There’s something magical about seeing a period horror film like Longlegs in a sold out air conditioned theater on film (1 of 5 35mm prints made!), on a hot summer’s eve. It’s like a forgotten ceremony that calls back to the old horror film gods of yore to bless this new film, that’s so heavily influenced by the classics that came before it. Thankfully the marketing for this one never engaged me, so I was coming in blind. The trailers and their serial killer vibe just seemed to lack a hook for me to latch onto, but in the first 20 minutes you kind of understand that was the whole point. It’s something that to be honest might have been a deal breaker for some if they had shown more of this psychological horror film’s more surreal leanings. But director Oz Perkins masterfully grounds that atmospheric opening in such a way these later leaps work, and the film is able to cast its spell on the viewer.
It’s those events that ultimately land the awkward Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) in the bowels of the FBI facing every man Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), now tasked with an unsolved serial killer case that’s been ongoing for three decades. Longlegs as he’s known for the signed and Zodiac Killer-esque encoded letters left at the scene of the crime, which usually involves entire families, all with daughters who were born on the 14th of the month.These grisly killings always appear to be a murder suicide committed by the patriarch of the family, and have no real motive. These letters from Longlegs left at the scene are the only thing linking the murders together. After Lee is mysteriously visited by the killer, leaving her a birthday card with the rosetta stone to the code, she immediately rips the case wide open while continuing to build on that mystery box, until the film’s final act.
While the film’s narrative itself is a cat and mouse game between Lee and Nic Cage’s albino Tiny Tim-esque Longlegs, there’s a very gender specific subtext that carries through the film to its shocking conclusion. I also have to mention the white male serial stereotype is such a known quantity at this point, it almost goes without saying that it’s a part of this equation. Another contributing factor is the fact that all these people are essentially murdered by their fathers, or so they think, it’s a point brought home by a line of dialog when Lee meets Agent Carter’s daughter and she asks the awkward woman in a rather endearing moment, if it’s scary not just to be an FBI agent, but a woman FBI agent. It’s something that casts a rather dark suspicion over all the men in the film, since even her partner has some reservations on his new charge. I think in the film’s closing act, as the film fully bares its fangs things become a whole lot more complex in the way Longlegs looks at both gender and religion.
There’s also some interesting subtext about the lengths parents will go to for their children, but I am trying to keep this spoiler free.
That said, Maika Monroe is really doing some interesting character work here as the special agent, who is extremely awkward and possibly on the spectrum. But that’s kind of the point to why she’s there. It’s definitely a much more dynamic and unique take on a female FBI agent, as we see her mind racing in every scene trying to make connections and use those to craft theories, that do nothing but unnerve her partner. There’s some True Detective in there too, but this is clearly Lee’s singular story. Cage however is fully uncaged here, but that makes sense given the actor has been placed under a layer of grotesque facial appliances to allow the actor to fully transform into the killer here. A personal surprise for me was Alicia Witt, who I was a big fan of in the 90’s. She takes that weird, off putting personae she perfected and adds a bit of religious paranoia giving us Lee’s mother an eccentric quality that is hard to put a finger on.
Longlegs is a terrifying haunted house of a narrative, with dimly lit amber interiors and an always moving camera, so the viewer is never truly allowed to find their footing. The film does lean into the jump scares and this is amplified by some very unnerving sound design and score, that really helps to maintain a constant state of unease. But the real question with a film like this is, does the mystery at the heart of Longlegs actually pay off? I have to say for me it did, and it does expect the viewer to meet it on its own terms, which may be where it loses some. That last act is a rapid fire of exposition, flashbacks and mythology that’s ambitious as it is undeniably insane, and I loved every second of it. Longlegs had me completely under its spell and I can’t wait for others to fall down this rabbit hole and deliver their own dissections as I continue to mull over what I just witnessed.
