Hot Take

Overview

This video is a “hot take” review of the newly released horror film Longlegs. The main argument is that while the movie is competently made and good, it is dreadfully overhyped—especially compared to the level of praise it received (e.g., near-universal Rotten Tomatoes scores and claims that it’s the scariest movie ever).

Key Points of the Review

• Good movie, not special

  • The speaker says Longlegs is better than most horror releases, but not “Masterpiece” level and not scary enough to justify the marketing/hype.

• Overhype caused a mismatch in expectations

  • They went in with extremely high expectations due to reviews and headlines, anticipating something uniquely terrifying—something that would be hard to sleep after.
  • Instead, the film didn’t deliver that level of fear.

• Cinematography and performances praised

  • The reviewer credits the beautiful cinematography (doing heavy lifting).
  • They also say the acting is great, including Nicolas Cage.
  • However, they insist that solid execution can’t fully compensate for a lack of real fear.

• Scares feel familiar / derivative

  • Most scares resemble those from other horror movies—“the exact scares,” but packaged better.
  • As a result, the tension doesn’t become genuinely unnerving.

• Tension doesn’t escalate

  • The movie builds some tension, but the reviewer claims it “fades” and doesn’t maintain the feeling of being on edge.

• Ending criticized as explanatory and heavy-handed (spoiler-free framing)

  • The reviewer says the film relies on a montage/explanation that “beats you over the head,” treating the audience as if they can’t piece things together.
  • They view it as a weaker conclusion compared to the film’s earlier setup.

• Defense against common criticism

  • They address a likely rebuttal—claiming they only like horror movies with jump scares—and reject that.
  • They say they dislike many modern horror films due to overreliance on jump scares.
  • They cite their favorite horror film, Hereditary, as an example of slow-burn dread (while still noting they disliked the final part of Hereditary).

• Comparison to Hereditary

  • Hereditary is praised as an eerie tension masterpiece, though the reviewer personally feels the last ~10 minutes devolve into jump-scare “speedrunning.”
  • Longlegs is criticized for not matching the intensity people claim it has, and is praised less for fear impact.

Additional Horror Discussion

• The speaker briefly mentions watching Sinister for the first time.
  • They say it’s mostly “fine,” not excellent overall.
  • They praise its sound design, especially how effective the audio is with home-movie tapes.
  • They note that the movie becomes weaker or sillier in other moments (without going into much detail).

Overall Conclusion

The review lands around 75%, describing Longlegs as comfortable/solid, but not frightening or novel enough to justify the intense critical hype.

Core takeaway: the movie is well-made, yet it under-delivers on horror expectations, particularly regarding fear intensity and the way the ending resolves/explains things.

Presenters / Contributors

• Charlie (referred to by name in a discussion about opinions)
• The main reviewer/host (not explicitly named in the subtitles)