Longlegs
Longlegs is the most unnerving American horror film of 2024 and one of the few in recent memory that takes Satanism seriously as a moral force rather than as ironic aesthetic.…
Full analysis belowLonglegs presents evil as evil, the occult as genuinely dangerous, and Satanism as a real moral force rather than a camp aesthetic. The film's moral framework is implicitly traditional — the FBI agent is trying to stop something genuinely monstrous. The female protagonist's characterization is psychological and vulnerable rather than aspirationally feminist. Not a woke trap.
Longlegs is the most unnerving American horror film of 2024 and one of the few in recent memory that takes Satanism seriously as a moral force rather than as ironic aesthetic. Osgood Perkins — son of Norman Bates himself — has made a deeply strange, deliberately disorienting film about an FBI agent who is psychically connected to a Satanic serial killer, and the result is not for everyone. But for viewers willing to surrender to its atmospheric logic rather than demand conventional procedural satisfaction, it is genuinely, uncomfortably frightening.
The premise sounds like serial-killer procedural boilerplate: FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is assigned to a decades-old cold case involving a killer called Longlegs who has been murdering families without leaving a trace of himself at the scenes. The victims' families always include a member with a birthday on the 14th. The killer leaves cryptic Satanic coded letters signed by the number 7. Harker has an uncanny gift for intuiting crime scenes — she finds things no one else can — and her boss (Blair Underwood) believes this gift makes her the right person for the case.
Nicolas Cage plays Longlegs, and this is one of the genuinely memorable villain performances in recent horror. The role required Cage to disappear behind a prosthetic transformation — a distended, wax-pale face, wig, and falsetto voice — and the result is something that exists outside normal categories of film performance. Longlegs is not a calculating intellectual like Hannibal Lecter. He is childlike, frantic, devoted, and completely off his axis — a man who made a deal with the Devil and has been faithfully executing his end for decades with the fervor of a true believer. The performance is both disturbing and oddly pitiable. Cage commits entirely, which is the only way this kind of maximalist horror character works.
Perkins is not interested in the procedural mechanics of how investigations actually work. The film operates on dream logic: images arrive with the weight of meaning before their significance is explained, if it is explained at all. Harker experiences the case partly as a psychological crisis — her connection to Longlegs seems to run deeper than investigative intuition, and the revelation of how that connection works is the film's central horror. The pacing is deliberately fragmented and disorienting, which will frustrate viewers who want conventional thriller architecture and reward those who treat it as experiential horror.
From a VirtueVigil perspective, Longlegs scores considerably better than the average 2024 horror release. The film presents Satanism as genuine evil with genuine supernatural power — not as a metaphor for capitalism or a misunderstood alternative spirituality, but as actual demonic influence operating in the world. Longlegs made a deal with a real Devil and the results are real dead families. The film's moral universe is unambiguous on this point: what Longlegs serves is evil, what it produces is destruction and death, and the FBI agent opposing it is engaged in genuine spiritual warfare even if she does not fully understand it in those terms. This is a traditional moral framework that most contemporary horror refuses.
The film's progressive elements are limited and mostly structural rather than ideological. Lee Harker is a female FBI agent, but her characterization is not feminist empowerment — she is fragile, psychically damaged, and the film emphasizes her vulnerability as much as her capability. The supporting cast is diverse in ways consistent with contemporary genre casting. These are not the film's concerns. Perkins's concern is atmospheric dread, and he achieves it.
Longlegs was a commercial hit that divided critics — some found it intellectually pretentious for its refusal to explain itself conventionally, while others found it the most effective American horror of the year. Both camps are right about what they observe; they disagree about whether the experience is worth the discomfort. For VirtueVigil readers who appreciate horror that treats evil as evil and the spiritual stakes as genuine, Longlegs is one of the better recent offerings in its genre.
