Maika Monroe stars as Lee Harker in emLonglegs /em(2024).
The Big Picture Osgood Perkins' latest horror outing Longlegs is finally upon us, a frightening culmination of his directorial efforts thus far. The Blackcoat's Daughter showcased the isolation of a young woman stuck at school over a long winter's break, increasingly subject to the machinations of a demonic presence in the boiler room .
Gretel & Hansel adapts a folktale while capably capturing a pervasive sense of dread . Longlegs is a beautiful, frightening marriage of the two, a vibes-heavy tour of a Satanic murder spree following the intuitive FBI Agent Lee Harker as she investigates a disturbing and mysterious series of killings, each connected to a mysterious serial killer known only as Longlegs . With a strong performance from Monroe, an otherworldly transformation from Cage, and Perkins' incredible command of tone, it's one of the most unnerving and mysterious horror films in recent memory... but what's it all about? Longlegs RHorrorThriller 710 A chilling horror thriller directed by Osgood Perkins. The film stars Maika Monroe as Lee Harker, a promising new FBI agent assigned to solve the mystery of an elusive serial killer played by Nicolas Cage. As Harker delves deeper into the case, she uncovers disturbing evidence of occult practices connected to the murders. Release Date July 12, 2024 Director Oz Perkins Cast Maika Monroe , Nicholas Cage , Alicia Witt , Blair Underwood Runtime 101 Minutes What is 'Longlegs' About? Lee Harker's earliest investigation in Longlegs doesn't go so well. As she pursues a dangerous figure in a cul-de-sac of identical homes, her instincts implausibly lead to the right abode. Her bravado-driven partner doesn't wait for backup, and he unfortunately doesn't survive. It's unfortunate, but it marks her as someone to watch at the FBI given her atypical intuitive abilities. Agent Carter reaches out to involve her in a series of disturbing cases that have proven impossible to crack over decades. See, over three dozen mysterious killings have occurred in the Pacific Northwest, each a mysterious case unified by a weird clue and an even weirder pattern. In each case, an otherwise good, stable family is viciously murdered by the family's father, who then commits suicide. It's always out of character, always accompanied by Satanic iconography, and there's never any evidence of someone in the house beyond the clue: a mysterious card with a coded message, signed by 'Longlegs.' Lee is assigned to the investigation, which takes a growing toll as she gets closer, until the case gets as close to home as possible. Lee Harker's Connection To Longlegs Goes Way Back The film's opening has a markedly distinct style from the subsequent feature. Shot in 4:3 aspect ratio, a retro-looking clip from the past shows a young girl minding her business in the snowy yard of a quiet home set within a quiet neighborhood. She's approached by someone , but the voice is unsettling. A strange cadence. An odd falsetto. He clearly puts the 'stranger' in the phrase 'stranger danger'. While it's a mystery as a cold open, the film reveals that the young girl from the beginning is Lee as a child, and that strange trespasser was Longlegs in an earlier era. It isn't totally clear if Lee was targeted because of some latent precognitive or intuitive abilities, or if she has those because of that early contact, but her mother Ruth convinces the eerie man to leave Lee alone, and Lee forgets it ever happened. That is, she forgets until a fateful return to her childhood home triggers the reemergence of past memories, some time after starting her investigation of the killer. Longlegs is a Satanic Serial Killer The Satanic imagery that accompanies each killing isn't a misdirection or insincere bit, like it is for the killers of We Summon The Darkness. Longlegs, clad in light colors with a bleach-white face that gives every appearance of plastic surgery gone wrong, is a very sincere lover of Satan and the killings are intended to be in Lucifer's service. His exact motives, and the precise purpose of the killings, remain somewhat mysterious, but each family is an effective sacrifice to His Infernal Majesty. His modus operandi is very much in the vein of famed serial murderer David Berkowitz, who left notes signed as the "Son of Sam" at his killings and claimed Satanic inspiration. We can also presume that Longlegs most likely delights in the corruption of the victims, given his targeting of otherwise loving families and the use of their fathers to commit the killings. The question remains: how does he command families to do his bidding? And is he actually in command of Satanic power or connection, or is he just a fan? Longlegs Has Help With The Killings...Which Ties To Lee Longlegs' ability to provoke these murders without leaving a shred of evidence hinges on two factors that Lee discovers as her investigation proceeds. First, her obsessive cracking of Longlegs' code leads her to the home of one of the victims' families, where she discovers a doll made by Longlegs, who creates dolls in the visage of little girls. Inside the heads of these dolls is a strange metallic sphere that investigators' scans reveal to be seemingly hollow, emitting a sort of ethereal black smoke of some kind when destroyed. While the spheres aren't ever fully explained, it's implied that they're the supernatural reason why otherwise loving families would kill their own families, a deadly corrupting influence. Second, the film reveals that Lee was intended to be one of Longlegs' victims when he visited their family home. Lee discovers a photo she took of the Longlegs killer during their interaction as a child, allowing them to catch and interrogate him. During the interrogation, Longlegs suggests Lee should ask her mother who his accomplice is. The film reveals that Lee was spared by the killer because Lee's mother agreed to be his accomplice. Dressed as a nun and carrying a large box containing a doll, she would gain entry to the victim's homes, deliver Longlegs' doll , and the doll would cause the father to kill his family and then himself. How Does 'Longlegs' End? While in the interrogation room, Longlegs taunts Lee before bashing his face against the table, saying he'll be "everywhere." He continues to smash it in front of Lee, causing her shock, until he dies violently from the trauma. Lee and a partner visit her mother Ruth's home, but Ruth kills Lee's partner outside using a shotgun. When Harker gives chase to Ruth, the latter shoots a doll that resembles Lee , and she passes out. Lee wakes and is reminded that it's Agent Carter's daughter's birthday, and Lee hurries to get to the Carter family home and intervene, but she's too late: her mother is already there, and has delivered a doll. In a tense final scene, Agent Carter kills his wife, and Lee kills him before he can harm her or his daughter. Ruth, sitting nearby, is angered that Lee interrupted the ritual and saved the girl, and Lee is forced to kill her mother in self-defense. Lee is left with both Agent Carter's daughter and the doll Longlegs made for her, and what happens next is left ambiguous.
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