Longlegs (2024): Satanic Panic, Government Hysteria, and Horror in Girlhood
Longlegs is a psychological thriller about a supernatural satanic panic killer, who murders without ever touching his victims. From twisted coming-of-age stories to the sinister use of dolls as instruments of control, we examine the cultural obsession with preserving and corrupting girlhood through fear, trauma, and moral panic. We delve into how government investigations mirrored societal anxieties about protecting innocence during the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s.
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Longlegs (2024)
In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying killing spree.
Directed by Osgood Perkins
The Corruption of Coming of Age in Longlegs
by gabe castro
RED: Quotes, someone else's words.
Synopsis
Longlegs is a psychological thriller about a supernatural satanic panic killer, who murders without ever touching his victims. The film is a slow burn, unsettling in both themes and approach to the world. Following Special Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) as she investigates the elusive and mysterious Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). She’s tasked with tracking down the serial killer linked to a string of gruesome murder-suicides, where entire families have been brutally slaughtered in ways that suggest a dark connection to the occult. This killer proves more difficult than most as the cases have far more questions than answers, many of which seem supernatural or otherworldly. Harker is brought into the case as a fresh pair of eyes, putting her on a collision course with both the killer and her own darkest fears.
“The Birthday Murders” are a series of murders spanning decades in the Pacific Northwest following the same chilling pattern: a father kills his entire family before taking his own life. These tragedies always occur within six days of the daughter’s 9th birthday, which unfailingly falls on the 14th of the month. At each crime scene, a cipher signed "Longlegs" is left behind, adding a sinister signature to the horrific events.
Even for Harker who exhibits a special talent - a smidge of premonition conveyed by intense gut feelings, ‘the Birthday Murders’ prove a difficult case. Harker discovers that her suspect is not only a Satanist but also a dollmaker, adding an unsettling layer to the darkness behind the crimes. Despite her diligence and knack for moving forward, Longlegs seems to maintain the upper hand, roping Harker into the case with a seemingly intimate knowledge of her life and experiences, operating both in the darkness and what feels like right under her nose. As Harker digs deeper into the twisted mystery, she realizes that Longlegs is always one step ahead, pulling her further into a nightmarish game that blurs the line between the supernatural and reality, leaving her questioning not only the case but her own sanity and role in the whole case.
“Are you still saying your prayers?”
In an article on Christ and Pop Culture, Longlegs, Satanism, and Our Need for Cosmic Justice, writer Justin Bower critiques Longlegs for presenting Satanism as the primary villain while leaving the hero ill-equipped to confront it. The film concludes without providing justice or closure for its victims, including Harker, and highlights a bleak reality where serial killers evade accountability and dark forces of Satanism wield greater influence than we realize. This absence of resolution creates a grim worldview, suggesting that some horrors are beyond understanding or control. Bower argues that, “Longlegs’ Satanism is unrealistic in that it posits a world where the best defense against hell is a frightened cop with a gun.”
While Bowers is dissatisfied with this narrative, arguing that the film’s portrayal of a lackluster, deaf and uncaring God makes it an unbelievable and harmful, I think it’s a brilliant portrayal of the harms of extreme religion. Throughout the film, Harker’s mother repeatedly asks if she’s been saying her prayers, to which Harker usually responds with a hesitant affirmative. It isn’t until a vulnerable moment at the end that Harker admits she has “never said her prayers, not once,” because they frighten her. This revelation, coupled with the recurring imagery of turned crucifixes now “x marks the spot” highlights the film’s subversion of religious symbols and beliefs.
Ultimately, Longlegs conveys that Satan always prevails, lurking in the darkness and listening for the desperate prayers of neglected Christians. By exposing Harker’s mother as a wolf in sheep's clothing—someone who goes to extreme lengths to protect her child—the film presents a poignant twist on morality and the fragility of faith. It raises critical questions: What do faith and morality mean when a child's life is at stake? How do the lives of others weigh against the threat to one’s own child?
