Movie Review: Longlegs (2024)

Longlegs (2024) written and directed by Osgood Perkins

Young FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) has a talent or instinct that helps her investigative work. She can sense where the problem is. The agency tests her ability to see if she is psychic or at least has psychic-like abilities. She goes through the test in the same detached way she deals with everything else--her job, her home life, her mom (Alicia Witt). Her mother is a bit distant but they talk on the phone often, her mom typically asking if Lee says her prayers. Lee is evasive at the beginning of the movie about this issue, eventually admitting that she does not pray. At work, she becomes involved in tracking a serial killer named Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) who has a strange modus operandi. Families are killed, usually the father killing mom and the kids and then committing suicide. Longlegs leaves letters in a cryptic alphabet with his signature in regular letters. Other than the letter, he leaves no physical evidence at the scene. All the families have daughters born on the 14th of the month and the murders happen close to their birthdays. Harker sifts through the evidence while she works with her supervisor, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood). The mystery gets weirder and more disturbing as Harker has flashbacks to her childhood when Longlegs came to her house.

The movie is a clear homage to Silence of the Lambs, with the rookie female FBI agent up against a truly deranged killer with the aid of an only moderately-supportive agency. The tension is very high with hardly any bits of comic relief. Longlegs is a different sort of killer. Sure, he manipulates people into killing for him like Hannibal Lecter or John Doe from Se7en, but he is a Satan worshipper and seems to have demonic abilities. The story is vague enough about this possibility to make the situation more excruciating (which is what you want in a horror film, right?). The ending has plenty of twists that also ratchet up the tension. While not as great as Silence of the Lambs, it is a solid homage and also its own film.

The story moves at a strong pace which helps to paper over some plot holes and inconsistencies. I was wondering about several possibilities that I felt like the characters should also wonder about though they never did. The larger story does not make a coherent whole when thought about. But there are so many interesting ideas in the film, especially the conflict between the subtle Satanism and the need for prayer as protection from evil. These ideas are not spelled out for the viewer. Their presentation is clear but their resolution is left for the viewer, which I think is a strength of the film. This is the sort of film that sticks around in your head for days afterward in a good way.

Recommended.

The movie's religious implication are discussed in this fascinating article from Word on Fire.