Movies Like Longlegs: 15 Disturbing Serial Killer Horror Films

July 4, 2026 • Lawrence Jacomelli

July 4, 2026 13 min read Updated September 16, 2026

Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs became one of the most talked-about horror films of 2024 because it combines the structure of a serial-killer investigation with the atmosphere of occult horror. Starring Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood and Alicia Witt, it follows FBI agent Lee Harker as she investigates a series of apparently connected family murders linked to a mysterious figure known as Longlegs.

On the surface the premise sounds familiar — an agent given a difficult case, coded messages, a predator several steps ahead. But Longlegs quickly becomes stranger than a conventional serial-killer thriller as religion, Satanism, dolls, family trauma and supernatural possibility begin merging with the investigation, until Lee is no longer simply trying to identify a murderer. She’s trying to understand the system behind the murders.

If you’re looking for movies like Longlegs, here are 15 occult detective stories, FBI thrillers and ritual-murder films that share its DNA.

1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The most obvious starting point for anyone looking for movies like Longlegs: a young FBI trainee is asked to interview an imprisoned killer to help catch another murderer, entering psychologically uncomfortable territory the deeper she goes. The atmosphere stays grounded in psychological realism where Longlegs moves toward occult horror, but both share vulnerability without weakness — competent women repeatedly placed inside spaces men dominate.

Why watch it: The FBI investigation, psychological profiling and female-agent perspective that made Longlegs work.

Director: Jonathan Demme · Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine

2. Se7en (1995)

Two detectives investigate a series of murders structured around the seven deadly sins — a killer who isn’t simply murdering people, but constructing a message. Both Se7en and Longlegs gradually reveal that individual murders are part of a larger design, and Fincher’s rain-soaked, morally decayed atmosphere tells the audience something is wrong before the investigation can explain what.

Why watch it: Another deeply atmospheric serial-killer thriller where the crimes are organised around ritual, symbolism and a larger philosophical design.

Director: David Fincher · Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey

3. Zodiac (2007)

A cartoonist becomes increasingly consumed by the mystery of the Zodiac Killer, whose coded messages and public communications became part of the terror surrounding the crimes. Like Longlegs, it understands a killer can dominate people psychologically without being physically present — clues accumulate, patterns appear, certainty remains elusive.

Why watch it: A slower, more procedural story about how an unsolved killer can consume everyone trying to understand him.

Director: David Fincher · Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards

4. Cure (1997)

A detective investigates a series of murders committed by different people, each victim marked with an identical carved X — the suspects admit to the killings but can’t explain why. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film turns the investigation into something metaphysical, connecting to Longlegs through the idea that the killer may not simply be an individual: the real horror is influence, and how violence moves from one person to another.

Why watch it: One of the closest psychological and atmospheric relatives to Longlegs — colder, stranger and deeply unsettling.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa · Starring: Koji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Anna Nakagawa

5. The Exorcist III (1990)

A lieutenant investigates murders that appear connected to a killer believed to have died years earlier, and the case gradually moves from conventional detective work into something much stranger. Both films begin with law-enforcement investigation and slowly expand the possible explanation until ordinary criminal psychology no longer feels sufficient — with Brad Dourif’s performance giving the film extraordinary intensity.

Why watch it: Another crime investigation that gradually transforms into supernatural horror without abandoning the procedural structure.

Director: William Peter Blatty · Starring: George C. Scott, Brad Dourif, Ed Flanders, Jason Miller

6. The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)

Before Longlegs, Osgood Perkins made this quiet, cold, deliberately elliptical film about young women whose separate experiences converge around a deserted boarding school. It already contains the qualities that would define his later approach — Perkins doesn’t rush to explain the supernatural, letting empty corridors and Satanic imagery create a world that feels wrong before the audience knows why.

Why watch it: The earlier Osgood Perkins film that most clearly anticipates the atmosphere, occult themes and emotional coldness of Longlegs.

Director: Osgood Perkins · Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton, James Remar

7. The House of the Devil (2009)

A student accepts a babysitting job at an isolated house — except there’s no baby, the employers are evasive, and the house feels increasingly threatening. Ti West’s patient throwback to Satanic-panic horror lets long stretches of ordinary behaviour build tension, with occult elements emerging gradually rather than immediately, exactly the restraint Longlegs uses on its way to its own Satanic reveal.

Why watch it: Slow-burn Satanic horror where atmosphere and anticipation matter more than constant shocks.

Director: Ti West · Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig

8. The Empty Man (2020)

A former police officer investigating a missing teenager is led toward a mysterious organisation, strange rituals and an increasingly destabilising understanding of reality. Like Longlegs, it begins with a recognisable investigation structure and gradually reveals that the apparent crimes may be symptoms of something much larger — human beings participating in systems they don’t fully understand.

Why watch it: The way Longlegs moves from crime mystery into occult conspiracy, pushed even further and stranger.

