Writer and director Osgood Perkins has now revealed that, yes, the devil is indeed hidden all over his hit horror movie Longlegs. In a recent interview with Vulture, the filmmaker even revealed where the devil is hidden right down to the specific scenes. The film stars Nicolas Cage as the titular serial killer, Longlegs, and Maika Monroe as FBI detective, Lee Harker. The story follows Lee as she investigates the patterns and motives of the titular serial killer Dale Ferdinand. However, the more she discovers, the more she learns about her own personal connections to the case.
Perkins has now shared all kinds of secrets and Easter eggs from the film, describing the presence of Satan as subliminal. The editing and use of shadows invites the audience to look longer and more intently at the entire screen, and the more fans re-watch the film, the easier it is to spot something they previously missed. Hidden figures can be seen in various scenes and, as well as being part of the plot, Perkins reveals that there were also practical reasons to add in the demonic figure, such as hiding the camera’s reflection in certain shots. See if you can spot Satan in the images below:
The Devil Is in the Details
The first image above shows Lee in the initial stages of her investigation. As she reviews the case materials, a shadowy figure lurks in the top left corner. The entity’s curved horns are easily spotted in contrast with the dark brown walls. Perkins explained:
“The closer she gets to untangling the truth, the more we realize just how closely the devil has been watching her. Frame after frame, you can see him lingering in the background.”
In the second image, the same demonic presence waits in the corner against the back wall of Longlegs’s basement lair. How much influence the entity has over him is revealed later in the film.
In another image, the devil’s silhouette appears in the window of what would otherwise be a cozy library. The devil is following Lee, watching her, and is in fact helping her investigation, all hinting to a larger design and dark forces at play. It is clear that Satan wants to ensnare Lee, drawing her deeper into the world of Longlegs. As Perkins explained:
“By giving Lee the information she needs to arrest Longlegs, the devil is simply guiding us toward the next movement in a bigger composition.”
The third image above is one of the trickiest to spot. It shows a man, Longlegs, standing in a dark, foggy forest. However, if you look closer, you’ll see he is not alone. Hidden in the gray mist is the same devilish figure which, to Perkins, made sense as the devil is tagging along in “kind of an ‘I’ll come, too’ sort of a vibe.”
Finally, the devil can be seen looming over Lee in childhood, with Perkins wanting to create a “parental presence” for the evil entity.
“It was probably one of the first ones, if not the first one, that we built to see what it would look like,” Perkins said. “It’s just showing in a picture what the movie is and also giving the devil an almost parental presence in her little room behind her.”
Longlegs has been praised for its very distinct visual pallet and editing style. Qualities demonstrated in these images of the hidden Devil. Longlegs has been a big hit, earning $100.7 million at the box office. While the horror movie has been met with rave reviews from critics, the response has been more mixed with audiences, as many have criticized the final act and story. The film has an 86% critics score and a 60% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Watch
Longlegs
in theaters.