| Trope | Category | Location | Authenticity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female Protagonist in Authority Role | WOKE | Lee Harker — female FBI agent as the story's protagonist and investigative authority | Natural. The female investigator role is genre-functional rather than ideologically foregrounded. The film does not frame Harker's gender as a statement. |
| Diverse Supporting Cast | WOKE | Blair Underwood as Agent Carter; Michelle Choi-Lee as Agent Browning | Natural. Standard contemporary casting for an original genre property. Not foregrounded as ideological. |
| Psychological Vulnerability as Character Depth | WOKE | Harker's fragility, psychic sensitivity, and psychological damage as character traits | Natural. The vulnerability serves the horror mechanics rather than progressive trauma-as-identity politics. |
| Evil Is Evil — Moral Clarity | TRAD | Satanism presented as genuine evil with genuine power; Longlegs's devotion to the Devil is real, not metaphorical | Organic. The film's most notable traditional quality — it refuses to ironize or explain away its villain's evil as social product or misunderstood difference. |
| The Spiritual Dimension of Evil | TRAD | The supernatural framework — Satanic pact, demonic influence, psychic warfare — treated as genuinely real within the film's world | Organic. The film builds its horror on the premise that spiritual evil is a real category. This is a traditional moral framework. |
| Justice as Moral Imperative | TRAD | Harker's investigation — stopping Longlegs is not procedural duty but moral necessity; the families deserve protection | Organic. The investigative imperative is framed as protection of the innocent against genuine evil. |
| Warning Against Occult / Satanic Devotion | TRAD | Longlegs's entire arc — a man who made a deal with the Devil and has been destroyed by it while destroying others | Organic. The film presents Satanic devotion as producing only suffering and death. It is a genuinely moral horror film. |
| Defense of the Innocent | TRAD | The FBI investigation — protecting future families from the killer's murders; the moral weight of failure (families already dead) drives the urgency | Organic. The protective motivation is the story's moral engine. |
| Consequence and Accountability | TRAD | Longlegs's fate — devotion to evil produces destruction; his final confrontation carries genuine moral consequence | Organic. The film does not excuse, rehabilitate, or contextualize Longlegs's evil. Consequence is real and final. |
Director: Osgood Perkins
GENRE-AUTEUR — psychological horror specialist, no strong progressive ideological signalOsgood 'Oz' Perkins is the son of Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates in Psycho) and has established himself as one of the most distinctive voices in American horror with a small but intense filmography. His films — I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), Gretel & Hansel (2020), The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015/2017) — are atmospheric, slow-burn, psychologically demanding horror that prioritizes dread over gore. Perkins grew up in the shadow of his father's most famous role and his horror work reflects a deep engagement with the genre's psychological roots rather than its slasher or progressive-allegorical branches. He is not making horror as social commentary; he is making horror as horror. His ideological signal is minimal — this is a filmmaker obsessed with fear, atmosphere, and the uncanny rather than with political messaging.
Writer: Osgood Perkins
Perkins writes and directs his own work, giving him total creative control. His scripts are atmospheric rather than plot-driven — they build feeling and dread more than they construct conventional narrative architecture. Longlegs was developed over years as a deeply personal project. The script prioritizes the psychological experience of FBI Agent Lee Harker over conventional procedural logic. The result is a film that is divisive precisely because it refuses procedural conventions in favor of experiential horror. No progressive ideological agenda is legible in Perkins's writing — his agenda is dread.
Producers
- Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Automatik Entertainment / Neon) — Kavanaugh-Jones is an independent horror producer with credits across prestige genre films (Midnight Special, Annihilation, Doctor Sleep). He gravitates toward auteur-driven horror with genuine artistic ambition. No progressive ideological signal — his portfolio follows craft and director vision.
- Dan Kagan — Producing partner. No independent ideological signal.
- Neon (Neon (distributor/producer)) — Neon is the arthouse distributor behind Parasite, Bottoms, and several Oscar-cycle prestige films. Their slate skews progressive-arthouse in general, but Longlegs is a genre acquisition rather than an ideological project. Neon's involvement reflects commercial instincts about a high-profile horror property rather than ideological curation.
Full Cast
Fidelity Casting Analysis FAITHFUL
Original IP. No source material to assess fidelity against. No canon-swap concerns.
Longlegs is an original screenplay. There is no prior source material — novel, comic, or prior film adaptation — against which to assess casting fidelity. Nicolas Cage as the title villain and Maika Monroe as FBI Agent Lee Harker are original casting choices with no canon to violate. The film's diverse supporting cast (Blair Underwood, Michelle Choi-Lee) reflects standard contemporary casting practices for an original property. No fidelity assessment applies.
Adult Viewer Insight
Conservative viewers of faith who engage with horror at all will find Longlegs unusual in the most welcome way: it is a film that believes the Devil is real and presents Satanic devotion as genuinely dangerous and genuinely evil. This is not a common posture in contemporary horror, which tends to treat occult aesthetics as ironic or subversive rather than as moral categories. Perkins treats them seriously. The film's atmosphere of dread comes from the conviction that what Longlegs serves is not a metaphor.
Parental Guidance
Ages 18+ only. Serious adult horror. - Violence: Moderate — crime scene imagery, implied murder of families including children; not gratuitously gory but deeply disturbing in context - Language: Moderate — some strong language - Sexual content: Minimal - Occult content: Heavy and central to the film — Satanic imagery, ritual, demonic pact framing throughout. This is not casual occult aesthetic; it is the film's premise. - Thematic content: Serial murder, familicide, demonic influence, psychic vulnerability, childhood trauma, parental failure - The film's occult content is more disturbing to viewers of faith than its violence. The Satanic framework is presented as real and the imagery is designed to disturb. - Strictly adult viewing. Do not show to children or teenagers.
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