Artistic Flair In ‘Longlegs’ Hides A Lazy Narrative That Ultimately Glorifies Evil
Warning: This review contains spoilers.
(REVIEW) “Longlegs” follows a recent trend of nihilistic horror movies, adding to a glorification of that nihilism a lazy and morally reprehensible narrative.
The phrase “glorifies evil” often gets thrown around by Christians about horror movies. Any time a horror movie portrays evil in a particularly scary way, many Christians will argue that evil is being glorified. This doesn’t seem particularly plausible to me, as many horror films show not only how ugly evil is but also how heroes can triumph over it.
“Longlegs,” however, is a movie that truly does glorify evil — and it isn’t subtle about it.
READ: Faith-Based Animated Series ‘Fleur De Lis’ Innovates With Humor And AI
The movie follows FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), who uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to catch a serial killer (Nicholas Cage). On her way, she discovers her own connection to the serial killer, which forces her to confront her own past to hopefully take him down. The film is directed by Oz Perkins (“Gretel & Hansel”) and released by Neon (“I, Tonya,” “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall”).
“Longlegs” sits firmly in the “horror renaissance” genre of modern arthouse films, where Hollywood realized the magic formula for horror was arthouse filmmaking craft and thoughtful themes, with classic tropes and scares. And on this score, it does a great job. The cinematography is beautiful, with thought and care put into what we see — and when — in order to showcase just the right amount of shadows and gore to terrify us, while also cleverly using its imagery to contrast the present day with the past (using techniques like aspect ratio) and utilizing set design to keep its themes of religious hopelessness firmly in our minds without being obnoxious.
The performances are great. Maika Monroe (most famous for another classic horror film, and one of my personal favorites, “It Follows”) utterly nails her performance as the heroine Lee Harker, who’s emotionally stunted but still deeply empathetic and lovable — something incredibly hard to do, and the kind of role far less often given to women. Cage, meanwhile, obviously hams it up as a Joker/Buffalo Bill/John Doe hybrid serial killer that somehow feels distinctly terrifying in ways we haven’t seen before. Alicia Witt disappears into her role as Lee’s troubled religious mother, and Blair Underwood is flawless as Lee’s foil and boss.
The mystery unfolds and, for a while, is very intriguing. A series of families have all killed themselves in their homes with no sign of forced entry, but a message left in code at each one signed “Longlegs” has investigators scratching their heads. FBI agent Lee Harker has her own issues with her mom, which allows the threat of Longlegs to serve as a metaphor for her own inner journey (as with all good modern horror movies).
And yet, at a certain point, the more it is revealed, the less it makes sense. They establish limits for Longlegs, like the fact that he needs an accomplice, but then establish powers for him that make such limits make no sense. They then establish how to “free” someone from his control, and then that person is in his control anyway. The result is that Longlegs — empowered by “the man downstairs” or Satan — is functionally all-powerful.
There are a few problems with this. First, It makes the film fundamentally less interesting. Mysteries intrigue because of an implicit promise of satisfying answers that are — at least in the rules established for the world — internally coherent. When the answers make less sense than the questions, one doesn’t feel shocked but cheated. Likewise, just like an all-powerful hero makes stories less interesting by eliminating conflict, so does an all-powerful villain.
If Superman’s powers are basically just “anything I need to win any villain I go up against,” you don’t invest in the hope or fear of beating the villains. Similarly, once you realize that Longlegs’ and Satan’s abilities are just “can make anyone do anything I want,” then you start to emotionally check out. How do we get invested in what choice Lee is going to make, or her struggle to beat the villain, when her choices won’t change the outcome? The movie hides this for a large chunk of of time by making it a mystery. Once it becomes apparent in the third act that the mystery is hiding nonsense, then instead of catharsis you feel a deflation.
The second problem is that it makes evil seem rather cool. I have a general rule to determine whether or not a movie is glorifying evil or just portraying it. My rule is one question: “Where is the catharsis?” Catharsis is what the audience feels when they experience resolution to a conflict. The guy and girl get together at the end of the rom- com? Catharsis. The hero beats the villain at the end? Catharsis.
Getting the anxiety of conflict resolved gives us a hit of happiness that makes us think positively about the ex experience and want to go through it again. But catharsis can come with the triumph of evil, too. This particularly happens in horror or slasher movies. Jigsaw triumphs at the end of the “Saw” movie? Catharsis. Hannibal Lecter gets what he wants from Clarice? Catharsis. When we get catharsis from evil, we are being trained to love evil. When we get catharsis from the triumph of good over evil, we are training ourselves to love good. Look at all the “top 10 kills by Jason” videos in the “Friday the 13th” franchise. What do you think fans there are being trained to love?
All of the “cool” moments in “Longlegs” are where evil triumphs. It’s where Longlegs is being charismatic. It’s where he and his accomplice show how in control they are because they worship the all-powerful Satan. It’s when you see how, even when the heroes think they are winning, we find out that the villains were in control the entire time.
This is, unfortunately, a rather common problem within the horror renaissance. Movies like “Hereditary” and “Smile” establish villainous monsters that represent real-life fears we have such as grief and trauma. They give the heroes some hope of overcoming the monster and then reveal there was no hope after all. Nihilism and despair win. Despair and nihilism give us our catharsis.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t have horror films where the villains win. Not at all. “Sev7en” by David Fincher is a great example of a horror detective movie where the villain triumphs but the conclusion is “the world is worth fighting for.”
“Midsommar” and “Talk to Me” are also great recent examples. But they work because the villains of these films are not all-powerful and do stick to rules and themes established for them by the movie. The heroes fail to overcome the villains because of flaws in themselves they could have overcome but didn’t. These failures tie into themes about the nature of good and evil in our world that ring true — and how we might be susceptible to it.
The final problem with making evil all-powerful is this: It’s a lie. Evil is not omnipotent in this world. Christians know that because the Bible teaches that God is all-powerful. But anyone can see that’s true as well if you look at the world around us. Look at the defeats of fascism and communism, and the exponential progress we’ve made around the world shrinking poverty, lowering the murder rate and beating back slavery, racism, sexism and the like.
This isn’t a trivial lie either. It’s a lie that directly harms people today. The despair that evil is more powerful than it is — partly brought on by social media algorithms that push negative news on us because that’s what gets our attention — is driving a growing mental health crisis around the world, and with it, the rise in suicide rates. It’s also driving political extremism, with left and right alike arguing that the other side is so dangerous even unthinkable tactics are OK if it means beating them.
Of course, “Longlegs” is not the only movie pushing a nihilistic view of the world today, and not all of them are equally harmful. Shows like “Rick and Morty” and movies such as “Cabin in the Woods” and “Everything Everywhere all at Once” push a view of the universe that is essentially meaningless and hopeless. But they portray this despair as a bad thing. And they don’t end there. They use that as a starting premise because that’s what the filmmakers believe and ask how we can have a heroic meaningful life despite this meaninglessness.
When you push a hopeless narrative on your audience and tell them they only have two choices: Submit to evil or kill yourself, you make submitting to the evil part rather attractive. It’s hard to argue you aren’t doing the work of Longlegs himself. Longlegs describes himself as someone who gives people choices of either carrying out his work with him or dying. He establishes himself as all-powerful, so those are the only two choices his victims have. This leads to the victims either dying or killing others. If the filmmakers convince their audience of the same, they are contributing to a world where people will make the same choices Longlegs’s victims do.
The film ends with Cage’s character saying “Hail Satan.” Whether the filmmakers intended it that way or not, this movie is functionally saying the same thing.
“Longlegs” is exclusively in theaters now.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at his website josephholmesstudios.com.