Babel Reviews: Longlegs

Longlegs is a 2024 American horror thriller film written and directed by Osgood Perkins. It stars Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, who also produced the film through his Saturn Films production company. The movie was released in the United States on July 12, 2024.

Longlegs took me on a ride-along for one of the most refreshing horror thrillers I’ve seen to date. The film featured creative shots, a great cast, outstanding cinematography, eerie music, and perfectly fitting audio work. Its suspenseful plot and overall creepiness made for a great (and memorable) horror experience. After the movie ended, sometime before midnight, I went to the bathroom, which happened to be eerily empty and abandoned. Just my luck… Let me tell you, I must have taken some of the suspense out with me, because I kept having this creepy, gnawing feeling that someone was watching me. I genuinely had to check if the stalls next to me were empty, because it felt like Longlegs could peep his head out over the side of the stall at any moment… that’s when you know a movie was creepy!

The movie started off strong, immediately setting the tone and building up the story in a great way, giving us an idea of what challenges the FBI faced in this particular story. Set in the mid-to-late 90s, we follow FBI agent Lee Harker, a newly appointed agent assigned to the case of a killer known as Longlegs. Lee is put on the case after demonstrating her bravery and ‘divine intuition’ working on another case. With Lee’s help the bureau hopes to finally uncover what monster is behind Longlegs’ terrible killing spree, which has spanned over two decades.

Although I definitely enjoyed the movie, I wouldn’t call Longlegs one of the best horror films I’ve ever seen, even though it genuinely gave me the creeps. About halfway through, it slowly started to lose its cold grasp around my neck, where instead it should’ve continued squeezing to finish me off. I feel like it had a genuine shot at being one of the most iconic serial killer movies of all time, but unfortunately, it fell short. Like many horror films before it, Longlegs too couldn’t escape the curse of a weak ending.

Do I still think it was a good movie? Yes. The concept was different (in the best way), the music and cinematography were incredible, the characters were intriguing, the acting was great. However, the ending didn’t live up to the story’s promise, leaving me somewhat disappointed because I know it could have been much better. In its defense though, I did go in with somewhat high expectations. I suppose I have a weakness for when people label a movie as the ‘best horror movie of all time’… Every time, I can’t help but hope they’re right.

In summary, Longlegs was a refreshing and enjoyable horror movie, but its ending failed to deliver. Would I recommend watching it? Yes. It was quite a good horror film. Perhaps you’ll be able to appreciate it more with tempered expectations. Go forward my child, and don’t forget to take care of your doll!

Below, I’ll delve deeper into the movie. So, SPOILER WARNING for the rest of this post as I will go into details.

TL;DR Longlegs is quite a good horror movie, but couldn’t escape the curse of a weak ending.

Alright, now that it’s just you and me, two cultured individuals who have seen the movie 😛, I think it’s safe to say Longlegs truly was a good horror film. I absolutely loved the overall vibe and aesthetic and was genuinely impressed by how refreshingly different it was. The film was daring in its use of the camera, with some shots being absolutely stunning. Initially, I was surprised to see it wasn’t an A24 film, as the overall look and feel screamed A24. However, I believe the ending showcased why it wasn’t produced by them. A24 is known for consistently strong films, excelling from opening scene to final frame. The ending of Longlegs, however, struck a different chord.

Longlegs had plenty of other stuff to rave about though. Besides the technical excellence in both video and audio, the acting in Longlegs was also truly great. Nic Cage’s performance as Longlegs was very memorable. It definitely confirmed why he’s such a highly praised actor, and I appreciated the different look they gave him, which he pulled off excellently. I liked how they kept his face covered in the first half of the movie, adding to the mystery and making it seem like he must’ve looked very creepy and distinct.

Maika Monroe also did a fantastic job as Lee Harker. She played the perfect awkward (and traumatized) FBI agent, while being extremely likable and not at all annoying. I haven’t seen much of her work, but I’m excited to see what else she will star in. The supporting cast was also strong, with Blair Underwood standing out as Agent Carter. He humanized the stereotypical role of the man in charge, adding some depth to his character.

However, I do think the writers kept too tight a grasp on the characters’ backstories. They kept it vague for a reason, obviously, since the ending involved a lot of it, but I feel the story would’ve been much better if we had gotten to know more about the characters, especially Lee and Longlegs. It would’ve been great to understand why Longlegs did the things he did, and why Lee chose to become an FBI agent, etc.

