The Big Picture

Longlegs
is a horror thriller that puts the audience in a state of uncertainty, similar to the main character’s experience.
The film follows FBI agent Lee Harker as she tries to solve a series of mysterious murders connected to a shadowy figure called Longlegs.
Director Osgood Perkins effectively builds tension and keeps the audience engaged with his unique storytelling approach.

Halfway through Longlegs, the eerie horror-thriller written and directed by Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel), we meet a girl who has just awoken from a catatonic state years after a traumatic incident. When asked what this experience was like, the girl states it’s like being “between here and there,” a limbo of sorts, a place that is nowhere, a gray middle ground. What makes Longlegs such an effective horror film—easily one of the best so far this year—is Perkins’ ability to put the audience in a similar state of uncertainty. This is the type of mystery we’ve seen plenty of times before, with comparisons to Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs easy to make. However, this time, it comes with an added layer of evil hovering over the experience. We know this type of story, but under Perkins’ supervision, it’s impossible to get our bearings. Even as it unfolds and we’re given all the clues and suspects, we struggle to put the pieces together in a way that makes sense, turning this into an uncomfortable, jarring experience that is unsettling from beginning to end.

Longlegs 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 Cast Maika Monroe , Nicholas Cage , Alicia Witt , Blair Underwood Runtime 101 Minutes

What Is ‘Longlegs’ About?

Also struggling with this feeling of uncertainty is Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), an FBI agent assigned to help out on a serial killer case. Harker is described as “half-psychic,” as sometimes she has premonitions that she can’t explain. A series of killings has plagued Oregon for years, as ten families have been found dead in their homes, murdered by their fathers without any known explanation. The suspect is a person known as Longlegs, who has left a birthday card at each of the crime scenes, filled with Zodiac-like messages. Yet no one knows who Longlegs is, how he is making the killings happen, or if he is even at the scene of the crime when these murders occur. All the FBI seems to know is that these dead families are seemingly tied to Longlegs with no discernible explanation.

But while this case has been cold for some time, Harker’s involvement seems to be moving things forward finally. When Longlegs leaves a birthday card at her home, she quickly figures out his cryptic code, and she easily finds patterns within these murders that her boss, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), and the rest of the team had never noticed before. With Harker on the case, it seems like the FBI is closer than ever to catching Longlegs, yet it’s the details, the why and the how, that don’t make any sense as the search finally comes together.

Osgood Perkins Finds Just the Right Tone for This Nightmarish Serial Killer Story

Perkins does a brilliant job of putting the audience in the shoes of Harker, as we feel the frustration that she feels as she tries to gather all the clues. This is a murder mystery where we’re immediately told who the killer is, as the first scene introduces us to a terrifyingly strange Nicolas Cage, who is presented as Longlegs. Immediately, we’re shown who we’re searching for, which is an odd person who looks like if Pennywise was really into ’70s rock. We know how these families are being killed, but it’s how these two are put together that eludes both Harker and us—even when we occasionally seem to be a step ahead of her investigation.

It’s that feeling that something isn’t right that permeates Perkins’ film and makes it so effective. For the majority of Longlegs, Perkins presents us with medium or long shots, so that we can look over the scene along with Harker as she seeks clues in the darkness or for something that could potentially step out of the shadows at any moment. The ominous cinematography by Andres Arochi seeps into our skin even in the simplest shots, creating a lingering sense of evil that we just can’t shake. We’re on the case too, but we’re ultimately coming up as empty-handed in regard to answers as Harker is. By presenting all this empty space in the frame, Perkins gives us the feeling that something evil is right out of sight, watching, ready to attack. Because of this approach, Longlegs builds a tension that doesn’t break, making for a “scary” film that is rarely actually scary and is instead about a rising worry that is frequently unnerving to watch.

