Longlegs (2024): VersaScares Review

Longlegs released in theaters July 12, 2024 and it was another film that I was excited to see. I try not to follow the hype and keep my expectations low when it comes to horror movies and truthfully, the one thing that excited me was that the trailers didn’t give anything away. It's a constant problem that trailers spoil everything. (I'm still upset about 2022’s The Invitation and I am purposefully not posting the trailer for it so as to not to spoil anyone, but I HIGHLY recommend going into that movie without looking up anything about it. Nathalie Emmanuel is everything.)

Having a trailer that focused heavily on the creep factor of the film without giving anything away was refreshing and seemed to amp up those of us who were interested. The way that the film was marketed also made it out to be the “scariest film of the decade” which only made my hopes higher. I also saw that there was a phone number that people could call and they would be met with a creepy voice on the other line. The marketing was phenomenal in my opinion and most of the reviews that I read made it seem like this would genuinely be creepy.

Check out the trailer here.

My initial thoughts:

I sat through this film waiting and waiting for it to get scary. I wondered when I would get creeped out. Unfortunately, I felt bored and felt as if my hopes were set too high due to (what I felt like were) false advertisement and reviews. I was genuinely upset with the concept of the movie - not because it was bad - but because it left so many questions and the execution was just….. Boring.

Sidebar:

I would like to recommend watching a spoiler-free review from Cody Leach. I tried to avoid reviews that would skew my initial thoughts on the movie because I wanted to review it as honestly as I could, and though this is the first video of his that I’ve seen, I trust what he says. I don’t agree with everything because of how I perceived the film, but he talks about how reviewers and the marketing might have set the audience up for failure when they went to see this film. I found myself agreeing because if it had been marketed in a different way, that highlights parts of the actual movie instead of trying to focus on how scary or creepy it is (it isn’t).... Then maybe I would have actually enjoyed the film. You can watch his review here. (It is safe for those who have not seen the movie as well.)

My thoughts now:

I highly recommend going to see it if you want to watch it. I know I’ve said that I hated it and expected more (for those who had asked me about it), but I recommend seeing it and going in with the knowledge that it is more of a detective film with very few moments of Longlegs being creepy. It’s beautiful in the way some of the scenes were shot and the unfolding of the story was definitely something that I didn’t expect (in a good way). Everyone's threshold for being scared is different, but this movie feels a little more like mystery/thriller.

Alright, that's all for the non-spoiler section of this review. I'm going to do as much of a deep dive as I can and share my thoughts. If you have not seen the film, stop reading here. If you've seen it or are don't care about being spoiled, let's continue on...

The movie’s opening was probably the creepiest part of the entire movie. The scenes were angled in an unsettling manner, leaving its viewer feeling unnerved. I thought that if it had me feeling this way within the first few minutes, that it would make for a phenomenal film.

We’re met with still shots of a childhood home, the winter wonderland feel of the outdoors, and one child seemingly lost as she is in search of something. Once she steps foot outside, the viewer is immediately put on edge as the snow-covered ground changes from beautiful to ominous. It’s a little too quiet and a little too empty to feel like this girl is going to make it to safety. Seasoned horror consumers would notice that something strange was going to happen based on the angles in which we view her in. She meets Longlegs and it is the creepiest shot of the movie because we are not given the opportunity to view his face. Instead, he is made more menacing as we are seemingly at the level of this girl. Longlegs is obviously taller and stronger, and is put easily into a position where he can terrorize her. Even the manner in which he speaks to her leaves the viewer with no hope that she will make it to safety.

We get a flash forward into what looks like a debriefing for the FBI who are in search of a serial killer. Lee Harker is our protagonist and she noticeably harbors some sort of intuition when it comes to important matters such as this. Lee's eventual discovery and capture of this killer lands her a spot on a case that has been cold for some time. A number of families had been murdered, but no one is able to figure out how. There are never any signs of forced entry and no one can seem to find any clues. It turns out that these cases had intricate details that included: figuring out the similarities between all the families, decoding messages that were sent to the families, figuring out how the killer was let into the homes, and why exactly these families were being killed off.

Lee almost immediately begins finding out some similarities between the families; they had a daughter born on the 14th of any given month and within six days (before or after) of that daughter’s birthday, the families were killed. The funny thing is that each of the families experienced no forced entry before their murder, so either it was a trusted person or it was someone within the family. They theorize that its potentially something supernatural that kills the families because it is discovered that the fathers of the families are killing them off before killing themselves. Lee uses a linear calendar to mark the dates that the murders happens and it is revealed that those dates form an inverted triangle. But, only one date remains to complete the symbol.

