Longlegs (2024)

Movie · 2024 · Crime, Horror, Mystery · 1h 41m · R · English

Curator score: 4.8/10 (2M ratings)

Say your prayers.

Overview

FBI Agent Lee Harker is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer. As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.

Ratings

Director

Osgood Perkins

Production

C2 Motion Picture Group, Saturn Films, Oddfellows Entertainment, Traffic., Range Media Partners

Cast

Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby, Lauren Acala, Kiernan Shipka, Maïla Hosie, Jason William Day, Lisa Chandler, Ava Kelders, Rryla McIntosh, Carmel Amit, Shafin Karim, Trey Helten, Daniel Bacon, Vanessa Walsh, Beatrix Perkins, Scott Nicholson

Where to watch

Hulu

Curator Review

Verdict

A stylish, divisive occult serial-killer thriller that leans hard on dread, atmosphere, and performance over tidy plotting. If you want a creepy, off-kilter crime story with strong visual personality and a memorable villain, it delivers; if you need airtight logic or constant scares, it may frustrate.

Best for

  • Viewers who like moody, slow-burn horror with a crime-procedural frame
  • Fans of uncanny performances and grotesque villain energy
  • People drawn to satanic-suburbia, occult mystery, and psychological unease
  • Audiences who prefer atmosphere and imagery over explanation

Skip if

  • You want a straightforward detective thriller with clean answers
  • You dislike art-house horror pacing or elliptical storytelling
  • You are looking for relentless jump scares or gore-forward spectacle
  • You get impatient with movies that prioritize mood and symbolism

Overview

Longlegs is built like a fever dream wearing the clothes of a serial-killer procedural. It starts with familiar FBI-investigation machinery, then steadily tilts into something stranger, more ritualistic, and more interested in dread than in procedure. The result is less a puzzle box than a pressure cooker, with Osgood Perkins using silence, composition, and unease as the real engine of the film.

Worth noting

Maika Monroe gives the movie a grounded center, while Nicolas Cage’s performance turns the antagonist into a grotesque, unforgettable presence. The film’s biggest strength is its atmosphere: suburban normalcy curdling into occult rot, with flashes of absurdity and menace that make the whole thing feel unstable. It is not always as sharp as it wants to be, but it is rarely bland.

Bottom line

For viewers who enjoy horror that feels slightly out of phase with reality, this is an easy recommendation. For everyone else, the appeal will depend on whether they want their serial-killer stories precise and procedural, or eerie and possessed. Longlegs is the latter, and it commits to the bit with real style.

Top Letterboxd reviews

theresahole (3.5★) · 64437 likes

Calling yourself longlegs as a serial killer is so cunty lowkey… like what if i went by the bigfatjuicybooty strangler

Jim Caddick (4★) · 46274 likes

His legs weren’t even that long

owen (1.5★) · 33375 likes

I don’t really know what I expected but there was way more Bill Clinton screen time than I was both mentally and physically prepared for.

demi adejuyigbe · 31841 likes

really captures the horror of not knowing what you’re supposed to do while someone sings happy birthday to you

adamtyler (5★) · 26566 likes

that ain’t a sixth sense bitch that’s autism

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Topics

occult horror, serial killer, psychological thriller, crime mystery, slow burn, suburban nightmare, elevated horror, atmospheric, 90s-inspired, procedural

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