Much of the pre-release chatter framed Osgood Perkins' Longlegs as a spiritual successor to Jonathan Demme's Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs . While that's understandable, it owes far more to William Peter Blatty's own satanic serial killer thriller from the '90s.
10 Movies to Watch If You Liked LONGLEGS
You can see why it was smart to tie Longlegs to the Lambs hook. It’s a film set in the 90s about a young and talented FBI agent on the hunt for an elusive serial killer. It’s the touchstone that’s likely to get more people in the seats. Beneath the surface, or penetrating the atmosphere, of Longlegs is the influence of another film, direct or indirect.
William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III is dripping with terrifying atmosphere. In 1990, Blatty adapted his own novel, Legion, a sequel to his most famous novel, The Exorcist. Blatty was a writer by trade, but this was the second (and last) time he would step behind the camera for a film adaptation of his work (after 1980's The Ninth Configuration).
Fifteen years after the events of The Exorcist, a seemingly disjointed story unfolds. Exhausted but philosophical Lieutenant Kinderman (George C. Scott) investigates a series of murders. The killings appear ritualistic in nature and, disturbingly, they match those of a supposedly deceased serial killer known as The Gemini, down to details known only to a handful of people, including Kinderman.
