I frequently go to the movies, which means I've frequently seen the trailer for Longlegs which means I've frequently seen the stark yellow letters FBI emblazoned on the back of Lee Harker's navy jacket. That bit of the protagonist's uniform instantly took me back to playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alan Wake 2 last year, when I was, again, frequently looking at identical big yellow initials on the back of Saga Anderson's own inky blue jacket.
This is a very superficial similarity and, on its own, would be like saying fans of Zero Dark Thirty would definitely like The Pacifier because they both feature Navy SEALs. But when you actually watch Longlegs, it becomes clear that Osgood Perkins' horror engages with many of the same ideas as Remedy's survival horror game.
❀Alan Wake 2: Night Springs Squeezes As Many Genres As Possibl𒅌e Into A Tiny DLC
The three-hour long expan♉sion contains multitudes.
Twin Peeks Into The Darkness Below The Surface
Within the subgenre of FBI procedurals, the even smaller subgenre I love most has FBI agents digging deeper into a case until they discover its links to the supernatural. This isn't always what fans want — this bait-and-switch is a big part of why, in its original run, Twin Peaks went from phenomenon to failure in the course of a single year — but it is a persistent niche. Longlegs is the most recent, but the shadow of Twin Peaks is long and has influenced works as diverse as Alan Wake, Deadly Premonition, The X-Files, Fringe, Top of the Lake, and (I kid you not) 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
If you love Alan Wake 2, you probably already love Twin Peaks, too. David Lynch's drama series has always been an obvious influence on Remedy — from the quirky characters, to the Pacific Northwest setting, to the presence of identical good and bad versions of the same character, to the protagonist being trapped in a shadowy realm for many years — and it's likely the first media that many new Alan Wake fans seek out. What you might not know much about, though, is Longlegs. From this point on, I'm going to get into mild spoilers about the first act of the film. If you don't want to know anything going in, go see the movie and come back.
Alan Wake 2 And Longlegs Star FBI Agents Investigating The Supernatural
The serial killer thriller begins as just that, a serial killer thriller. During her first day as a field agent, Harker alerts her partner that she believes the murderer they're looking for is in a nearby house. She has no material reason to think that. She just, somehow, knows it. Sure enough, she convinces her partner to investigate and when he rings the doorbell, the house's inhabitant answers with a bullet to her partner's brain.
After apprehending the killer, Harker is subject to tests where she is asked to guess random numbers between one and 100. She manages to get half. Her coworkers determine that she's “half psychic”. In these early moments, Longlegs is already working in similar territory as Twin Peaks and Alan Wake 2, pairing gruesome crimes with an FBI agent determined to solve them via supernatural intuition. Saga's Mind Place isn't presented as ESP, per se, but her cozy mental office allows her greater insight than she would be able to have otherwise, allowing her to connect dots that would remain disparate for anyone else.
As Perkins spins his web, the supernatural elements deepen, and get darker. And, from here, I need to go into full spoiler territory, so hop off if you haven't already. Soon, Harker is recruited to a long-cold serial killer case with a mysterious MO. The killer has left behind zero physical evidence to indicate he was ever present in the houses when the murders took place. The families he torments seem to kill themselves. Despite his absence, his name, ‘Longlegs’, is signed at each scene.
How is he doing it? Well, it turns out that Longlegs (played with eerie gusto by Nicolas Cage), is a satanist with a penchant for creating incredibly lifelike demonic dolls. A trusted associate — who we eventually find out is Harker's religious mother — ingratiates herself to the family, then gifts them one of the dolls. This doll watches, frighteningly, beneath black cloth, its eyes glowing softly under the shawl. The longer the doll is present, the greater its influence becomes on the family, eventually culminating in grisly murder.
This idea that man-made items can channel dark power isn't new. The Exorcist's inciting incident involved Regan MacNeil playing with a ouija board, and many other horror movies begin with a dangerous, but mundane-seeming, item being disturbed. While that idea plays a role in other horror stories, it's key to Longlegs and Remedy's games. Control's Jesse Faden oversees the Federal Bureau of Control which investigates items just like Longlegs' dolls, Objects of Power. Her HQ, The Oldest House, is filled with everyday stuff that, somehow, can wield devastating power. Alan Wake 2's plot hinges on the powers of a Magic Clicker.
It's easy to see why artists are drawn to this idea. If you create a movie or a game or a book or a painting, you want it to wield power. Not the power to encourage violence, but the power to move people, just the same. A great poem isn't dangerous, but we'd still like to think it could change the world.
I Don’t Know What Emio Is, But It’s Exactly What I Wantꦦ From Nintendo
Whoever this strangeꩵ, laughing man is, he has me excited for the future of the house Mario built.