Lee hadn’t yet told anyone how she figured this out, and one night, she is talking to her mother when strange things begin happening around her house. This scene was unsettling because of the angle as well. Lee is having a conversation with her mother, but the viewer’s eyes are constantly drawn to the background, watching and expecting. I thought that this was creative because it keeps the viewer on edge as Lee has a strained conversation with her mom. I kept wondering what was going to happen and what jump scare I was preparing myself for.

Nothing…

Nothing moves in the background and nothing appears behind her. Instead, there’s a bang on the door that startles Lee enough to bring her back to reality. I enjoyed how truly terrifying this scene was based on how it was shot and the atmosphere of it all. I was pulled out of it when Lee left her home to check on who knocked at her door. She hadn’t even locked the door upon leaving it and came back to find a card on her desk. As an FBI agent, I would have thought that she had better sense than to leave her home…. And to leave it unlocked. But, instead of a scary intruder, she comes back to a sinister note that expresses to her that if she were to tell anyone how she figured everything out, her mother would be killed. It, along with the notes that the other families received, were written in some sort of code that had to be deciphered. Lee used a bible to help her decipher these notes and at the time, I didn't realize the significance of it. This is the second clue that something satanic may be happening, with the first being that of the inverted triangle.

Later on, a clue leads Lee and her supervisor, Carter, to an abandoned area (a former crime scene from the same case) and they find that a doll is buried there. This doll looks very uncanny, like the only living survivor of that crime scene, the daughter. They found out earlier that she had survived only because she happened to be at school that day. When the doll is taken into forensics, they discover that it harbors a seemingly empty orb within its head. Somehow, Lee concludes that the orb must contain a supernatural entity that possesses the fathers to kill their families before killing themselves. Carter is skeptical of the idea of anything in regards to the supernatural, but still follows Lee's lead in the hopes that they can find out the identity of this killer.

The two find out that Longlegs’ only survivor is located in a mental institution and decide to pay her a visit since she’s their next lead. When they decide to sign in, Lee's name is already written down as if she had visited the day before. This makes Carter suspicious since it now seems like Longlegs has some sort of connection to Lee. He decides to do his own research and finds out that Lee's mother had filed a police report on Lee's 9th birthday which fell on the 14th.

Carter convinces Lee to talk to her mother, Ruth, believing that this is a new lead and we are taken to Lee's home. It's the same home from the beginning and the shots of the home had me realize how Lee is more connected to the case than she thinks. Her mother is of no help in solving this mystery since she claims not to remember anything. Lee goes through some of her old belongings, and happens to find old photos. Among them is a photo of a pale faced man, which also helps the viewer realize that Lee was the little girl from the beginning.

We get glimpses of Longlegs throughout the film and he comes across as a little weird, but doesn’t seem dangerous. We only see him interact with one girl who is a cashier helping him checkout. He doesn’t hesitate to ask her when her birthday is… but, again, he comes off as a little odd and she calls her father for help. Longlegs seems to have a breakdown of sorts in his car as he drives away. I didn’t initially catch onto the fact that this was a big clue for the viewers that he had asked for the girl’s birthday, but this coupled with his supposed tantrum in the car makes it feel as though he goes around asking kids for their birthday to commit these atrocities. We are also blatantly told that this is the man that the FBI should be looking for.

Flashforward to Lee finding his photo in her things… she submits the photo to the FBI and they are quickly able to find and bring him in. Lee believes that the day that Longlegs had visited her was the day that was missing from the inverted triangle and comes to the conclusion that Longlegs may have help in conducting his murders. I understood that she had had an intuition that helped her figure out difficult cases, but a lot of her suspicions I wondered about. How did she come to her conclusions and how did she seem to come to them so quickly? It seems almost supernatural. I’ll touch on this later, but for now… Lee is allowed to watch back a tape of Longlegs’ interrogation and he mentions her quite a bit throughout it. She opts to speak to him and there she finds out that he works for “the man downstairs”. She doesn’t get to question him further because he then proceeds continuously slam his face against the metal table until he’s dead.

An agent named Browning decides to drive Lee back to her Ruth's home after witnessing what Longlegs had done. Lee makes it into her house and searches around presumably for more clues until she happens to see her mother murder Browning with a shotgun. As Lee makes her way back outside, she sees her mother standing before a child-looking figure, aiming a shotgun at it. Lee pleads with her mom to stop, but Ruth shoots what is revealed to be the doll. It resembled Lee and when the doll falls to the ground, Lee loses consciousness.

