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Trigger Warnings: murder, gore, horror, trauma
SPOILER WARNING
Director Oz Perkins’ Longlegs released to theatres on 12 July 2024, becoming an almost overnight success amongst horror and thriller fans alike. The film made waves at the box office, passing Best Picture-Winner Parasite to becoming Neon’s highest-grossing movie ever, and making back its $10 million budget on its first day (including previews). Starring Maika Monroe as FBI agent Lee Harker, Longlegs sees Nicolas Cage at his Nicolas Cagey-est, playing the eponymous villain with the umph and gusto that the character deserves. Longlegs is a good bit of fun that doesn’t lean on gore-factor or cheap scares, but intends to get under your skin and stay there for a little while.
Longlegs follows Agent Harker as she is assigned to a mysterious serial killer case. As Harker delves deeper into the shocking murders, she finds a series of clues that send her looking further and further into the involvement of the occult. As she begins to close in on the man who calls himself ‘Longlegs’, Harker finds that she may be far more involved in the case at hand than at first glance.
Longlegs sees Nicolas Cage at his Nicolas Cagey-est
Since the film’s release, Longlegs has been an unexpectedly iconic hit amongst audiences globally, due predominantly to the Nicolas Cage’s somewhat unhinged portrayal of the eponymous serial killer. Singing his little heart out, ex-glam rocker Longlegs has become somewhat viral for his signature sound and quirky exterior.
In the dreary beige-ness that the film forces upon the state of Oregon, Longlegs sticks out like a sore thumb. He is ‘other’, and that is unsettling. His glam rock aesthetic is a clear reference to Buffalo Bill in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, and smoothly slots the character into a wider pop-culture canon of iconic horror characters – something that his seemed exceedingly difficult for horror films and franchises of recent years.
Longlegs is one ballad away from being a musical, and god damn are some of his tunes catchy. Don’t be surprised if post-viewing you’re humming along to “let me in now…”, because with a performance like Cage’s, Longlegs deserves to play on your mind for as long as he likes.
In a sense, Longlegs feels comparable to the horror of director Ari Aster when considering the film’s re-watchability. The film is crafted in a way that lets you spot different hints and clues towards the film’s eventual conclusion with every watch, in a similar manner to 2018’s Hereditary and 2019’s Midsommar.
Oz Perkins has confirmed that he has hidden the film’s shadowy imagining of the Devil throughout the film over 15 times, a facet that seemingly becomes less skewed and more forceful as Harker works her way towards the film’s brutal ending.
Additionally, when considering the film’s portrayal of figures relating to religion and the occult, Perkins’ decision to retain an ambiguity about their presence on earth entirely lends itself to the film’s underlying sense of ‘other’.
Longlegs is larger than life, and the occultish figures that are pulling the strings are made up of something that could never be of this earth. They appear entirely wrong when existing in the domestic spaces that they inhabit, furthering the sense of ‘other’ that follows the film’s leads.
It is also important to consider less literal approaches to Longlegs’ themes. One interpretation is that of the lingering effects of childhood trauma as victims make their way into adulthood. Agent Harker and her mother’s tendencies to repress their past act as a defence, protecting them from remembering the very real evil that inhabits their every waking moments until the defences crumble, and Harker gets too close. The film has multiple potential symbolic approaches, and the film’s ambiguity allows for individual analysis to flourish with each watch.
We are left with many unanswered questions
However, the ambiguity that allows the film to creatively and thematically flourish does leave audiences with quite a lot of unanswered questions. Longlegs himself is a mystery, with his personal stakes in his crimes left entirely unspoken when considering how little control he has over the occult figures that are at work.
Longlegs’ signature cryptograms are too confusing once the film’s big-bad reveals itself, as we have to ask what the purpose of these clues are, when the killer could have operated entirely undetected. Although Harker has seemingly contained the immediate threats that were Longlegs and her mother, surely the Devil will just inhabit another soul? And for god’s sakes, why was Harker’s boss not worried that his daughter being born on the 14th? The list goes on, and Longlegs is left leaving its less-willing audience members a tad sour at its open-endedness. Although, the film’s ambiguity could be the perfect opportunity for a Pearl-esque Longlegs origin story.
Verdict
Longlegs is a gorgeous film. Visually stunning and suitably gripping, the feature leaves you asking ‘what did I just watch?’ for all the right reasons. Nicolas Cage goes all in and delivers, with Maika Monroe convincingly plodding along her assigned path just as was intended for her. It’s a love-it-or-hate-it kind of movie, but for fans of the kooky and spooky, Longlegs is not one to miss.
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