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Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
Serial killers are a fascinating subject. Ironically enough, they can lend well to great storytelling ideas, particularly with a horror film. Osgood Perkins, the son of horror legend Anthony Perkins, writes and directs an even more fascinating film with Longlegs.
Boasting an opening that could serve as its own short film, Longlegs is the next step forward in horror storytelling. The film’s opening is almost perfect on its own and introduces the audience to the haunting aura of Longlegs. Perkins crafts a film that is dreadfilling, haunting, and intensely curious. Led incredibly by Maika Monroe, the film’s atmosphere is chilling. From the opening shot, there is a sense of everything feeling out of place within the world of the narrative. Nicolas Cage is erratic as the titular antagonist, and as an actor, he understands the character he plays. Yet, there is no true rhyme or reason as to why Longlegs does what he does.
The Dark: “His Letters”
After the opening, Part One: “His Letters” feels like the lead-up to the best aspects of the film. From the introducing shot of Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Lee Harker (Monroe), preparing to go look for another serial killer, Longlegs begins to seep its way into your bones and stays there. Joining the FBI in 1993, Harker and her assigned partner Agent Horatio Fisk (Dakota Daulby) begin going door to door. She almost intuitively and naturally picks out the killer’s house as if a fleeting memory. Harker proves herself right after Fisk is killed the moment the door opens, in the film’s first of many jarring moments.
This scene also features the first of many moments & imagery within the film representing the religious elements, and one shot leads itself to look like a cross. A shot of the house’s exterior and position via the camera lends to the shape. The house’s address, 3525, can be flipped to Matthew 25:35.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
Matthew 25: 35
This is interesting because Lee goes on to say that she just “felt” like something was off about the house, almost like it was pulling her in. It is almost as if to say the universe, or some other power, was inviting her to the house and letting her know where the killer was. Upon clearing the house, the unnamed killer surrenders without cause, as if he were inviting her to arrest him.
Harker’s Connection to Longlegs
Harker is tested by the FBI, and it is discovered that she has some sort of clairvoyant ability, which seems like part of her connection to Longlegs (Cage). She is eventually put on his case, as a fresh set of eyes, and begins analyzing the evidence. As the story progresses, it can be sensed that as she peels back the layers of Longlegs’ mystery, she has a personal connection to all of it. At each of his crime scenes, the only thing connecting him to them is a coded letter signed, “Longlegs.”
It feels like she is always being watched, whether by the killer or something else entirely. This adds to the dread of the film. While it is her job to venture into the dark, nothing can prepare her for what awaits. It also feels like she is somehow welcoming to the challenge of this villain. Longlegs is nothing more than pure evil, and even after he’s captured, his true motivations are never really revealed or explained. This is a fantastic aspect of the script and the tense atmosphere within the film because sometimes evil just exists to exist.
Towards the end of this sequence, Longlegs finds Harker’s house. This moment features a great sequence of Harker rushing around her house after she hears a noise while on the phone with her mother, Ruth (Alicia Witt). The sequence continues to remind the audience of the dreadfulness of the case and the film’s atmosphere in general. Longlegs leaves another coded letter for Harker, but this letter is personally addressed to her this time.
Unravel It: “All of Your Things”
Part Two: “All of Your Things” is where the bulk of the story takes place. After connecting that each murder takes place six days before or after a daughter’s birthday, all of which occur on the fourteenth, Lee and her boss, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), visit a past crime scene. When drawn out, the dates take the shape of an inverted triangle, with one date missing to complete it. This even further adds to the heavily religious themes of the film and further unravels Longlegs’s motivations.
In his own twisted way, Longlegs’s primary motivations seem to stem from the Book of Revelation. Ideologically, he is a Satanist, but it feels that, with his victim pool each being a family of three, somehow they all could represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Longlegs serves as the fourth Horseman. Escaped within the costume and makeup design, Cage is seemingly taller than usual, and eerily, strangely pale. Furthermore, Revelation 6:8 reads as follows.
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat upon him was Death, and Hell followed with him.”
Revelation 6:8
Longlegs represents the pale horse, both literally and figuratively because of his appearance. Death—or the Devil, what have you—and Hell, are the “work” Longlegs performs in his murders. However, a true motivation is never really revealed. Again, this is a great aspect of the script because sometimes people are evil just because. Longlegs exists in the dark.
Deeper into the Conspiracies
While visiting the crime scene, Harker and Carter discover a doll buried beneath the floorboards. Inside the doll’s head, the medical examiner finds a metal orb, which also contains nothing. In this scene, Lee experiences visions of serpents, presenting in a quick flash to the audience. The serpent itself is prevalent within these subtexts of religion as well, being that Satan disguised as a snake tempted Adam and Eve into eating the Forbidden Fruit. Thus, through temptation, Lee is pushing against the dark. The medical examiner mentions that he thought he heard his ex-wife’s name but remained skeptical. These things lead Lee to believe a similar doll was present at each crime scene with the same orb.
In another set of character-heavy scenes with Longlegs, one features him talking to the orb before it is presumably placed within a doll’s head. He covers it and mentions that “[she] is the dark.” This is interesting because the dark, for him, could represent Satan and his “work” that Longlegs channels through the dolls. The orbs release some very dark magic that inevitably leads the fathers to murder the families and then themselves. Later, at some point, he visits his only survivor, Carrie Anne Camera (Kiernan Shipka), in a mental hospital.
