-boom.