Editor’s Note: The following story contains spoilers for the ending of “ Longlegs .” Nothing ends happily for the people in “Longlegs,” Osgood Perkins ‘ viral serial killer horror movie now finally in theaters from Neon. The stylish satanic thriller has been hyped to its last ounce of blood thanks to its smart marketing campaign and considerable buzz over Nicolas Cage’s titular murderer, a Satan worshipper with the face powder and wig of a long-ago-faded glam rocker.
(Tellingly, lyrics from the ’70s English rock band T-Rex, led by Marc Bolan, who sure looks a lot like Cage’s Longlegs, punctuate the movie.) In its last act, “Longlegs” reveals the supernatural powers of its title killer, who sends lifesize dolls into the homes of unassuming families that then put them into a murder-inducing trance. As the psychically inclined FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) realizes, Longlegs has for decades been working in cahoots with her mother, a fearfully religious basket case who does the door-to-door duty of posing as a nun to deliver the dolls that compel fathers to murder their wives and children with common household objects.
That’s because Lee’s mother Ruth (Alicia Witt) made a pact with Longlegs years before to spare her daughter’s life in exchange for becoming his accomplice. Ever since, Longlegs has lived in Ruth’s basement as “the man downstairs” ominously referred to throughout the film . Longlegs’ — and ergo Ruth’s — final victim on.
