Unpacking Longlegs: A Look Back at Its Ending
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The story kicks off with your classic horror setup: a small, close-knit town rocked by a string of gruesome murders. The only lead anyone has? Each crime scene bears the same eerie signature—a drawing or symbol pointing to a shadowy figure known as “Longlegs.”
Enter our protagonist, FBI agent Lee Harker, with an unknown connection to Longlegs that even she isn’t aware of. Still, she somehow manages to “sense” where he is while on duty with a colleague, while they are working to track down more clues about this serial killer. While Maika Monroe plays the role of the FBI agent, Nicolas Cage delivers a spine-chilling, utterly terrifying performance as Longlegs.
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As Lee dives deeper, things only get creepier. She starts experiencing strange phenomena—shadows moving at the corner of her eye, mysterious symbols popping up around her home, and that one unsettling sound Longlegs makes. The closer she gets to unraveling the truth, the more she realizes Longlegs might be more than your average serial killer; he could have ties to the occult or supernatural. This all leads up to the final act, where we get a showdown and the big reveal of Longlegs’ origins.
By the end, we’ve followed Lee through a maze of creepy encounters with this mysterious figure. Longlegs seems to operate on a weird mix of supernatural and slasher rules—lurking in shadows, picking off characters, and leaving chaos in his wake.
The ending does two things: it reveals Longlegs’ identity (which, up until now, has been totally shrouded) and gives us insight into his motive. It turns out Longlegs isn’t just some random killer; he’s linked to Lee in a way that makes it all very personal. It’s one of those “the monster is closer than you think” vibes.
Then comes the final showdown. After countless close calls, Lee confronts Longlegs and uncovers some major backstory. We learn that Longlegs once targeted Lee’s family when she was young, but her mother, Ruth Harper, struck a deal with him to save her daughter. In exchange, Ruth would act as his accomplice, helping him claim more victims.
Together, Ruth and Longlegs would create lifelike dolls with sinister powers, like voodoo dolls with a hypnotic pull. Disguised as a nun, Ruth would deliver these dolls as “gifts from the church” for young girls’ birthdays (always on the 14th of any month). The families, accepting the dolls in good faith, would fall under their influence, causing the fathers to murder their families before taking their own lives.
After Lee discovers her mother’s dark allegiance, she rushes to stop Ruth from targeting her boss’s family. But she’s too late; her boss kills his wife and, with murder in his eyes, heads for his daughter Ruby. Lee manages to shoot him in time, then turns her gun on her mother, who refuses to stop and threatens Ruby herself. When Ruby keeps staring at the doll Ruth gifted her, Lee attempts to break its influence by shooting the doll.
Longlegs ends with Lee urging Ruby to leave with her, but Ruby resists. A flashback reveals Longlegs singing the “Happy Birthday” song before whispering, “Hail Satan.” The ending is ambiguous, suggesting that Lee might not fully escape the doll’s creepy satanic influence, and that she may even fall prey to Longlegs’ legacy herself. But maybe the ultimate takeaway here is this—while the FBI works hard, the devil works harder.
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