Director: David Prior · Starring: James Badge Dale, Marin Ireland, Stephen Root, Sasha Frolova

9. Angel Heart (1987)

A private investigator hired to locate a missing singer uncovers murder, ritual and increasingly disturbing connections to himself. The comparison to Longlegs is especially strong in how the investigation turns personal — the detective begins believing he’s looking outward at somebody else’s mystery, and the mystery eventually turns inward, just as Lee Harker discovers the case connects to her own history.

Why watch it: A detective story where occult horror gradually turns the investigation back onto the investigator.

Director: Alan Parker · Starring: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling

10. The Wailing (2016)

A police officer investigates strange deaths in a rural community after a mysterious outsider arrives, and the case becomes deeply personal once his own family gets involved. The connection to Longlegs lies in uncertainty — different explanations compete, evidence supports several possibilities, and the investigator has to decide whom to trust without ever having complete information.

Why watch it: A larger, more complex supernatural investigation where every answer produces another question.

Director: Na Hong-jin · Starring: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Chun Woo-hee, Jun Kunimura

11. The Clovehitch Killer (2018)

A teenager living in a seemingly ordinary religious household begins to suspect his father may be connected to a series of unsolved murders. That domestic perspective connects strongly to Longlegs — both are interested in evil existing inside apparently normal family structures, where the threat isn’t an outsider but something that’s been inside the home for years.

Why watch it: A grounded serial-killer thriller about family, secrecy and discovering that evil may already be part of your everyday life.

Director: Duncan Skiles · Starring: Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis, Madisen Beaty

12. Blood Star (2024)

Britni Camacho as Bobbi Torres · John Schwab as Sheriff Bilstein

Sheriff Bilstein stops Bobbi Torres in Blood Star (2024)

Blood Star doesn’t contain the supernatural or Satanic elements of Longlegs, but it shares a strong interest in ritualised predation. Bobbi, driving alone through the American Southwest, attracts the attention of Sheriff Bilstein — at first an aggressive sheriff abusing his authority, then it becomes clear his behaviour follows a pattern. He’s done this before. The encounters aren’t random; they’re part of a ritualised hunt.

Longlegs is frightening not simply because he kills people, but because the killings belong to a system — dates matter, families matter, objects matter, the crimes are structured. Sheriff Bilstein operates on a much smaller scale, but the same principle applies: the predator has a method, and the victim is entering something already rehearsed. Both films create suspense through delayed understanding — the protagonist doesn’t just need to survive, she needs to understand the pattern.

Why watch it: If the aspect of Longlegs that interests you most is ritualised predation and the frightening discovery that separate events are part of a killer’s repeated method.

13. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

A father-and-son coroner team receives the body of an unidentified young woman and begins trying to determine how she died — except the evidence doesn’t make sense, external injuries are absent, and internal findings suggest impossible trauma. Like Longlegs, it treats evidence as a doorway into supernatural horror: the investigation starts rational, and the problem is that rational analysis gradually reveals something irrational.

Why watch it: Horror where professional investigation and forensic detail slowly uncover something that cannot be explained through ordinary logic.

Director: André Øvredal · Starring: Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch, Olwen Catherine Kelly

14. The First Omen (2024)

An American woman sent to Rome to work at an orphanage before taking her vows gradually becomes suspicious the institution is involved in something much darker. It shares Longlegs‘ interest in religious imagery, secret systems and the idea that characters may be manipulated by forces operating over long periods — the horror coming from realising an isolated event is part of a much larger plan.

Why watch it: Another recent occult horror film about conspiracy, ritual and people discovering their lives may already be part of somebody else’s design.

Director: Arkasha Stevenson · Starring: Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson, Sonia Braga, Bill Nighy

15. Hereditary (2018)

Not a serial-killer film, but thematically close to Longlegs: characters who don’t understand the system surrounding them, objects and symbols gradually revealing a larger structure, family history and ritual operating across generations. Both give the protagonists a sense of inevitability — they’re not simply trying to stop something happening, they’re trying to understand how long it’s already been happening. See our full guide to movies like Hereditary.

Why watch it: The occult fatalism of Longlegs, and another film where the truth becomes more frightening as the hidden structure is revealed.

Director: Ari Aster · Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro

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Why Longlegs Is So Unsettling

One reason Longlegs works so well is that it rarely lets the audience feel fully informed. The investigation progresses, but every answer creates a larger question — the crimes are connected, then the connection becomes stranger, and Longlegs is involved but his role may not be as simple as it first appeared. The audience isn’t simply waiting for the killer to be caught; we’re waiting to understand what kind of story we’re actually watching, and that uncertainty keeps the viewer psychologically unstable.