Here is where the narrative changes as we are taken through a series of flashbacks relating to what happened in the Harker household. We find out that Ruth and Lee were supposed to die that day, which would have completed Longlegs’ triangle. Ruth pleads with Longlegs to spare her daughter and he gives her an ultimatum: die to complete the triangle, or aid him in killing families to keep Lee alive. Ruth obviously chose the latter, allowing Longlegs to set up shop in her basement to continue creating the dolls needed for this ritual. She would then get the dolls safely into the victim’s homes posing as a nun and saying that the dolls were gifts from the church. We find out that the orbs encased in the dolls contain some sort of satanic magic that influences these families to kill themselves off.

Lee wakes up and a phone in the house begins ringing. When she answers, there’s a demonic voice on the other end letting her know that she is "late for Ruby’s party". This is where I'll take us back… I wasn't quite sure where to include this because on paper, it doesn’t seem to flow well with the rest of the story…

When Lee was assigned to Longlegs’ case initially, she had spent much of the first night looking through files upon files. Her supervisor, Carter invited her out for drinks before having her meet his family; his wife and his daughter, Ruby. We find out that Ruby’s birthday is in a few days time, the same as Lee’s... and Ruby invites Lee to the party to which Lee accepts.

Fast forward to the present day and now we’re all caught up. Fearful for Carter and his family, Lee rushes to the house. She sees that Ruth is already there, having delivered the doll and is sitting, awaiting the inevitable to make sure everything goes to plan. Ruth tries to tell Lee not to interfere, but after Carter kills his wife, Lee shoots him to keep Ruby safe. Ruth stands to interfere and Lee is forced to also shoot her own mother. Lee tries to also shoot the doll, but she had run out of ammo. The movie ends with Lee staring at the doll after telling Ruby that they need to leave…

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My Final Thoughts:

The ending is ominous… I wonder if there will be a second? But, how? Since both of Satan's little helpers were taken out?

Anyway...

I sprinkled a few of my thoughts in throughout the retelling of the movie, but I couldn’t fit everything that I felt in between details. I went to see this film on opening night, excited to be watching something that was deemed to be the scariest movie of the decade. I truthfully felt like the reviews and the marketing ultimately set this film up for failure because if it had been marketed as a detective looking for a serial killer kind of movie, then I would have been fine. I don’t find those scary, but at least I would have anticipated a mystery/thriller, which is exactly what Longlegs was. I think I would’ve enjoyed it if my expectations weren’t set so high on seeing something creepy.

I think that the film would’ve been creepy if we were from the perspective of Longlegs. But this would’ve killed the mystery. I have so many questions that I’m wondering if there will be a sequel? A prequel maybe? But, this could’ve been easily marketed as creepy if we were from his perspective. I think that Nicolas Cage did a decent job at making Longlegs a little weird, a little creepy in the way that he talks and carries himself, but it feels a little wasted seeing as we don’t get to see him do much of anything (besides take himself out). The only time I felt the slightest bit disturbed was the first few minutes of the film when he was talking to a much younger Lee. I had really hoped that there would be more moments like that, but because we were from Lee’s perspective and not his, we get no other scenes like this.

Lee’s perspective is absolutely an interesting take, but, not for a film that was marketed as creepy or scary (especially for the decade). I understand that less is more in a lot of cases... Did they want to keep Longlegs somewhat of a mystery so as to deem him as scary? This film left so many questions and it felt unfinished by the time the credits rolled.

Initially, I didn’t like this film and walked out of the theatre feeling like I had wasted my time. It’s not the film’s fault. It’s partially mine for having as high of expectations as I had for something I knew nothing about. I also relied solely on reviews and marketing which can’t always be taken at face value. I had the opportunity to think about this film for a couple of weeks and watched a few youtubers talk about their thoughts and it helped me understand that the film wasn’t bad as a whole. I just needed to shift my perspective a bit and look at this film for what it was as opposed to feeling betrayed by the information I got before it’s theatrical release.

And... that's it! If you've read this far, thank you so much. I'm always nervous about my lengthier posts. If you've seen this film, what were your thoughts? I'm so curious to know because some people thought it was truly scary or terrifying while others didn't.

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I'll see you all next week and hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

🔪Versa