Summary
Whetherfans are sold onthe ending ofLonglegsor thinkthe explanation could have been better, there’s no denying it wasone of the biggest horror movies of 2024. With a script by and direction from Osgood Perkins,Longlegsis a well-crafted tale about a young FBI agent named Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) who is consumed by the case of a strange and eccentric serial killer. It’s a showcase for Nicolas Cage, who is right at home as this odd character, and the movie has also been compared toThe Silence of the Lambs.
Part of the fun of being a horror fan is checking out theories from others about how the puzzle pieces of a story fit together. There is one coolfan theory that wonders ifLonglegscould be connected to another well-made horror film by Perkins.
Could Longlegs Be A Prequel To Oz Perkins’s The Blackcoat’s Daughter?
One Redditorcame up with a fascinating idea:
“Another theory:Longlegsas a prequel to PerkinsThe Blackcoat’s Daughter. The timeline plus a few other details seem to fit.”
In 2015, a decade or so beforeOsgood Perkins’s adaptation of Stephen King’sThe Monkey, the filmmaker releasedthe bleak movieThe Blackcoat’s Daughter,which stars Kiernan Shipka and Emma Roberts. BothLonglegsandThe Blackcoat’s Daughterarestories of demonic possessionand the movies look similar, too. They have asparse and literary toneand plenty ofbeautiful, creepy shots of a snowy small town. They both leave audiences with an unsettling feeling as well.
The main characters in both movies share some similarities. Monroe’sLonglegscharacter Lee has been living with childhood trauma and spends a lot of time on her own.The Blackcoat’s Daughterfollows three timelines and audiences are introduced to Kat (Shipka) as a boarding school student who notices something odd happening. Then, after meeting Joan (Roberts), it turns out thatJoan is really Kat. The scenes of Joan take place nine years after the beginning of the movie. Like Lee,Joan/Kat is coping with trauma, too. She has to live with the fact that a demon took her over when she was a teenager and she has been hurting people ever since. It’s clear that Lee and Joan/Kat don’t have many close people in their lives and that they haven’t been able to share or be vulnerable.
While of courseLonglegs, which is set in the 1990s, isn’t actually a prequel toThe Blackcoat’s Daughter,it’s fun to view it through that lens. Perhaps the devil possesses Cage’s serial killer Longlegs and then moves on to Joan/Kat. It’s easy to imagine these stories being connected as they have a lot in common and the two movies look so much alike.
Themost forgettable horror prequelsignore what made the original movies dynamic and special, from well-written characters to important and thrilling twists.Longlegssets upan interesting and creepy world about demonic possession and a smart FBI agent at the heart of it all. It’s cool to think that Perkins’s 2015 movie could be the prequel to his big summer 2024 release.
What Did Osgood Perkins Say About The Blackcoat’s Daughter And His Horror Movie Career?
Many have noticed thatLonglegsandThe Blackcoat’s Daughterhave a similar eerie tone, and Osgood Perkins was asked about this in an interview forWe Live Entertainment. The filmmaker said:
“we’re trying to find a signature, right?”
Perkins continued:
“you want to dig in and get down there with yourself.The Blackcoat’s Daughterwas very much about, you know, it was very true for me. It was very much about myself. So, it becomes a refrain that you want to revisit in the same way that artists revisit subjects you know, and they know you know.”
Perkins has a distinct filmmaking styleso it’s no wonder these movies look so much alike. His horror films talk about family, identity, good vs. evil, and growing up, and it’s interesting to compare them. Besides these two beloved movies, Perkins wroteThe Girl in the Photographsand wrote and directedI Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House.Fromthe teaser forThe Monkey, it’s unclear if this movie will have much in common withLonglegsandThe Blackcoat’s Daughter. Whether or not it does, it’s still interesting to hearhow Perkins approaches his horror career. He toldThe Hollywood Reporter:
“I like the horror genre because it’s the genre that permits the most invention and it encourages the most poetry. It’s all guessing and grasping at what is essentially unknowable.”