Serial Killer Movies Like Longlegs

Serial-killer movies usually depend on patterns — the killer selects victims according to a rule, and the tension comes from whether the pattern can be recognised in time. Se7en turns murder into religious symbolism, Zodiac uses codes and public messages, The Silence of the Lambs uses psychological profiling, and The Clovehitch Killer explores ritual inside domestic life. Longlegs takes that familiar structure and pushes it toward supernatural horror, which makes ordinary profiling feel insufficient.

Occult Serial Killer Movies

Combining serial murder with occult belief creates a particular kind of horror because the killings appear to have meaning beyond the victims themselves. Angel Heart combines investigation with Satanic identity, The Exorcist III links murder to supernatural possession, and The Empty Man connects disappearance and death to ritual and cult belief. Longlegs uses Satanic imagery and ritualised family murders to create the same sense that the crimes belong to something larger than one human personality.

FBI Movies Like Longlegs

The FBI procedural is central to Longlegs‘ appeal — Lee Harker isn’t simply a potential victim, she’s an investigator with training, authority and analytical ability, which makes the supernatural escalation more effective. The Silence of the Lambs uses the same structure with Clarice Starling, and Zodiac shares the procedural obsession with evidence and patterns. The contrast between rational investigation and irrational horror is what makes both so powerful.

Satanic Horror Movies Like Longlegs

Longlegs helped bring Satanic imagery back into mainstream contemporary horror, and the strongest films in this vein create systems of belief rather than just pentagrams and rituals. The House of the Devil slowly reveals occult intention inside a babysitting job, The First Omen explores religious institutions and conspiracy, Hereditary turns family history into occult destiny, and The Blackcoat’s Daughter connects Satanic imagery to loneliness and emotional need.

Movies About Ritualistic Murders

Ritualistic murder is frightening because repetition implies preparation — the killer has done this before, the details matter, and the victim believes the situation is chaotic while the predator knows the sequence. Se7en organises murder around the seven deadly sins, Cure connects unrelated murders through recurring marks and influence, and Longlegs builds its case around families, dates, objects and repeated structures. Blood Star removes the occult element but uses the same principle on a smaller scale — Sheriff Bilstein’s hunt follows a pattern he understands long before Bobbi does.

Psychological Horror Movies Like Longlegs

Although Longlegs contains serial-killer and supernatural elements, much of its power is psychological — Lee Harker is emotionally unusual from the start, and the case affects her in ways she can’t initially explain. That subjectivity connects it to Cure, Hereditary and The Blackcoat’s Daughter, where the central character’s psychology becomes inseparable from the mystery and the audience experiences the horror through someone whose own understanding is becoming unstable.

Slow-Burn Horror Movies Like Longlegs

Longlegs belongs to the modern slow-burn tradition — it doesn’t constantly show the killer, letting empty rooms and quiet conversations build tension instead. Cure uses long static shots and silence, The Blackcoat’s Daughter lets winter emptiness create dread, and The House of the Devil delays its major revelations until the audience has spent a long time waiting. The strongest slow-burn horror understands that anticipation can be more disturbing than immediate violence.

Movies Like Se7en and Longlegs

There’s a natural overlap between audiences searching for movies like Se7en and movies like Longlegs — both revolve around investigators trying to understand ritualised murders, and both killers construct meaning through violence. The difference is that Se7en remains within human pathology while Longlegs increasingly opens the possibility of supernatural influence, making it feel like a bridge between the serial-killer thriller and occult horror.

Horror Movies About Family Secrets

Family is central to Longlegs — the murders involve families, Lee’s own history becomes relevant, and domestic spaces that should feel safe gradually become part of the horror. That connects the film to Hereditary and The Clovehitch Killer, where secrecy becomes more powerful when it’s inherited: children don’t always know what their parents have done, and the home becomes a place where hidden histories survive for years.

What to Watch After Longlegs

If the FBI and serial-killer investigation was what you enjoyed most, start with The Silence of the Lambs, Se7en and Zodiac. If you want something stranger and more psychological, watch Cure — one of the closest tonal comparisons and one of the best serial-killer films ever made. If the Satanic and occult side interested you most, try The House of the Devil, The First Omen, Angel Heart and The Blackcoat’s Daughter. And if what fascinated you most was a predator whose crimes follow a pattern the protagonist only gradually understands, Blood Star takes that concept into a grounded desert road thriller.

Watch Blood Star

If you enjoy thrillers about ritualised killers, patterns of predation and protagonists who have to understand the rules of a murderer’s game, Blood Star offers a grounded variation on those ideas. Bobbi drives alone through the American Southwest and attracts the attention of Sheriff Bilstein — at first she believes she’s dealing with an aggressive officer, then she understands his behaviour isn’t random. The encounters follow a pattern; he’s done this before. The badge gives him authority, but his real power comes from experience — he understands how victims react because he’s repeated the process.

The scale and mythology are completely different from Longlegs, but both films understand that a predator becomes more frightening when the protagonist realises the encounter is part of a ritual. The victim is experiencing it for the first time. The killer is not.