Just as we found in The Witch, Satan is a strategic and patient malevolence that plays horrific games with its victims. As Harker is compelled to kill her mother to break the cycle, we begin to question whether this was the plan all along: to terrorize Harker from girlhood to womanhood. Ultimately, it isn't Longlegs who is always one step ahead; rather, it is Satan itself—young Lee is not merely an exception to the Birthday Murders but the very impetus behind them. Harker serves as a tool for Satan’s schemes just as much as her mother did. As fellow survivor Carrie Anne Camera tells Harker in an interview, “You’re not afraid of a little bit of dark because you are the dark.”
As Harker gazes at Ruby’s doll—the daughter of her partner whom she has just saved by killing her own mother—she confronts the trauma she has long repressed, unable to destroy the doll. Even after her escape, it remains unclear whether Ruby is still possessed by the undestroyed doll or if Harker herself is, especially considering how much of her childhood has been misremembered due to the doll being hidden away in her childhood home. In a Time Magazine interview, Monroe described this bleak yet intentional ending, stating, "Evil isn’t going anywhere. That’s just the reality. There really is no end."
Always Daddy’s Little Girl(His name is Longlegs, like Daddy Longlegs)
Harker’s mother, Ruth, often emphasizes the effort she put into raising Lee to be a safe, devout, and virtuous child, sharing tales of their isolation and the significance of her prayers for their protection—two women forever on their own. Throughout Longlegs, the narrative challenges traditional religious ideals surrounding the nuclear family while also scrutinizing the expectation for girls to be submissive and innocent. In their shared darkness, Carrie Anne helps Harker recognize the women's inherent villainy; both of them have had their girlhoods stolen and have been punished by those fervently devoted to their faith simply for growing up and shedding their innocence.
It’s intentional that Longlegs targets young girls on the brink of womanhood—those celebrating their 9th birthdays. A chilling piece of evidence in the case includes a 911 recording of a father’s desperate plea that “that isn’t my daughter.” Each of these fathers, turned murderers, confronts the transformation of their daughters from innocent, docile children into independent individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and desires. Perkins distorts this coming-of-age milestone into something sinister and malevolent, crafting a corrupted narrative of growth.
The glam-rock anthem "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" by T. Rex frames the film, its gritty sound reminiscent of the Satanic Panic era, when rock music was believed to contain hidden subliminal messages. More than that, the unsettling contrast in the lyrics—“You've got the teeth of the hydra upon you / You're dirty, sweet, and you're my girl”—lingers disturbingly. The song evokes themes of girlishness, dirtiness, and possession casting an eerie shadow from the opening scene to the film’s final moments, reinforcing the themes of power, control, and corruption that run throughout the story.
Even the weapon of choice, a meticulously crafted doll that embodies porcelain perfection expresses this message of eternal girlhood, purity, and safety. Moreover, the dolls store the girl’s being into its silver ball of control - forever freezing them in this moment in time, in suspended youth. The girls die and are forever 8 or 9. Harker’s mother explains to her before her corruption is revealed what her motivation has been. Ruth didn’t do this to let Lee live, but to give her the chance to grow up. The Man Downstairs preyed upon the father’s fears of losing their baby girls, but its mission becomes more complex when he faces Ruth, the only single mother among the Birthday Murders. Unlike the fathers, Ruth was not afraid of her daughter growing up, instead she feared a future in which Lee never did.
In Longlegs, the haunting exploration of girlhood reveals how societal expectations and familial pressures can distort innocence, exposing the pervasive nature of evil and the complexities of faith and motherhood, ultimately suggesting that the traumas of childhood leave lasting scars that shape our identities and experiences as we confront the darkness within and around us.
Government’s Role in Fueling the Satanic Panic: FBI, CIA, and the Cost of Fear
by Kat Kushin
RED: Quotes, someone else's words.