Harker and Carter visit Carrie Anne as well, realizing Longlegs used Harker’s name in the visitor’s log. Carrie Anne doesn’t reveal much for the investigation, but Shipka absolutely steals the only scene she is in. Her monologue is delivered almost like a sermon, as if Longlegs somehow had her possessed. Harker feels a bit more spooked at this point in the investigation and her dread grows even further when she goes to visit her mother.
Prayers
Ruth begins to remind her of how important prayers can be, but ultimately it all feels like folly. Ruth comments that her daughter was “allowed” to grow up, implying that there could have been more to her odd upbringing. This is compounded when she finds old Polaroid photos from her childhood, one of which contains a picture of Longlegs himself. This scene reveals that Longlegs visited Lee as a girl—first shown in the film’s opening—during the 1970s, and she captured his image in a Polaroid.
Upon his capture, Longlegs—revealed to be named Dale Ferdinand Cobble—is more than someone who prays to Satan. He seems obsessed and lost in the idea, and craves a meeting with Harker. It would seem through the orbs he can pass along the black magic that makes the murders happen. In their meeting, Harker is simply disrupted by Cobble’s appearance. After implying that her mother is involved, he bashes his face onto the table of his holding room, almost like he feels complete and complacent in his life. This is one of the few rare scenes where audiences are granted Longlegs in full view of the camera.
Cage is simply lost in the character, in the best way. His performance never really feels over the top. Longlegs is the odd old guy in the neighborhood everyone avoids. His demeanor is strange, even curious. The pale, almost blinding facial appearance is seemingly foreboding, as if the end is nigh. This easily marks one of Cage’s best roles to date.
Homecoming: “Birthday Girls”
Part Three: “Birthday Girls” reveals the twist in the mystery of Perkins’s screenplay. It also adds to the conversation of parentage and a “good lie” one may tell their children. After Ruth confronted Longlegs in the 1970s, he returned to the Harker property that night. While preparing to murder Ruth and Lee, her mother essentially made her own deal with the Devil. In an effort to spare Lee, Ruth offered to help Longlegs commit his murders, and Lee grew under the influence of power. It created a trauma block for Lee, while Ruth seemingly spared her from the truth. Ruth kills another FBI Agent, Browning (Michelle Choi-Lee). Then she destroys a doll similar-looking to Lee, and some tenebrous aura is released from its head. In this sequence, it is as if the cycle plaguing Lee seems to vanish. It’s always wild what overzealous parents might do.
Lee gets knocked out and awakens in the basement of her childhood home. This basement is where Longlegs built his dolls and performed his black magic. Several times throughout the film, things are mentioned “under [your] feet,” which can also allude to Hell itself and where the evil dwells, close to home. Earlier in the film, Lee met Carter’s wife Anna (Carmel Amit) and their daughter Ruby (Ava Kelders).
The Final Scene of Longlegs
Upon realizing where she is, Lee answers the phone to an otherworldly voice and she is reminded about Ruby’s birthday party. She rushes to Carter’s house, where Ruth has already begun the twisted ceremony. Carter is visibly shaken, trying to fight the will to destroy his family. Underwood is a standout in this scene and is almost in a trance as Carter. He murders Anna, and Lee simply retaliates, meeting the dark, by shooting Carter. She is then forced to shoot her mother, and attempts to take the doll out. Unsuccessful, Ruby is emotionless, and the screen cuts to Longlegs one final time, then cuts to black.
The quick succession of events in the ending sequence seems to reinforce the dreadfulness of Longlegs. Lee has had to shoot her own mother and finds a little girl that reminds her of herself at the same age. It is a disturbing chain of events. Longlegs and Lee also seem to represent the left and right-hand paths, respectively. The imagery is of a beast holding its left hand down towards Hell and right hand up towards Heaven. It is all compounded within the religious subtext of the film. The film also features an opening text about the Hydra, a beast with seven heads and ten horns rising from the sea, from a T. Rex song. The beast represents Hell on Earth in many ways as well as an impending apocalypse.
Technical Elements
Longlegs features some of the year’s best cinematography. Andrés Arochi’s framing of Cage as the antagonist is key regarding the mystery around him. Cobble is a creepy old man nonetheless. The camera only really moves at stagnant paces, and it’s almost as if there is a mist around the set. The entire atmosphere makes one think twice before turning off the lights, and then check again. Longlegs and its cinematography seem to create a pit in the stomach and stay in your bones long after leaving your seat.
Mica Kayde’s costume design on display is brilliant. Longlegs dresses in clothes that feel simple, therefore he is almost austere in some regards. He doesn’t think much about his appearance, and worries about his work rather than anything else, even looking like he doesn’t shower much. Graham Fortin and Greg Ng’s editing is used sparsely in the right places.
Final Thoughts on Longlegs
Osgood Perkins’s Longlegs features many elements at play. Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage deliver some of their best performances to date. Alicia Witt is a welcoming surprise in the third act twist. The filmmaker’s screenplay itself is full of fascinating ideals. The result is the year’s best horror film and one of the year’s best in general. The way the film creeps into you is almost petrifying and relates that sometimes evil just exists.
5/5 stars
Osgood Perkins’s Longlegs is now playing in theatres!
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Lead Critic for the site, as well as serving as an editor when needed.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.