A Recap of the Movie ‘Longlegs’

Movies

Aug 1

Written By VS BRANDS

Written by Michael Lee

*All Media used in this article is courtesy of NEON

Official Trailer: Longlegs (2024)

Video via NEON

Plot Synopsis: ‘Longlegs’

It is the 1970’s; somewhere in the wintery Oregon countryside, a little girl notices a strange car outside of her house. She then hears a strange, high-pitched voice and attempts to locate the source until she is suddenly approached by a bizarre, erratic man with a very pale face, obviously botched from multiple plastic surgeries.

Longlegs Film Clip: ‘See’ | Video Courtesy of NEON

Fast forward to the 1990’s and we meet Lee Harker, a young, newly recruited FBI agent, who is shown to be an incredibly intuitive agent, even mysteriously so, as she correctly assumes a nearby home contains the murderer they are looking for. She and her new partner attempt to apprehend the suspect, but her partner is murdered point blank and the suspect runs free.

Longlegs Film Clip: ‘Ruth Harker’ | Video Courtesy of NEON

Through rigorous FBI testing, she is believed by the agency to have possible clairvoyance. Because of this, her superior, Carters, enlists her to help the bureau solve a series of brutal murder-suicides involving many familes in Oregon over the course of several decades. In each instance, Carter informs Lee that a father has murdered his entire family before killing himself and at each scene is a letter containing cryptic Satanic symbols signed ‘Longlegs’. The scene of each crime contains no forensic evidence or any evidence of an intruder, confusing the FBI for years.

Longlegs Film Clip: ‘House’ | Video Courtesy of NEON

Lee agrees to the case and calls her mother to catch up. Her mother asks which child is calling her, though Lee reminds her that it is just Lee and herself in their family. Lee suspects an intruder within her home. She attempts to apprehend the intruder, but is unsuccessful. The intruder, revealed to be Longlegs, leaves behind a birthday card, celebrating someone’s 9th birthday. Inside the card contains another coded message and Lee manages to decode its message with a Bible. The card instructs Lee that if she reveals how she decoded the message, Longlegs will kill her mother.

“Agent Lee Harker” played by Maika Monroe ● Photo via NEON

After the incident, Lee begins to piece together similarities between the murdered families. Each family had at least one nine year old daughter born on the fourteenth of the month, with all of the murders having occurred at least within six days before or after the birthday. When Lee writes each birthday out on a linear calendar, the dates of all the murders take the shape of an inverted triangle, a well known occult symbol, though one birthday is missing to complete the entire shape.

“Agent Carter” played by Blair Underwood ● Photo via NEON

Carter reveals to Lee that one person has survived Longlegs murders. A woman named Carrie Anne Camera, who is now housed in a mental health facility where she has been lying comatose for several years. It is revealed, however, that Carrie has suddenly awoken and is now speaking. Lee and Carter go to visit Carrie and Carrie speaks in long, strange riddles, leaving Lee mystified. It is revealed that Carrie had a visitor prior to Lee. Lee suspects Longlegs and Carrie seemingly confirms this, but upon further investigation, Longlegs has signed into the facility as Lee Harker.

Sometime later, Carter and Lee follow a clue to unearth a doll buried underneath the floorboards of a former Longlegs crime scene. The doll contains a strange metal orb in the head, which emits high energy readings despite it being entirely empty. Carter strongly denies the existence of the supernatural, but Lee begins to theorize that each murdered family possibly have received a similar doll from Longlegs. She believes that Longlegs must be infusing these orbs with some kind of Satanic energy and he has been using the dolls to possess and influence the fathers to kill. At this point, Carter becomes suspicious of Lee, concerned she is somehow connected to Longlegs, as it is revealed that Longlegs has extensive knowledge of Lee and Ruth, her mother.

Lee goes to visit Ruth and she denies the memory of Lee’s 9th birthday, but suggests Lee to search through her childhood belongings in her room. Ruth is a hoarder, and the house is brimming with junk. In her room, Lee finds a chest that contains her hair, teeth, and fingernails, as well as a stack of old photos. Among them is a photo of a pale-faced man, which reveals that Lee is the little Oregon girl we met at the beginning of the film and the pale-faced man is indeed Longlegs. She submits the photo to the FBI so they can issue a warranty for his arrest.

Lee begins to fear that the missing day on the inverted triangle she mapped out earlier is today. Longlegs is then arrested and taken for questioning; Lee visits him and he recognizes her immediately, as she has known Longlegs since she was very young, although she didn’t know it. Longlegs informs Lee that he serves the man downstairs, i.e. Satan. He then points Lee towards her mother Ruth, asking her to question Ruth’s involvements in his crimes. He proclaims ‘Hail Satan’ before he slams his face into the table over and over, eventually committing suicide, opening up his forehead and exposing his jawbone.

Another FBI agent drives Lee back to her childhood home to question Ruth. Lee investigates the house while Ruth kills the other agent with a shotgun. Ruth then shoots the head off a doll that resembles Lee as a child, and Lee passes out.

Agent Browning drives Lee back to her mother's home. While investigating the house, Lee sees Ruth murdering Browning with a shotgun. Ruth then shoots the head off a doll resembling a young Lee, causing Lee to lose consciousness.

It is then revealed that Ruth has been the accomplice to Longleg’s crimes ever since he met Lee as a child. That night, Longlegs returned to attack Ruth, forcing her to choose: she can let her daughter be murdered in the name of the Satanic ritual, or to do his bidding and he will spare them. She agrees, which leaves the missing date on the inverted triangle.

We learn too that Longlegs has actually lived in the basement of the Harker home ever since, which means he himself is the man downstairs. This is where he creates his dolls infused with Satanic magic. He made Ruth pose as a nun who would deliver these dolls as a gift in the name of the church. Lee’s doll has infested her with Satan's influence since childhood.

Lee awakes in the basement to a phone call, only to hear Satan proclaim ‘You’re late for Ruby’s party’. Ruby is Agent Carter’s daughter whom invited Lee to her party. Lee realizes Ruby’s birthday aligns with Longlegs’s inverted triangle and she races to stop her mother from delivering the doll only to find that she was too late, as Ruth has delivered the doll and it has infected the family. Carter murders his wife in front of them all, and Carter moves to kill Ruby too, but Lee shoots Carter down. Ruth quickly arises with a dagger to stop Lee, but Lee shoots her mother, too. Lee tries to shoot the doll's head, but she is out of ammunition. She informs Ruby they need to leave, but she can’t seem to move, as she is entirely transfixed by the doll and the screen fades to black.