The Horrific Choice at the Heart of ‘Longlegs’ [Fatal Femmes]
What mother wouldn’t do anything to protect her child? Whether biological or adopted, once we accept the job of raising a kid, we risk having to do the unthinkable to keep them safe. Meek women transform into mamma bears when someone makes the mistake of threatening their young and we’ve all heard the story of the petit mother somehow lifting a car to free her baby trapped beneath. We call these protective gestures heroic and admire women who seem to harness the power of parental love. But what if defending your own child from danger required harming the child of someone else? Would murdering one to protect another be a selfless act of motherly love or a betrayal of the parental code?
Osgood Perkins explores this horrific catch-22 in his bleak horror film Longlegs. When “the man downstairs” infiltrates her home, single mother Ruth (Alicia Witt) becomes an accomplice to horrific crimes to keep her daughter out of the devil’s hands.
Her Story
Ruth Harker lives a solitary life in a snowy house deep in the woods. A nurse, she spends her days caring for strangers while nights and weekends revolve around her young daughter Lee (Lauren Acala). Despite this life of servitude, Ruth finds herself utterly alone. With no father, friends, or neighbors in sight, the Harker women have essentially been abandoned by the rest of the world. But shortly before Lee’s ninth birthday, someone does come to call. A strange man with a pale face approaches promising an early birthday gift. We don’t yet see the results of this ominous conversation, but his shocking appearance and Perkins’ off-kilter framing alert us to impending doom.
Decades later, we catch up with Lee (Maika Monroe), now an FBI agent in the field. After demonstrating vague psychic abilities, she’s placed on a high-profile investigation into a series of brutal family annihilations and a mysterious killer known only as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). Acting on Satan’s command, this devious madman targets children born on the 14th day of any given month then causes their fathers to murder everyone in the house, leaving nothing behind but a coded birthday card and an indescribable bloodbath.
As Lee grows closer to finding the killer, connections to her own past begin to emerge. Not only does Longlegs know her name, but a shadowy figure sneaks into her home and leaves another cryptic birthday card on her desk. Lee finds a picture of the pale stranger hidden among her childhood things and leads police to a man named Dale Kobble. Unsettling interviews reveal his devotion to Satan, but it’s not until Kobble—aka Longlegs—dies by suicide in front of Lee’s eyes that she learns about her mother’s involvement. Ruth has not only been housing this infamous killer, but aiding and abetting his sinister crimes.
Her Victims
As we join Lee in her investigation, Perkins slowly introduces us to Kobble’s handiwork. First, we hear a harrowing 911 call in which a dispassionate father contemplates the best time to murder his daughter. While listening in to his final moments, we peer over Lee’s shoulder to examine disturbing crime scene photos. A bloody knife and partially covered bodies accompany cold descriptions of atrocious violence inflicted on a previously loving family. Next, we visit the scene of Kobble’s latest attack and view the carnage for ourselves. Murdered several weeks ago, a mother and daughter have been decomposing under a comforter while the father’s body rots in the garage. However, not even the sight of these maggot-riddled corpses can compare to watching one of Longlegs’ massacres as it unfolds.
After decoding Kobble’s cryptic messages, Lee visits his sole survivor. Carrie Anne Camera (Kiernan Shipka) was on a field trip when her family died and has been committed to a mental institution ever since. After years of catatonia, a visit from a mysterious stranger seems to bring her back to life. During an interview with the disturbed daughter, flashbacks show Mother Camera (Lisa Chandler) stabbing a life-sized replica of her daughter while Father Camera (Jason William Day) decapitates a cow. Next, the increasingly angry man buries an ax in the neck of a visiting pastor and then uses the same weapon to kill his wife. Seemingly numb to the loss of her family, Carrie Anne patiently explains that should the man downstairs ask, she would happily kill Lee or throw herself out the window.
With her involvement in Kobble’s atrocities revealed, Ruth murders Lee’s fellow agent and then sets out to kill her superior. Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) is a family man who tries to pull Lee out of her shell. Advocating for her involvement in the Longlegs investigation, he believes and values the young agent’s psychic abilities. However, when she arrives at his daughter’s birthday party, Carter greets his protege with a thin smile and barely concealed menace. Ruth sits calmly in the living room and predicts the family’s imminent deaths. Sure enough, Carter murders his wife moments later and emerges from the kitchen to finish the job. Lee is forced to shoot her would-be father figure to keep him from murdering his only daughter.
Her Weapons
After witnessing the slaughter through Carrie Anne’s eyes, Perkins reveals the mechanism behind Kobble’s cruelty. At the abandoned Camera farm, Lee and Carter find an ornate porcelain doll buried under the floorboards of the dusty attic. Further examination reveals a silver sphere hidden inside a head that has been designed to resemble Carrie Anne.
