Movies News Talk
Although Longlegs technically reveals its twist ending quite early on, few viewers on their first viewing will notice this because of how horrific the scene is.
Lee's mother is momentarily superimposed over Longlegs when Lee discovers a picture of the killer, but her face is just seen in a quick flash within a jump scare. Lee's mother persuades Lee to search her childhood items in order to break through the case, and Maika Monroe's heroine soon finds she met Nicolas Cage's killer years ago. Longlegs' opening scene, where a title card flashes before the villain's face is revealed in full, hinted at this. Cage's killer then appears often throughout the film.
Longlegs does not conceal the killer's face for most of its running length, thus the disclosure of his appearance is still handled like a jumpscare when Lee finds the picture. Longlegs hides this horrific horror scene inside the consoling confines of childhood memories, much as Perkins' forthcoming Stephen King adaptation The Monkey does. Enough to divert viewers from the flash of Lee's mother is the disclosure that Lee met Longlegs during her youth and the musical sting of the jump scare. Still, this detail foreshadows the revelation later on in the film that she is Longlegs' secret accomplice.
Although Longlegs's deft early hinting at its major twist is successful, Perkins is not the first director to apply this approach. Between scenes of domestic drama, 1973's legendary horror classic The Exorcist had famous subliminal images of Captain Howdy, a pale-faced demon. These gently indicated that something was quite wrong in the MacNeill household, adding to the growing sense of anxiety and dread in the film. Longlegs has the same impact when the film not only shows Lee met Longlegs earlier than she anticipated but also reveals a plain sight clue to the second villain.