Longlegs left us with 5 unresolved mysteries, here are our theories

One of this year's most captivating and frightening original horror films is finally in theaters. If you haven't seen Longlegs from director Oz Perkins yet, you should stop reading now because this article is rife with spoilers.

Given the movie's ambiguous nature, many of its central mysteries are left unresolved, or at least without a definitive explanation. These were some of my most burning questions leaving the theater and the answering theories I've come up with, which are by no means confirmed as correct, by the way, but just for fun!

Is Lee psychic?

Toward the beginning, Longlegs features a scene where the bureau tests Agent Lee Harker's (Maika Monroe) intuition after she accurately guesses which house belongs to their suspect without investigating. Later, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) mentions how impressive it is that she beat the test eight times, though Lee argues she also failed it eight times, allowing the film to maintain its ambiguity regarding Lee's abilities.

Though we don't get a conclusive answer regarding Lee's potential otherworldly prowess, Longlegs does give us enough clues to draw our own conclusions. As revealed in the third act, Lee was unknowingly living with Longlegs, a.k.a. Dale Cobble, for years. He was, quite literally, the man downstairs, dwelling in the basement of her childhood home and crafting his satanic dolls right beneath her feet.

Lee's proximity to whatever black magic and devil worship Cobble was doing in the basement might have impacted her. It's also possible that the Lee doll contributed to the real Lee's abilities. Cobble built a Lee doll because she and her mother were going to be his victims. But the doll became unnecessary after Lee's mother, Ruth (Alicia Witt), bargained for her daughter's life. Left to linger, the magic inside the doll could have affected Lee.

If that's true, the Ruby Carter doll left intact during the film's climax presents some unpleasant implications.

How did Longlegs choose his victims?

The movie doesn't specify how or why Cobble targets the families that he does. He might not even be the one selecting them, it could be Satan himself is picking the targets. But the massacres always occur on the 14th of a given month, with some coinciding incidents happening on other dates, like the 12th or 13th.

Part of reason because is that Cobble is intentionally using an algorithm that creates an inverted triangle, an occult symbol that likely invokes the Devil. Lee figures this out and shows Carter her findings. But since Lee's birthday is also on the 14th of a month, it's suggested that she and her mother were Cobble's intended first victims on that fateful day in the 1970s, though they didn't die because Ruth struck a bargain. All of the other murders then follow the numerical pattern because they harken back to Lee's birthday.

It would also explain why that day, Ruth's house went differently from the other incidents. A flashback shows Cobble trying Ruth up on the floor, and the fact that he was present at all is unlike what happens in the following murders.

What was really inside those metal balls?

One of the film's biggest mysteries is treated like one within the context of the film itself. The first time we see one of those metal balls is when the medical examiner pulls it out of the doll that Carter and Lee found on the Camera family property. He claims the ball has a hollow interior, but it affects him by making him hear his ex's voice.

When the ME holds a portable ultrasound scanner against the ball, it issues an ominous high-pitched sound that causes Lee to see disturbing images of snakes and other occult-like imagery. By showing Cobble's doll-making process, Longlegs hints that the titular killer imbues these balls with black magic of some kind.

The magic tucked inside the doll's head serves as a catalyst in each murder, putting the family into a trance-like state and then triggering the father to become homicidal. There's no definitive answer to *what* is in them, but it's implied to be something satanic, dark, and beyond our understanding. I expressed some other thoughts on the dolls and the film's ultimate ending here.

Why did Cobble communicate via codes and symbols?

Neon's marketing for the film heavily leaned on the serial killer's cryptic messages embedded with eerie symbols and coded threats. It's clearly meant as a callback to the real-life Zodiac serial killer, who also communicated publicly using coded letters, but in the film, the codes are just more examples of Cobble's satanic obsession. They're more or less just used to be extra creepy and nod toward the real killer's infamous cryptograms.

Why did Agent Carter have a giant portrait of Bill Clinton in his office?

Oz Perkins really wanted to ensure we knew that the film took place while Clinton was in office. The framing of the Clinton portrait as front and center during the scenes where Lee and Carter are talking in his office, almost to the point that it's comical, which was likely intentional as the entire movie operates with a warped sense of humor, befitting the unsettling tone.

Longlegs is now playing in theaters. To stay up to date on thrillers, sci-fi, and horror, bookmark 1428 Elm and follow our Facebook page and Twitter account!