As Gabe unpacks in their section, there is more than meets the eye to this film. The themes are just like Satan creeping in the background, but never explained in a long exhaustive monologue. Instead we are fed clues to the puzzle and are tasked with solving what and why this film said what it did. This is a large part of why history is so interesting, or specifically historiography, because to fully understand this film and why it was made how it was, you have to understand the framework it sits within. Calling back our viewing of the VVitch was spot on, because all the beliefs, concepts of good and evil, and the fear and paranoia of our country stems from the puritan roots it was born from. Satanic Panic would not exist without it. Understanding the true depth of the Puritan influence on American politics makes the use of FBI resources to investigate Satan less surprising. As well as the CIA spending millions to find out if the government could train psychics to benefit the country. Objectively, I’m like…wtf are we even talking about, why would they do that? But once you think about just how much paranormal belief and religion are ingrained into our social structures and systems, it’s a little less surprising.
Government Resources in Response to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s
As we unpacked last week, the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s was a period marked by widespread fear and moral hysteria over alleged Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) and the existence of organized Satanic cults. Although Satan is never actually in the room of these crimes, Satan has to be why they are happening. The good people of this country cannot fathom why anyone would commit crimes, murder, or make choices without Satan’s influence. It can’t be systemic neglect. It can’t be because forcing women to have babies they don’t want or cannot afford to take care of results in generational trauma. It can’t be the chemicals and poisons found in our infrastructure and food. And it especially can’t be the strict and oppressive structures that don’t allow humans to express their emotions or authentic selves resulting in countless traumatized, very angry and emotionally, economically, and empathically deprived humans in the world. Nooooo…it’s Satan. And you can’t beat Satan…so.
As we discussed last week with Suspiria, we also have generations that are impacted by the self-soothe methods of the 1920s. Like Germany, America had their own “don’t be too nice to babies” doctor that influenced parenting for generations. Behaviorist John Watson in 1928 “took up the crusade against affection as president of the American Psychological Association. He applied the mechanistic paradigm of behaviorism to childrearing, warning about the dangers of too much mother love.” which I found in a Psychology today article. They go on to say: “The 20th century was the time when "men of science" were assumed to know better than mothers, grandmothers, and families about how to raise a child. Too much kindness to a baby would result in a whiney, dependent, failed human being. Funny how "the experts" got away with this with no evidence to back it up! Instead, there is evidence all around (then and now) showing the opposite to be true! A government pamphlet from the time recommended that "mothering meant holding the baby quietly, in tranquility-inducing positions" and that "the mother should stop immediately if her arms feel tired" because "the baby is never to inconvenience the adult." A baby older than six months "should be taught to sit silently in the crib; otherwise, he might need to be constantly watched and entertained by the mother, a serious waste of time." (See Blum, 2002.)”. To clarify, being traumatized does not create serial killers, it is a perfect storm of many factors, including chemical, physical, and environmental impacts. We all react to trauma differently, some trauma increases our empathy, and other kinds decrease it BUT removing empathy from the early stages of development does greatly impact behavior.
Additionally, the paranoia felt collectively by the public is nothing new within American society. Our country has had many paranoia fueled hunts over its history. In the midst of the cold war, and post McCarthyism Red Scare, many were already feeling paranoid. This paranoia combined with the growing two parent workforce, left many families stressed over the safety and morality of their children. It’s funny how our generation's horror series helped set the foundation for this one. With institutions in power validating that fear time and time again, this fear spread. The fear was wielded by many to gain power, influence and financial gain, and this was, at the end of the day, oh so American. This period had significant implications for various American institutions, including the FBI, CIA, and broader government. The response to these fears involved substantial allocation of resources, extensive investigations, and the government taking up the cause to save America’s collective souls (and we couldn’t have let Russia win). All of which had profound impacts on public perception and societal culture.
