Longlegs ending explained: Why can't Lee shoot the doll?

Longlegs delves into the supernatural and includes a handful of surreal and enigmatic moments as it builds up to a dramatic ending that's largely left open to viewers' interpretations.

Wondering what the ending means? Read on for everything you need to know about the ending of the film.

Longlegs ending explained: Why doesn't Lee shoot the doll?

The big breakthrough in the case comes when Lee is visiting her mother, Ruth, and comes across a box containing several polaroids dating back to her childhood – which show clear photographic evidence that she was visited by Longlegs as a young girl (as we saw in the opening scene) and she has since forgotten about.

This photograph helps her secure the arrest of the killer and she soon finds herself interrogating him, during the course of which she asks who is helping him commit the murders. His response is to tell her to ask her mother, before he declares 'Hail Satan' and repeatedly smashes his head on the desk, killing himself.

Lee is understandably in a state of shock, and together with fellow agent Browning she drives to her mother's house to question her, only for Browning to be almost immediately shot dead by Ruth on arrival. When Lee tells her mother that Longlegs is now dead, Ruth shoots one of the killer's handcrafted dolls – which resembles Lee – and she loses consciousness.

It's at this point that we are told exactly how Ruth had been involved, as she explains – in the style of a bedtime story – that when Longlegs had visited during Lee's childhood, he had been going to kill her, but they reached a deal: Lee would be spared if her mother helped him and the devil enact their plan.

And so, over the years, Longlegs had been living in Ruth's basement crafting the satanic dolls, which Ruth would then take to families when their daughter was celebrating their birthday (always on the 14th of the month) – pretending she was working for the church and they had won a prize. The devil from within the dolls would then essentially possess the father of each family and set the series of murders in motion.

After these revelations, Lee awakens in Longlegs' basement and receives a message that tells her she is running late for the birthday party of Ruby – her boss Carter's daughter. She realises that this is the final murder Longlegs had planned to complete his Satanic ritual and rushes to the house.

Alas, her mother has got there first with the doll and so it is too late to save the family, with the possession already in motion. Carter kills his wife off camera, but before he can get much further Lee intervenes by shooting both Carter and her own mother – saving Ruby.

However, when she tries to shoot the demonic doll, her gun blanks, and we cut to a flashback of Longlegs saying 'Hail Satan'.

As for exactly what this means – and why she was unable to shoot the doll – things are left open to interpretation. But it certainly appears to suggest that she was unable to completely get rid of the spirit of the devil, and that the forces of evil will remain even with Longlegs and his accomplice now out of the picture. Not an especially reassuring ending, then.

What does the ending of Longlegs mean?

Speaking about the ending of the film, star Monroe told TIME that nothing good can come of it. "Evil isn’t going anywhere," she said. "That’s just the reality. There really is no end." Bleak.

Meanwhile, Perkins has given a number of interviews detailing his own interpretation.

Speaking to Variety, he explained how the ending had been set in stone from the very beginning and described it as "tragic".

"The devil wins again on a small scale," he said. "One of the fun things about using the devil as your villain is that the devil never really goes for world domination. The devil always feels like, 'I’ll just f**k with this person, I’ll wreck this family, I’ll mess this kid up, I’ll torment this priest.'

"It's never like, 'I’m going to eat the Vatican.' It never gets to that point for me with the devil. The devil is a little more amusing and playful than that. The story of Lee Harker ends with the ending of the movie. The last shot that she fires is the worst thing that can happen to her."

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with Den of Geek, he said: "Like shooting her mom in the head, that's about as bad a day as a person can have. So I think that ultimately one could say that the entire movement of the movie – or the entire movement of all of Longlegs' crimes, starting from crime number one all the way to the Carter family – it's all about getting this poor girl to a place where she shoots her mom in the head.

"Like that's kind of the flourish, the devil's 'Yep, I did that.'"

Longlegs is now showing in UK cinemas.

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