Longlegs

Hey everyone and welcome, today we will be talking about the movie Longlegs. Fun Fact, this movie takes place during the Satanic Panic which was a moral panic consisting of unsubstantiated cases of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the 80’s and 90’s. This film came out in 2024 and stars Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, and Blair Underwood, and was directed by Osgood Perkins. So without further ado let’s get right into it

Longlegs Follows Lee Harker, an FBI agent investigating a string of family murders done by an occultist serial killer without actually being there.

This film is a detective, occult, horror film. It has similar vibes to Hereditary, the Black Phone, or Zodiac.

I feel like I put scary movies in 2 main categories, ones that rely on jumpscares and ones that rely on suspense, this fear of the unknown and what is to come which is something I felt like this movie relied on. I didn’t watch any trailers going in so I went in thinking it was going to have spiders as the main culprit and then when the film started I said oh it’s a good ole detective murder mystery and while I was partly right I was also missing alot. The movie had me invested and I really felt that the ’70s and ’90s were great time periods to bounce back and forth between in this movie and I loved how they changed the screen size to let the audience know what time we were in.

Maika Monroe plays Lee Harker and she did such a great job of playing this character who is a weird one which we come to find out is because of the deal with the devil but she was so interesting to watch. In the 70s we see a young Lee and at first, I thought that was a different character and then I realized it’s the same person and then some of the pieces started to fall into place now that I knew she met Longlegs before. I loved seeing her detective skills and how she not only deciphered Longlegs messages but also found a pattern among the killings. I’m glad that even after she found the truth she still tried her hardest to stop what was coming. Side note her house was creepy as hell, in the wilderness with all these giant windows is a no no for me.

Lees's mom Ruth was giving hippie vibes when we met her and she was creeping me out which made me have a feeling something was off and I was right. I get doing everything you can to save your kid but she really took it to the next level. She gave me vibes that she was drugged out of her mind and then seeing her house I was like this is just creepy.  At first, I thought she might be a target until I saw the way she acted while Lee was there and then I knew she was an accomplice. It’s crazy that she was the one who was used for getting into people’s houses and how Longlegs was in her basement helping with choosing the different victims. I’m glad she died in the end becuase she was too far gone to save.

Blair Underwood plays Agent Carter who is Lee’s boss and he gives a stellar performance as this agent who understands Lee knows things but also understands that proof will be needed. I thought he did a good job of being laid back for most of the film and then was able to switch to the creepy and unsettling possessed man at the end of the film.

Kiernan Shipka has a small cameo as Carrie, the only survivor of Longlegs and the role was small but kind of left an impact. I felt like she was the key to really piecing the puzzle together because not only did she survive but she also had just been visited by him. Even though she was a victim, she was also a part of his plan and was one of the reasons that Longlegs was able to move forward with his plan.

This movie nailed gender roles in this film for the timeline they were portraying. Even though the 90’s don’t seem that long ago, gender roles were different and I felt like they nailed it with how Lee interacts with her boss but also his own family dynamic. This is a reason why I also think the murders were overlooked at first because it just seemed like a family issue, not a serial killer.

At the beginning of the movie, it shows Lee on a case with her partner when he gets killed, and for me that solidified that she was a great detective and that’s what this film would focus on. I loved the detective elements and knew some weird stuff was going on but I would have never guessed it was something involving satan.

I just have to mention the girl who was the cashier because she was probably the bravest person to not only look Longlegs in the eyes but also call him weird and survive. I just loved her overall annoyance and her I don’t have time for this attitude.

My favorite part of the movie was Nicholas Cage as Longlegs. I couldn’t even recognize him and he was so creepy and unsettling. He somehow kept getting creepier and creepier up until he decided to bash his own head in. Nicholas did such a good job and shoutout the makeup department as well. His performance had me on the edge of my seat to know his motives and what was next. I also think it’s cool how Marketing was able to keep his characters look a secret before the movie came out.

Longlegs is a horror movie that’s super suspenseful and will have you on the edge of your seat. The cast is great and the time period was perfect to show this mysterious case and show what’s truly behind it.