Lee clearly had some psychic power or spidey-sense, which I believe can be attributed to the satanic shenanigans she was exposed to by Longlegs as a child. I think they handled her ‘intuition’ very elegantly, allowing for an extra layer of suspense, especially whenever she was alone and her spider-sense started tingling when danger seemed near. It basically made the tension extremely palpable.

I also absolutely loved the quirks and mannerisms of Longlegs. His creepy, animated movements, childish taunting, and random breaking into song truly showed how unhinged he was. However, I feel this also took away some of the depth his character could have had. Instead of being portrayed as a super intelligent, conniving psycho capable of manipulating people into killing their families, he came off more as a lunatic dollmaker with more screws loose than tightened.

It seems cheap to confidently tell an audience that someone like that could still manage to do all the things he did for two decades without getting caught, thanks to the devil. That simply rubs me the wrong way. It would’ve been much more terrifying if he managed to do those things through pure competence and intellect, instead of relying on the “satanic lifeline” for his power over people.

There were other small things like that that took me out of the story every now and then. For example, when Longlegs broke into Lee’s home and left the letter. How did he find out she had started to crack his case? I’m left to assume he either knew through the satanic connection he had with her through the doll, or because her mother somehow knew. But, both seem like a reach to be honest… Similarly, Lee not reporting to Agent Carter that Longlegs broke into her home and left her a message also took me completely out of it, especially since there was no explanation for why that would be the logical course of action.

Overall, I have far more praise for the movie than criticism. I’m simply frustrated that it seems too difficult for the writers of horror movies to come up with a good ending for their stories. Too often, the climax is explained through coincidence, luck, the spiritual, or the divine, instead of coming up with a fitting and grounded reasoning for why a story ends the way it does. If you’re going to tell me that Satan was behind the wheel for all the murders, driving these families insane to the point they want to kill each other, and you’re using a steel ball with black smoke on the inside of a doll that looks like their daughter to explain or justify the whole thing, you really should’ve tried harder. That just feels like you’re saying “Satan was the real villain, period. Oh yeah, and the dolls contain the devil!” That feels like a cheap and easy way out. It could be that I’m not well-versed enough in religious texts to get the full context of the movie though, but that explanation, or lack thereof rather, seems inadequate in my humble opinion.

I believe the movie should’ve spent more time on the source of evil or the rituals that presumably took control of the families. What is this evil capable of or what does it do? Why does it do it? Why is it so effective at making these families do what it wants? And why did it need Longlegs in the first place? Was he possessed by the devil? Was he the one that summoned it or did he merely point it at a new target? What role did he play for this source of evil? When you start asking these questions it starts to look like Longlegs was merely a token weirdo, used to give people the creeps (which they succeeded at btw 😂).

Perhaps I’m nitpicking or being too logical when I should just keep my mouth shut and try to enjoy it, but I grow tired of horror movies not sticking the landing. It really shouldn’t be that difficult to come up with good explanations for your endings. In my opinion, they should’ve stuck with Longlegs being a mentally insane, yet very competent killer, who happens to believe in the devil. He could’ve been convinced that his source of power came from Mr. Downstairs, but if I were the writer, that would’ve just been his own belief. In the end, Longlegs should’ve been the one that drove these families to do what he wanted them to do. Not Satan, not the satanic doll and not Lee’s mother, who I completely forgot to mention actually.

The moment I saw Lee’s mother, I knew something wasn’t right. She looked so much like Longlegs—the grayish hair, the pale skin. It was creepy. But I assumed it was because both she and Lee must’ve gone through something traumatizing we didn’t know about (which, in the end, they obviously did). I never expected her mother to be involved in all the killings, doing all that just to see her child grow up. I mean… Respect, I guess? 😂 You can’t deny she loved her child, but man… A nurse who presumably dedicated a huge portion of her life to saving people, making a complete 180 to enabling the deaths of so many innocent people, because a weird pale man with a surprisingly good singing voice made her fear for her daughter’s life? That seems kind of far-fetched… If logic were allowed in the writer’s room, Longlegs’ killing spree should’ve stopped once Lee’s mother found a place with a working phone line so she could’ve called the police…

As I’ve said before, I did really enjoy watching Longlegs though. It was a pleasure to watch. The acting was great, the shots were fire, and the music added to the creepiness and suspense, of which there was plenty. However, the back half of the movie did drag it down for me. If I had to put it somewhere on the recommend-o-meter, I’d rate it as “Dang Good”. You’ll probably like it, but it probably won’t blow your socks off either.

Let us know what you thought of Longlegs. Did you find the movie’s approach to horror refreshing? Do you agree with my take or did you see things differently? I’d love to know what y’all think!

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