Kiernan Shipka’s One Scene in 'Longlegs' Is the Film's Creepiest (2024)

Director Osgood Perkins has talked about the origins of creating the new boogeyman for horror with an occult, glam-rock spell to haunt your dreams. Perkins had said the character was an idea he “tried to fit into other projects,” until the right one turned out to be Longlegs. Slipping the pallid fiend into this film subverts audience expectations that come with the procedural framework of an FBI agent trying to catch a serial killer.Longlegs spirals further down a gloomy, sinister path until audiences realize Nicolas Cage’s serial killer isn’t the only character FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) should fear.

Lee’s reclusive mother, Ruth (Alicia Witt), is someone who has long accepted the blood on her hands. There are creepy dolls that even slasher icon Chucky wouldn’t dare confront. Perkins pulls out all the stops to achieve the scare levels that could supercharge those canisters from Monsters Inc., and he still isn’t satisfied. This is where Kiernan Shipka comes in. She isn’t the star of Longlegs, but she leaves a mighty big impression on audiences that send chills down your spine if you ever hear, “Happy as peaches,” again. With just one scene, Shipka instills dread as a survivor of Longlegs, a far cry from her teen witch in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Longlegs

710

R

Director

Oz Perkins

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Cast

Maika Monroe , Nicholas Cage , Alicia Witt , Blair Underwood

Main Genre

Horror

Release Date

July 12, 2024

Writers

Oz Perkins

Studio(s)

C2 Motion Picture Group , Saturn Films

Who Does Kiernan Shipka Play in ‘Longlegs’?

Since the 1970s, the FBI has been investigating a pattern of cold cases of families discovered in murder-suicide crime scenes that are related to a cryptic and elusive serial killer known as Longlegs, and they haven’t found any leads. In the 1990s, new FBI recruit Lee Harker seems to have a psychic ability that enables her to find a new lead to shake off the dust on the cold case files. It leads the FBI agent to the Camera family, where a father killed his wife and the visiting local priest before taking his own life, leaving his young daughter, Carrie Anne (Shipka), as the sole surviving member of the family. Harker discovers a life-size doll of a girl while searching the Camera property, neatly put away in the barn.

At the nearby psychiatric hospital, the removal of the doll, plus a visit by Longlegs, awakens Carrie Anne, the daughter of the Camera family. She has been in a catatonic state for years until recent events. Lee Harker goes to meet her, finding the weary girl as if she is still trying to wake up from the “long dream,” as she puts it. Carrie Anne softly speaks to Harker, revealing what happened to her family, and grows more threatening to the FBI agent. All Harker can do is swallow down her anxieties so she doesn't squirm in her seat. Kiernan Shipka is a scene-stealer in her one Longlegs scene, which has viewers observe what happens when someone gets too close to the serial killer’s darkness — and it’s not pleasant.

Kiernan Shipka's Carrie Anne Is the Only Survivor of Longlegs

Leading up to this scene, Harker’s access to the cold cases allows her to understand how grisly and depraved the family massacres are. When she walks into one of the more recent crime scenes, the bodies haven’t been found soon enough and are rotting. Bloodlines are annihilated when Longlegs targets these families. The appearance of Carrie Anne Camera is living and breathing proof that just because she has survived the serial killer’s murderous spell on her family doesn't mean she has escaped his Satanic grip. Lingering in the back of Shipka’s monologue is her connection to the doll Harker unearthed and the silver orb found inside its head.

The life-size toy seems to be responsible for keeping Carrie Anne in a catatonic state for years. Any part of this, from losing her family to the uncanny doll, should distress Carrie Anne, but it doesn’t. When Harker wants to learn about Longlegs’ recent visit, the girl thinks back on it fondly, with a sense of loyalty pledged to him and "The Man Downstairs." For anyone who may not catch onto this nickname, yeah, she’s talking about the Devil. This sole survivor is trapped in an unholy case of Stockholm syndrome.

With a pixie cut hairstyle, Carrie Anne resembles Mia Farrow from Rosemary’s Baby, another movie Devil worship, but with a distinction. In that ‘60s horror film, Rosemary is unable to find support from those in her life and comes to accept her place as the mother of the Antichrist. She has been used by her husband, neighbors, and doctor in their pact with the Devil. The cult in Rosemary’s Baby hid in plain sight, with John Cassavetes and Ruth Gordon masking their insidious secrets behind a pleasant face. Nicolas Cage’s ghastly and campy killer doesn't hide his true nature in public, which doesn't bother Carrie Anne, who has accepted her place with him and the Devil. In her monologue, Shipka’s withdrawn behavior becomes alert and concentrated on Harker.