Working on behalf of his “friend downstairs,” Kobble fashions these life-sized dolls to be replicas of each targeted child. Once inside, the orbs become a conduit for the devil’s voice which slowly begins to fill the home. As Satan’s whispers grow louder, the family patriarch is driven to brutally murder his wife and children, then complete the ritual by killing himself. The only flaw in this devious plan is that Kobble’s shocking appearance makes it difficult to gift his eerie dolls. In order to infiltrate each family’s home, he needs a trustworthy face to deliver his weapons.
This is where Ruth comes in. An expanded flashback shows the young mother—dressed as a nun—approach the Camera farm prominently brandishing a cheery yellow bible. She claims to be a representative of the church and brings a gift for the young birthday girl, fooling the otherwise cautious mother. Ruth carries each doll across the threshold of her victim’s homes then stands back to watch the devil work. But what sounds like a fairly innocuous task becomes exceedingly horrific thanks to Satan’s merciless cruelty. Ruth is not allowed the illusion of passivity and must stay to witness each resulting massacre. Covered with blood, the lonely woman weeps in her car, shocked by the violence she’s set in motion.
Her Motive
Working in tandem with the notorious Longlegs, Ruth’s actions make her a prolific serial killer. But Perkins offers a compelling reason for this partnership. When the pale man first arrives at her house, Ruth rejects his birthday wishes and suspicious doll. She tries to call the police, but is met with only static on the line. Later, we see Kobble screaming at the bound woman, as he explains the terms of a monstrous deal. The devil may want Lee for his own, but Kobble will spare her daughter certain death.
All Ruth has to do is become his perpetual accomplice and assist in the murders of other children. The frightened mother accepts this offer and Satan uses the orb in Lee’s own life-sized doll to keep the young girl in the dark. The same mysterious force that grants her light clairvoyance prevents her from seeing Ruth’s complicity or the pale man now living in her basement.
Though Lee is protected from Satan’s presence in her home, this lack of awareness creates emotional distance between mother and child. She makes dutiful calls, but only visits when she must and expresses no love in their brief conversations. When Lee does finally return to her childhood home—a thinly disguised attempt to investigate her case—Ruth remembers her birthday with eerie detachment. She mentions bleeding profusely during the delivery and hints at growing resentment towards her beloved daughter. After all, Ruth has agreed to carry out a seemingly endless string of gruesome murders to save Lee’s eternal soul and the daughter she did it all to protect can barely stand to be in her presence.
Ruth explains her monstrous decision at the Carter family’s ominous birthday party. Isolated from the rest of the world, she has become convinced that the prayers she taught her daughter to say will offer no real protection. The only way to keep her daughter safe is devotion to Satan and murderous obedience. Though her role is mostly passive, Ruth is willing to kill. When Lee stops Carter from stabbing his daughter, Ruth steps in to finish the job. She claims to act on her daughter’s behalf, insisting that murdering Carter’s innocent child is the only way to prevent Lee from twisting and burning in hell. Forced into an unfathomable position, the fierceness of Ruth’s maternal love has transformed her into a deadly weapon.
Her Legacy
Having remembered Longlegs’ initial visit, Lee begs her mother for the truth, insisting she is no longer a child. Rather than describe that fateful day, Ruth responds with indignance. She tells her daughter that she is only alive because she was “allowed to grow up”. Ruth bought her daughter’s safe passage into adulthood by selling her own soul to the devil and agreeing to participate in unthinkable crimes. Though abrasive and shaded with hints of anger, Ruth’s assertion reveals the true fear of raising a child. The world is a cruel and scary place and none of us are owed a happy life. As mothers, we’ve committed to protecting our children no matter what horrors this vow entails and the cost may turn out to be more than we can bear. All we ask for in return is love and gratitude for our sacrifice.
But Lee is horrified by what her mother has done. She seems ashamed of Ruth’s lonely life and infantilizes the woman who once battled the devil on her behalf. We may pity Ruth or balk at her admittedly egregious decision. However, it’s easy to understand why she accepts Longlegs’ offer. She has been abandoned by the larger world and made to suffer its unflinching cruelty. She cannot bear to lose her daughter, too. But years of following Satan’s commands have led to an earnest devotion and callous detachment. Adding insult to injury, the darkness she’s allowed into their lives has driven a wedge between herself and the daughter she tried to save. Ruth ultimately dies by her daughter’s hand, confronted with the knowledge that Lee is horrified by her mother’s monstrosity.
Many of Perkins’ bleakest films explore the destruction we embrace when abandoned by those tasked with our care. But Ruth refuses to forsake her daughter and submits to the only path available to her. She becomes a satanic killer dutifully targeting young girls to save the daughter she loves. While it’s easy to paint Ruth as a heartless killer, her actions are born out of unshakeable love. Perhaps the true horror of Longlegs lies not in the choice Ruth is forced to make, but our fear that if presented with similar options, we might choose to walk the same violent path.
Categorized:Editorials Fatal Femmes