FBI and CIA Involvement In Satanic Panic
The FBI played a central role in investigating claims of Satanic ritual abuse. One of the most notable figures in these investigations was Special Agent Ken Lanning, who became an informal clearinghouse for many SRA cases. Lanning served as a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) at Quantico, Virginia, where he specialized in studying child molesters, serial killers, and other violent criminals. Lanning's skepticism was crucial; he released an investigative guide in 1992 that questioned the validity of these claims. Despite the extensive efforts, by 1994, researchers found that investigators could not substantiate any of the roughly 12,000 accusations of group cult sexual abuse based on Satanic rituals.
Project Stargate
While the CIA was not directly involved in investigating SRA, it had a tangential connection through programs like Project Stargate. Project Stargate was a secret U.S. government program initiated by the CIA and later managed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from the 1970s until its termination in 1995. The project aimed to investigate the potential use of psychic phenomena, particularly remote viewing, for intelligence-gathering purposes. Remote viewing is the purported ability to perceive and describe distant or unseen targets using extrasensory perception (ESP). Despite some initial interest and sporadic successes, the program ultimately failed to produce consistent, actionable intelligence and was deemed scientifically unviable. The declassification of Project Stargate in the mid-1990s revealed the extent of the government's investment in exploring paranormal capabilities, contributing to public fascination and skepticism regarding the use of psychic phenomena in national security.
Project Stargate was initiated primarily due to Cold War-era concerns and the competitive nature of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry. During the 1970s, intelligence reports suggested that the Soviet Union was investing significant resources into researching and developing psychic phenomena, including remote viewing, for espionage and military purposes. Fearing a potential "psychic gap," U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, sought to explore whether similar capabilities could be harnessed for American national security.
The project aimed to determine if psychic phenomena, particularly remote viewing, could be reliably used to gather intelligence on distant or hidden targets. The hope was that these unconventional methods might provide a strategic advantage in intelligence operations, supplementing traditional espionage techniques. The program was part of a broader effort to explore all possible avenues for gaining an edge over adversaries during a period of intense geopolitical tension. Although not directly related to the Satanic Panic, the existence of such programs contributed to a broader cultural context in which unconventional and paranormal methods were considered as factual.
Investigations into Satanic Ritual Abuse and Serial Killers
Several high-profile cases during this period were influenced by the Satanic Panic. These included the McMartin Preschool trial, the West Memphis Three case, and the Kern County child abuse cases. These investigations often involved extensive legal actions, with millions of dollars spent on prosecutions. Despite the lack of concrete evidence, these cases led to numerous imprisonments and significant trauma for the families involved.
The fear of Satanic cults also influenced investigations into serial killers. Cases like those of Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker," were often sensationalized with claims of Satanic involvement. While Ramirez did express interest in Satanism, the broader narrative of organized cult activity was largely unfounded.
Use of Psychics
During the height of the Satanic Panic, law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, occasionally consulted psychics. These consultations were typically informal and ad hoc, often driven by desperation when traditional investigative methods failed. While psychics were not formally recruited or trained by the FBI, their involvement was sensationalized by the media, contributing to public misconceptions about their role in solving cases.
Funding and Resource Allocation
The exact amount of funding allocated to these investigations is difficult to pinpoint, but it is clear that substantial resources were diverted to address the fears of Satanic ritual abuse. Millions of dollars were spent on legal actions, prosecutions, and extensive investigations, often with little to no evidence to support the claims.
Impact on Public Perception and Society
The involvement of the FBI and other government agencies lent a veneer of legitimacy to the claims of Satanic ritual abuse. Media coverage of these investigations further fueled public fear and hysteria, leading to a widespread belief in the existence of organized Satanic cults. This moral panic had a profound impact on society, diverting attention from genuine issues of child abuse and complicating the legal landscape for child protection.
The Satanic Panic influenced various aspects of culture, from media and entertainment to public policy. The fear of Satanic cults permeated popular culture, leading to a proliferation of books, movies, and television shows that capitalized on the hysteria. This cultural phenomenon also had lasting effects on public trust in institutions, as the eventual debunking of many SRA claims led to skepticism about the credibility of law enforcement and the media.
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