Longlegs
2024 · Directed by Osgood Perkins
Original language: English
- crime
- horror
- mystery
The story
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.
What it’s like
Washed-out, sickly palette with cold grey winter light, desaturated rural Oregon browns and greens, and a stifling 4:3-style boxed frame that pushes the image toward the edges and leaves faces pressed into dim, claustrophobic corners. Camera work is mostly locked-off and deliberately still, with slow push-ins and long held silences in bleak interiors, cramped suburban kitchens, and a barn that feels damp and wrong. Sound design leans on low drones, creeping string tones, and abrupt, jarring stingers rather than a steady score, so the dread builds in the gaps. The vibe is bleak, unsettling, and airless, a cold procedural slipping into occult horror on a grey afternoon or late at night with the lights off. Pacing is slow and methodical for most of its run before tipping into sharp, frightening bursts. Violence is strong: brutal murders, and the threat of harm to a child, shown with restraint but landing hard, plus disturbing occult and religious imagery and a pervasive sense of menace. Not gentle. It suits viewers who want atmosphere-heavy, unnerving horror and a détective-style hunt for a sinister figure, rather than jump-scare spectacle or comfort.
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