Longlegs | 2024 | R | – 1.7.5

Why is “Longlegs” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “bloody violence, disturbing images and some language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several scenes of a man killing his family using an ax, a woman being shot twice with a shotgun, a few people shot to death leaving bloody wounds, a woman being stabbed to death off-screen, dead bodies with wriggling maggots, crime scene photos with a lot of blood shown, discussions of making deals with the devil, some yelling, and at least 3 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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An FBI agent (Maika Monroe) with a special set of skills searches for a serial killer that seems to have a connection with her. Also with Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby, Lauren Acala and Kiernan Shipka. Directed by Oz Perkins. [Running Time: 1:41]

Longlegs SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A man making a doll that looks like a young girl kisses it on the forehead lovingly. A man makes a smooching sound.
► A woman undresses and we see her wearing a bra and slip that reveal cleavage and her bare abdomen (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).

Longlegs VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A man swings an axe hitting another man and blood spurts in the air; the man then brings the axe down on a woman’s back and then again when she has fallen to the floor (blood spurts and this scene repeats a couple of times). A man in a police station slams his head and face on the table repeatedly, bloodying his face, knocking out his teeth and eventually killing himself with a lot of blood spattering and squishing. An agent goes to a house and another agent waits in a car where she is shot with a shotgun twice (blood sprays on the windshield). An agent knocks on a door when conducting a search for a serial killer; the door opens and a gunshot rings out killing the agent (we see him with a bullet wound in his head and blood pools under his body). A woman shoots a doll in the head and black smoke rises from the doll as a woman in the room collapses saying that something is wrong and she holds her own head. A man yells angrily and leaves the room with his wife; we hear a struggle and screaming and understand that the man has stabbed his wife to death. A man holding a knife moves toward a woman and she shoots him twice (he falls dead); another woman in the room draws a knife and she is shot in the head (we see the bloody wound and blood sprays behind her).
► After undressing (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details), a woman holding a long knife draws the blade along her abdomen (we do not see a wound or blood), and then stabs a doll resembling a child a few times in the abdomen and chest. A woman tries to shoot a doll in the head but the gun does not discharge. A 911 call contains a man’s voice talking about killing someone while she is sleeping and the voice becomes increasingly panicked and we then hear grunting, screaming and pounding (we understand that the man is stabbing someone repeatedly). An agent with her gun drawn searches through a house where we see plastic draped throughout; she finds a man seated on a bed and he holds up his hands. A woman with a gun drawn rushes toward a house where she is welcomed inside and we are told that a young girl is opening her birthday gifts; we see the child seated next to a doll that resembles her.
► A crime scene is discovered and we are told that the bodies of family members were stabbed and slashed and have been dead for about a month; when a sheet is drawn back we see one person with a mutilated face as maggots wriggle on it and flies buzz around it and a cat hisses in a carrier near the bodies. Crime scene photos show bodies covered with sheets that are heavily soaked with blood, blood splashes on the walls and pooled on the floors, and a bloody knife; we see the hands and feet of the victims and a couple of them are children. A man is shown covered with blood as he walks away from a blood-soaked cow carrying the animal’s head in his hand. A woman seated in a car is shown with blood on her dress and hands and she smears blood on her face as she cries.
► A woman is bound and gagged and she pleads to save her daughter during an attack. Police cars speed toward a bus stop where a man stands and he raises his arms in the air as officers approach with guns drawn. Thunder rumbles and lightning flashes as two agents search a barn where murders happened; they discover a crucifix stuck to a floorboard and when they pull it up they find a box containing a handmade doll inside and we hear that it has human hair. A woman at home alone hears noises (sounds like whispering) and creaking around her; someone pounds on the door, she arms herself, and goes outside where she sees a figure in the fog, she then sees someone inside her house and when she goes in, she finds a letter left on her desk. During an FBI prep meeting a man talks about conducting a search for a serial killer and that agents should always assume that he is armed. Agents talk about a family being murdered by the father before he committed suicide; one body was stabbed 61 times. We hear that murders have been committed using knives, shotguns and hammers. An agent finds a coded letter and uses a Bible to decode the message. A woman reads a book entitled “The 9 Circles of Hell.” A woman is startled by a photo of a man that she finds in a box.
► A man drives alone in a car and screams repeating phrases including, “Unmake me.” A man wearing a robe enters a convenience store and approaches the teen girl at the counter; he asks her when her birthday is, makes noises, and she calls for her father. A woman visits a teen girl in a psychiatric hospital; the teen makes unsettling remarks about doing whatever someone told her to do, including killing the woman with her bare hands, and we later hear that she jumped off the roof of the building to her death. A man speaks to a young girl and talks about wearing his long legs (his head is partially out of the frame until he bends down). A young girl approaches a car parked outside her isolated house and hears a voice from behind her while eerie music plays. A teen girl in a psychiatric hospital says, “I come out wrong.” We hear high-pitched ringing sounds in a few scenes and a woman seems to be hearing the sound and winces. A woman asks her adult daughter if she says her prayers and the daughter replies, “I never said my prayers. They scared me.” We hear static and rumbling voices on a phone in a few scenes. A woman talks about having bled a lot during her daughter’s birth.
► A woman vomits outside a house and we see goo. Several screens show wriggling snakes on a red background accompanied by unsettling music. A red screen accompanies opening credits with flashes of etched creatures and a house upside down. A large bug skitters under a door and into a room and a woman stomps on it.

Longlegs LANGUAGE 5

 – About 3 F-words, 1 anatomical term, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (half-psychic, baby-ish, nasty stuff, stupid, gross guy, dirtsy-flirtsy, witch doctor, strangers, big bad wolf, whiter than [anatomical term deleted]), exclamations (just relax, slippery slope, gosh, that messes up kids, cuckoo cuckoo, well cheese and crackers), 2 religious profanities (GD), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, Jesus Christ, blasphemous, hail Satan, a woman asks her adult daughter if she has said her prayers in a few scenes, a woman tells her adult daughter that “our prayers protect us from the Devil”). | profanity glossary |

Longlegs SUBSTANCE USE

 – An agent says that a “kid smelled like narcotics,” a box with unidentified medicines in it is shown with some hypodermic needles and small plastic bags containing what looks like teeth. A man drinks a glass of whiskey and stands up seeming tipsy. A woman smokes a cigarette in a car while driving.

Longlegs DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Serial killers, Charles Manson, making deals with the devil, satanic cults, mental illness.

Longlegs MESSAGE

 – Sometimes finding the answers to horrific things can really mess you up.