Well you're slim and you're weak
You've got the teeth
Of the Hydra upon you
You're dirty sweet
And you're my girl
In a spine-chilling way, the lyrics of the band T. Rex in the opening scene of the film we are discussing today can be seen as a love letter to the horror genre. The killers treat the body they leave behind as a muse, full of Aestheticism, sent to the devil. But all we see is filth, distortion, and inhumanity. On the contrary, even though the audience knows they will be haunted by these sick, filthy, and evil characters, they still want to go to the theater to witness a finely crafted, visually beautiful product. Perhaps that is the alluring contradiction of the horror genre: sweet in a grimy way.
And if you've already become addicted to that heart-pounding sensation, there's no reason to skip Longlegs, a surprise hit of 2024. Following the trail of a serial killer with the unusual name Longlegs, the work of director Oz Perkins has made a big splash, sparking curiosity and leading viewers to uncover hidden messages that they have to dig deep to find.
What would it feel like to live beneath a house full of secrets? Are lies justified by love truly good, or do they lead to an even more terrible tragedy? Today, let's analyze and unravel the murder case of Longlegs, the killer who commits murder without even being present at the crime scene.
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Plot
Spoiler Alert: The following section will reveal the entire plot of the film. Please consider before reading.
Let's first navigate the surface of the story. Bearing many similarities to The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Longlegs begins with a young female officer named Lee Harker. Despite her shy, distant, and somewhat eccentric personality, she is an exceptionally talented agent with an incredibly sharp intuition. During one investigation, just by glancing at a house, Lee immediately realizes it is where the killer has been hiding.
Impressed by her accomplishments, her superiors entrust her with the task of hunting down a serial killer who has baffled law enforcement for decades. This killer is known as Longlegs - a phantom who leaves behind a coded letter at every crime scene involving the unfortunate families he murders. However, there is something peculiar: in almost all the cases, the father turns out to be the actual killer. He slaughters his family members and then uses the same weapon to reunite with them in the afterlife. As a result, there are no traces of Longlegs at the crime scenes, as if he has the ability to control and drive others to madness. The only common threads among the families are that they all had a young girl with a birthday on the 14th, and the letters contain references to worshipping the devil.
With her exceptional intelligence and an almost instinctive drive, Lee finally deciphers the letters, only to recall a chilling truth: her own birthday also falls on the 14th. And on a gloomy morning when she was 9 years old, she accidentally captured a photograph of the killer. His name is Dale Ferdinand Cobble - a doll maker whose face has been severely altered by plastic surgery. Worshipping the devil, he disguised himself as a church representative, delivering gifts to families with children whose birthdays were approaching. Once accepted, the evil will inside the doll would drive the father insane, leading to a massacre.
However, Lee quickly deduces that Cobble's grotesque appearance could never win over his victims' trust. He must have had an accomplice - someone who went door-to-door with a charming smile. To her horror, that person was none other than her own mother.
From here, the terrifying past is revealed. On a snowy winter day in 1974, Longlegs visited the home of Lee and her mother with a "gift." Lee accidentally captured his face in a photo, but nothing could stop the deranged killer. Desperate, her mother made a pact with the devil to save her daughter’s life. In exchange for delivering the cursed dolls to the victims’ homes, Lee would be allowed to grow up normally.
In a final, desperate effort, Lee is forced to kill her own mother to prevent the 11th family from being slaughtered. Although she arrives too late, she manages to save young Ruby, who has already been driven mad by the doll. With a gun in her hand, Lee aims at the cursed toy but, strangely, is unable to pull the trigger. The film abruptly ends, leaving us with the eerie laughter of Longlegs and his chilling proclamation, "Hail Satan."
So, what does this entire story truly mean? Let’s peel back the layers of symbolism to uncover the hidden truths behind this dark mystery.
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Has Longlegs been eliminated?
