To me, horror movies are as ludicrous as sickly 2000’s romcoms are to teenage boys, so admittedly I walked into the cinema to see Longlegs (2024) with a steadfast cynicism. This cynicism was compounded right from the beginning of the film; a female FBI agent with a log cabin deep in the middle of the woods, a satanic child murderer who kills little girls if their birthday is on a certain date of the month, creepy nuns and cryptic notes left by the killer at the scene. It felt like a film I’d already seen before, with many parts feeling laughably predictable, pastiche, bordering on satirical... and that was when I got it. And it is brilliant.
The film opens (and later closes) with the 70’s rock ‘n’ roll hit 'Bang a Gong (Get it on)' by T-Rex, evocative of the use of ‘Goodbye Horses’ by Q Lazzarus in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). A section of the lyrics appears on screen as the film begins, harking back to conspiracies of rock music containing satanic passages hidden within lyrics and the ‘Satanic panic’ of the 70’s and 80’s. The sound design of the film is remarkable, with sound designer Eugenio Battaglia stating that when he spoke to writer and director Osgood Perkins he told him: “It’s a horror film, but [...] I want you to know that more than anything, this is a rock ’n’ roll film.” This sums up the film much more sharply and succinctly than I ever could.
This carefully curated sound throughout crafts a sense of disquietude and disorientation, accentuating the audience experience, which is exactly what Perkins had in mind when creating the film. It is truly an experience. Perkins has repeatedly stated that he does not have Netflix and “does not watch contemporary pictures”, hence the film is designed for the classic silver-screen viewership, with the film’s marketing campaign carefully curated to drum up anticipation for the thriller theatre-going experience. In part, this is because the film is more skilful than scary; it beseeches the audience's full attention and understanding. Admittedly, even as a cynic of the genre, it was wholly satiating to spot gestures to classics such as Se7en (1995) and Hereditary (2018) throughout the film, making it a collage of the illustrious upper echelons of the craft. Hence, I would exhort prospective audiences to indulge in a trip to the cinema and utilise their student discount, rather than waiting for it to appear on streaming services.
Whilst the film itself may lack in spine-chilling scare, it’s backstory is utterly unsettling. Perkins is the son of the one and only Norman Bates actor, Anthony Perkins, the narcissistic, perverted protagonist in Psycho (1960). However, it is not in fiction that the true terror lies, but in the real-life tragedy of the Perkins family. Anthony Perkins passed in 1992 from AIDS, hiding his sexuality throughout this his life, with multiple attempts at conversion therapy. He was protected by his wife and (Osgood Perkins’ mother) Berry Berenson, who hid the truth not only to the merciless scrutiny of the press and public, but her sons as well. In this way, Perkin’s makes Longlegs his most personal film to date, reconstructing the precarity and pain that arises from a mother lying out of love to protect her children (without indicating too many spoilers). Whilst the 1993 setting makes the film cleverly culturally curated, it also harks back to Perkins' grisly backstory, with his beloved mother killed in the 9/11 terror attack.
When talking about the autobiographical temper of the film in an interview with IndieWire, Perkins said “Everything I try to do, I try to make it about myself, only so that it creates a truth for me and an honesty.” This is also why the film is set in 1993, with the quasi-comical placement of Bill Clinton’s framed photograph looming in the background of the FBI office. The film was originally set in 1992, one year after The Silence of The Lambs hit the box office, but Perkins realised if this was the case, the framed presidential photo in the office would be of George Bush. He explained “I just tweaked it up by a year so it would at least be Bill Clinton. Not that he’s any better. We don’t need to go back there, it’s ugly enough”. Perhaps it is because of this painful, personalistic panorama, that Perkins uses farcical and quasi-comical elements, with the protagonist Lee Harker being a bashful introvert who falls asleep in front of evidence and walks into the house of a man who shot her colleague in the face alone. Even Nicholas Cage’s portrayal of satanic psycho killer Longlegs and his Pennywise-style prosthetics are tinged with absurdity, and this mock-up makes for a genuinely enjoyable viewer-experience, even for the cynics amongst us.
The mastery of Longlegs is underpinned by its tragic backstory, which is where its true terror lies. Perkins tames, laments and celebrates all that is good (and not-so-good) about pre-2000s horror. This is a welcome reprieve from the many contemporary films written for an audience which lacks patience, with phone screens now expected to be an appendage to the streamed watching experience. This is likely why recent horrors such as Nope (2022) and the The Purge films have been so overwhelmingly underwhelming. Longlegs is a film that satiates the appetites of the film bros and the cynics amongst us. It is devilishly and deceivingly wonderful.