‘Longlegs’ Takes Time Finding the Right Method to Its Madness
Image via Neon

Yet it takes a bit for Longlegs to settle into its own style. This is a slow burn of a film, told in three chapters, and like the mystery itself, it feels as though Longlegs doesn’t entirely come together until that final chapter. Especially in that first chapter, with some quick cuts and some jerky scares thrown on the screen, it can feel more like a horror-themed TikTok channel than the horror work of Jonathan Demme or David Fincher. Again, in that first scene where we meet Longlegs, the scene cuts out, trying to pull the rug out from the audience right away, before presenting its opening credits that expand onto the screen, intercut with strange imagery to make everyone feel uneasy. Here and there, Longlegs relies on thin scares like that, and it’s never quite as effective as the simmering tension Perkins effectively sets up later. It’s in more conventional scares and attempts to jolt the audience—especially in the first half of the film—where Longlegs is trying to provoke, but is rarely ever provocative.

Monroe, Cage, and Underwood Make This Mystery Come Together
Image via Neon

While it can often feel like a spin on murder mysteries we’ve seen before, Longlegs also does excellent work at crafting characters who are similarly skewed versions of the type of characters we’d see in those types of movies. After performances in films like It Follows and Watcher, Maika Monroe once more shows her brilliance in horror. Her role as Agent Harker is extremely insular, as neither she nor we understand her “gifts,” and so much of this performance relies on her uncertainty as to what’s going on in this case and within herself. Monroe is restrained and ill at ease, and in following a character like that for most of the film, we also start to feel her apprehension and worry.

Blair Underwood’s Agent Carter is more like the agent we expect to see in a murder thriller like this, full of clichés and slightly funny one-liners. Yet he’s a conventional cop thrown into an unconventional mystery without easy answers, which again, plays to the idea that things aren’t the way they should be. We’ve seen this character in straightforward films, and this is surely not where he belongs. Alicia Witt is also almost unrecognizable as Harker’s mother, Ruth, who seems like a worrying mother type over the phone at first, then slowly becomes something far more compelling once we meet her. It’s a small role, but it’s an unforgettable one as well.

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And then, there’s Nicolas Cage as Longlegs. Much like his recent work in films like Dream Scenario, Mandy, and Pig, Longlegs knows exactly how to use Cage and his ability to equally handle the quiet as well as the bombastic. This is a flamboyant and strange character who, thankfully, Perkins doles out conservatively. We don’t need much of Longlegs to feel his impact on this story, and Perkins rarely shows him full-on, often hiding his face with the frame, his own hands, or by showing him from a distance. A little bit of Longlegs goes a long way—understandably so—but Cage finds just the right way to play this twisted, odd individual in a way that feels both otherworldly and disturbingly grounded in nightmare fuel.

Even though Longlegs eventually finds its, ahem, legs, in the slow-burn mystery filled with uncertainty, it’s in that third chapter where the film truly comes together. As the answers start flowing and the true nature of this evil becomes clear, that knowledge only makes the story here even more terrifying. Making us uncomfortable through unpredictability is one thing, but keeping this horror story just as effective once we see the truth is even more important. Perkins manages to make the truth just as upsetting as whatever we had conjured up in our minds, a satisfying payoff that almost makes you want to watch it again immediately to see the story altogether—if you could handle a Longlegs double feature. While Perkins has made horror films prior to Longlegs, this feels like him truly finding his lane in the genre. It’s an uneasy, unrelenting nightmare that we can’t escape, even if it is a rocky road for a bit. Longlegs takes a bit to get us settled into its brand of horror, but once it does, it’s hard not to be impressed by the place between here and there where we find ourselves.

REVIEW Longlegs Longlegs is a jarring horror vision from Osgood Perkins, an unsettling tale that takes a bit to find its legs, but ultimately works its way into a satisfying nightmare.ProsOsgood Perkins’ direction makes nearly every scene uncomfortable.The uncertainty of the mystery at hand is just as unnerving as the more straightforward horror moments.The cast, which includes Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, is excellent at playing off well-known tropes in similar mystery thrillers. ConsLonglegs takes a bit to find its footing, with the first two acts relying too much on shocks that don’t often work.

Longlegs comes to theaters in the U.S. on July 12. Click below for showtimes near you.

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