Carrie Anne would do whatever it is Longlegs or the Man Downstairs orders her to do. She would kill herself, “take a jumpy out a window," as she puts it, and be, "just happy as peaches to watch the ground as it come up to meet me.” Her odd vernacular, no doubt because her catatonia hasn’t let her mature properly, injects an extra amount of strangeness into the scene. Then Carrie Anne treats Harker with the utmost hostility. “Or if he told me to kill you right here,” she says, “in this room with my bare hand, I’d surely do.” Maika Monroe’s tense demeanor is more than understandable, and when the “happy as peaches” monologue concludes, the cut to Harker catching her breath in the bathroom is a cathartic release. Viewers need to let out a nervous laugh.

Carrie Annie’s Monologue in 'Longlegs' Is Unforgettable

It’s a difficult task to stand out in the same horror film where veteran actors bring their horror A-game. Kiernan Shipka does just that. Nicolas Cage’s morbid theatricality as Longlegs is unpredictable, putting everyone on edge, onscreen and off. Alicia Witt portrays a grim acceptance in Ruth Harker, as a nun who has been the killer’s accomplice, forced to incite and witness the family murders. Unlike those two, Carrie Annie never becomes physically violent, and she doesn’t have to. Her implied violence is more than enough to rattle the audience as much as it does for Lee Harker.

“You dirtsy flirtsy little angel bitch.” Carrie Annie’s last line is an immature and ugly piece of dialogue that crawls into your gray matter, much like it does to Harker. It’s a shame Carrie Anne has an off-screen death, but this choice goes in hand with how off-the-rails the story becomes as it descends into the hellish finale. Director Osgood Perkins throws everything he can into Longlegs, and Kiernan Shipka’s one scene is the creepiest in a film that includes a nerve-racking sound design, a sinful nun, and an occult serial killer. If that isn’t enough, what adds to the creepiness of Carrie Anne’s scene is how the character is nothing like what the actress has done recently.

Kiernan Shipka’s Performance in 'Longlegs' Is Like Nothing She's Done Before

The actress has come a long way since her breakout role in Mad Man, as Sally, the daughter with a complicated and strained relationship with her father Don Draper (Jon Hamm). In the past couple of years, Shipka went on to become known for her fierce, take-charge starring roles in two horror-themed projects. In Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, her performance as teen witch Sabrina Spellman reinvented the character with a darker bite, who fights for the safety of her mortal friends, while pushing back against the patriarchal infernal forces that wish to have her ascend to Queen of Hell. Shipka brings the same energy to Totally Killer as Jamie, who time travels into the past to reverse the murders by the Sweet Sixteen Killer that targeted her mother. Sabrina and Jamie are plucky heroines that viewers want to see win in the end. In Longlegs, Shipka unsettles you way more than any killer or demon her past heroines have had to face.

‘Twisters’ and ‘Longlegs’ Gives Kiernan Shipka Two Different Characters

While there isn’t too much a Satanic horror movie and a disaster blockbuster share in common, they both have a cameo by Shipka that lets the actress deliver a complete 180. In the same summer of Longlegs, Shipka pops up in Twisters for the opening. She plays Addy, a perky and warm member of Kate’s (Daisy Edgar-Jones) storm-chasing team who is a character much closer to Sabrina or Jamie. Her playful banter with a fellow chaser helps the movie to establish the group dynamics, and we're rooting for them as they execute their field study. However, none of it goes to plan as a rain-wrapped EF-5 kills everyone but Kate. Watching Addy get slammed by debris and pulled into the massive funnel is deeply shocking and upsetting despite Shipka having had just a few minutes of screentime.

Shipka is a cameo queen who gets to show off her range on the big screen in two of the biggest summer movies of 2024. She’s excellent in the kind of roles seen in Twisters or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but she has the chops to avoid being typecast.Longlegs is also not the first time Shipka has appeared in an Osgood Perkins film. In his debut, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, she plays another dark character who happily accepts a demonic entity in her life, with longer screentime that slowly builds to her bloody acts to please the demon. Kiernan Shipka's appearance in Longlegs may only be around five minutes long, but she makes every last grueling second count.

Longlegs is in theaters now.

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