Although Longlegs is a detective story, it's clear that the supernatural plays an incredibly important role. In the latter half of the film, the true figure of the killer is revealed to be the devil himself—Satan. However, if you pay close attention, you'll notice that he's been present beside Lee from the very beginning, subtly controlling and manipulating all the events. So why does the Devil need this young investigator? Why does he spare her life when he didn’t do the same for previous victims, only agreeing to the deal with Lee’s mother?
As we know from the case files, the father is always the first to lose control and murder the rest of the family, but throughout the film, we never see the father figure in Lee’s family—only her and her mother. This absence raises suspicions. Even though Cobble (Longlegs) claims that he gave Lee’s mother the choice between “crimson” or “clover” - to accept the gift and watch Lee die or to kneel and serve Satan - I don't believe that was ever truly the choice. Even after Lee’s mother became an accomplice, we never see anyone else given a similar option. This suggests that from the start, Longlegs never intended to kill Lee. She was special, a girl who had caught the devil's attention.
According to the pact, Longlegs would reside in the basement of the family’s house to make his dolls. This detail is hinted at in the eerie sounds heard at the start of the film. The call of the cuckoo bird is symbolic - cuckoos are known for laying their eggs in other birds' nests, and "cuckooing" is a term used to describe someone taking over another person's house for illegal activities. In this case, Longlegs attached himself to Lee’s family and, in a sense, became the missing father figure. This is subtly referenced in a special FBI exam scene. When Lee is shown a symbol most commonly associated with the Devil - a triangle - she says it reminds her of her father. It’s possible that her father was once a cultist or, more disturbingly, that Lee is the daughter of Satan himself, and Longlegs, his servant, came to collect her on her 9th birthday.
Lee also received her own doll, and like the others, it contained a hollow metal piece inside its head. Following the clues from Carrie Anne, the lucky victim who managed to escape, we learn that this metal piece serves as a memory block for its owner. All the girls who received the doll forgot almost everything and became emotionally numb. This revelation makes us reflect on Lee’s eccentric personality and communication style, and it explains why she possessed psychic abilities and was able to instantly decipher the letters. Satan himself granted her this power, while also locking away her memories of the killer living in the basement—the very one she’s been searching for.
In the investigation scene at the beginning of the film, we see the criminal shooting the FBI agents without hesitation as soon as they ring the doorbell. However, when he sees Lee, he becomes strangely compliant. This could be because he recognizes that she is the one chosen by Satan and dares not harm her, allowing the plan to unfold smoothly. Lee’s mother believed she had the choice to destroy the doll, thinking that would free her daughter’s mind. But in reality, it was all a pre-set trap.
Regaining her memories and free will, Lee goes on to prevent the massacre of the 11th family. However, in her pursuit of justice, she is forced to kill her own mother to protect the victims - mirroring the fathers who killed their loved ones under Longlegs' influence. The cross-shaped bullet wound symbolizes a kind of baptism or cleansing. But when she turns the gun toward the cursed doll, she cannot pull the trigger.
In my interpretation, the reason Lee hesitates is that the young girl she just saved, Ruby, is now the new hostage - similar to how her own mother was trapped. The pact will now be for Ruby, who has just had her birthday, to either go insane and die or become the new Longlegs. The film leaves Lee’s final decision unresolved, but with Cobble’s sinister laughter echoing, it suggests that the Devil has won yet again.
If you pay close attention, there are not less than two scenes where Lee's mother is filmed in a way that reveals her legs, subtly hinting that she is an accomplice of Longlegs. As for the protagonist, there are moments where her driving scenes mirror those of the doll-making killer. If I’m not mistaken, the family’s cat hissed as soon as it saw the investigator, suggesting that Lee's shadow itself represents the devil. Her action of putting the gun down at the end of the film may symbolize surrender. Thirty-eight lives in total, and as Lee decoded, their deaths form the shape of a triangle—the ultimate symbol of Satan’s deceit.
It was a tragedy fated long before it began. From the age of 9, Lee was destined to become the next Longlegs. The reason this killer figure continuously needs to change is perhaps because Cobble, with his grotesque appearance, was immediately rejected by the children. Lee's mother had aged as well, so Satan required someone younger to ensure families would continue accepting the "gifts" - the dolls that would drive fathers to take up knives and butcher their own kin.
The Dragon and the Beast rising from the sea
So, is the whole story of Longlegs merely a devil’s amusement, or is there a greater purpose behind it? To understand this, we need to closely examine the letter Longlegs sent to Lee:
Stood upon the sand of the sea.
This line directly references the Book of Revelation, which is also mentioned in the film. In the Book of Revelation, Satan is described as a red dragon, but this can also be interpreted as a serpent. He is the very snake that tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, and the film presents multiple allusions to serpents. For example, in the final scene, Lee’s mother draws out a knife shaped like a serpent to assist in her sinister act. Satan has summoned his disciple, the Beast from the Sea.
In Revelation 13, it is written:
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns upon its horns, and blasphemous names on its heads... The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority... The whole earth marveled and followed the beast.
If we apply this to the film, the dragon, serpent, or Satan himself actually exists in the form of Cobble - the dollmaker, and the entire journey is about summoning the Beast from the Sea, who is actually Lee Harker. She has been chosen to become Satan’s disciple, and together they will bring misfortune upon the unfortunate souls of mankind.
We see that Lee’s mother has to dress as a nun and watch the helpless victims die, a clear act of blasphemy against the Christian image. This aligns with the lyrics of T. Rex’s song mentioned earlier, describing a woman's body marked by the teeth of Hydra, or the Devil himself. Therefore, Longlegs can be understood as a story from the Book of Revelation, retold in modern times. The densely planted details are more than enough for horror fans to dissect and come up with their own theories.
The Deceptive Shield
Ultimately, through Longlegs, director Oz Perkins wanted to tell a personal story inspired by his own childhood. You might not know that the 50-year-old filmmaker was born into a very famous family. His father is actor Anthony Perkins, who played the murderer Norman Bates in the classic Psycho, while his mother, Berry Berenson, was a model and photographer. However, Anthony later died due to AIDS complications, and his wife was one of the victims of the tragic 9/11 attacks. In interviews, Oz Perkins shared that his childhood was spent under a protective shield. His father was a man living two lives. "You could call my father either gay or bisexual," the director revealed.
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At the time, Hollywood wasn’t as progressive as it is today, so such stories were absolutely not discussed within the family. His father, a man of great fame, was distant, while his mother avoided the deeper issues. This disconnection was what inspired the director to create Longlegs. It’s a story about a mother who lies to her daughter in an attempt to protect her, but as we see, there’s a certain coldness between them, and in the end, that love is not enough to prevent a heartbreaking tragedy. While the film is not entirely based on personal experience, one can certainly see reflections of a broken family in this demonic tale.
In conclusion, I think Longlegs is a decent, creative, and heartfelt work. It draws clear inspiration from Silence of the Lambs, most notably through its intelligent and courageous female investigator. Just as Clarice Starling is haunted by the cries of the lambs, Lee Harker is tormented by the doll lodged in her mind, with both women carrying deep childhood scars. However, because of this, when we compare the two films, the weaknesses of Longlegs become apparent.
Firstly, using half of the film to set up a detective story, only to explain everything as the work of supernatural powers, might leave many viewers feeling disappointed. Especially in the third act, the mother’s retelling of everything that happened in such an unrefined manner severely violates the unwritten rule of "Show, don’t tell." Viewers who were carefully piecing together the clues are left unsatisfied when the answer simply falls from the sky too easily. Thus, to be fair, the praise the film has received may be slightly exaggerated, and it still falls short of films like Pearl, Barbarian, or the 2021 Palme d’Or winner Titane before being considered the scariest film of the decade. However, the passion and beauty of Longlegs are undeniable, with its highly cinematic frames creating an incredibly tense atmosphere and a story that invites analysis and interpretation. That alone is enough to earn praise and make it worth watching in theaters.