{"id":1230,"date":"2026-10-16T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2026-10-16T05:19:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T05:19:02","slug":"osgood-perkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/16\/osgood-perkins\/","title":{"rendered":"Osgood Perkins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WARNING:<\/mark> <\/strong>This Article May Contain Spoilers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though he is a modern director, I would honestly put Osgood Perkins up there with the likes of Ari Aster and Jordan Peele, who also lean into the elevated horror that seems to be hitting our screens in the recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Monkey<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              I\u2019m going to say this right here, right now \u2013 I absolutely love this film, and it isn\u2019t just because it is based on a Stephen King short story because I haven\u2019t even read it! Theo James portrays the personalities of the twins Bill and Hal brilliantly, especially in keeping with the fact that Bill is a complete arsehole! To think the chaos of this film is all caused by a simple wind-up toy monkey is absolute genius and if I am honest, you need to prepare yourself for some Final Destination <\/em>level deaths from the outset! What is interesting about this, outside of the deaths of course, is that they name the babysitter Annie Wilkes (a reference to the lead character in Stephen King\u2019s Misery<\/em>)as well as the fact that they change the monkey to playing a drum instead of cymbals as in the short story. What I didn\u2019t pick up on before is that the boys also have a teacher called Mrs Torrence, a reference to The Shining <\/em>perhaps? Point is can you really blame the toy? If Bill doesn\u2019t twist its key in the first place, does any of this story take place? Whether that is the case or not, I spent most of the film hoping for Elijah Wood\u2019s character of Ted to be killed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              There is something unbelievably disturbing about the opening narration to this film and I don\u2019t just mean the fact that Lily quite clearly tells us that she won\u2019t survive the events we are about to witness. Ruth Wilson (Lili) adopts such a soft tone of voice and the way she looks at the camera when she says \u201cThe pretty thing you are looking at is me\u201d <\/em>and even though she isn\u2019t the antagonist of this film it sends a slight chill down my spine. That isn\u2019t to say her character isn\u2019t a little weird though. I love the way Osgood mirrors our introduction of Lily when he introduces the character of Polly, the ghost haunting the house where Lily works. The funny thing is, for me, that all of this film really has are a few creepy narrations. I guess some people would find it scary, possibly being triggered by the jump scare of the phone being ripped from Lily\u2019s hand early in the film but not me. What is interesting however, is once we are introduced to the young Iris \u2013 the old lady Lily is caring for, it seems that she learnt the story of Polly\u2019s death by speaking to her ghost! Lily\u2019s death scene is intense, that is something I definitely cannot deny \u2013 especially considering she dies of pure fear!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

February<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Even though this film is also known as The Blackcoat\u2019s Daughter, <\/em>I feel that the title of February <\/em>makes more sense, considering this is when the film is set and that I genuinely had to look up what a blackcoat was. This film follows three young woman, Kat, Rose and Joan, who are all clearly in the midst of a personal crisis.  I have to admit, the switch in timeline is a little confusing as we suddenly jump from Kat looking through Rose\u2019s things to Joan at a bus station. I get that it\u2019s made clear why later in the film, but the sudden change took me out of the film a little, especially as it felt like Kat was about to do something creepy! It\u2019s the way she looked at the hairbrush! It happens again as things intensify with Kat\u2019s character. In all honesty, we didn\u2019t need what turns out to be a future timeline. For me, simply focus on the storyline with Kat and Rose and the increasing disturbing behaviour \u2013 closing the film out with the looks on the policemen\u2019s faces!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gretel and Hansel<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              You know what I loved about this film, the fact that Perkins actually gives the audience a backstory to the witch in the fairy tale. At least that is what I believed at first, before I started to question that maybe the girl in the pink bonnet was actually Gretel herself as she mentions that she can see things, dreaming while she is awake. It seems I was right first time round. Gone is the gingerbread house or house of sweets as it is portrayed in many films and replaced by a normal house with a table laid out as if hosting a feast \u2013 luring the hungry Hansel and Gretel instead. I can understand why Perkins once described this as a coming-of-age story. Instead of there being a balance between the two characters like in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, <\/em>Gretel is the primary focus for this film and the audience watch as she is questioned about her virginity, thrown from her mother\u2019s home becoming her brother\u2019s sole care-giver, taking drugs for the first time in the form of mushrooms (accidentally of course) and getting her period. What\u2019s interesting is that the audience don\u2019t ever truly see Holda, the witch in our story, doing anything evil until right at the end. I guess in her eyes, she is doing something good \u2013 helping another witch embrace her powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Longlegs<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              So, for a film that I guess is technically more of a mystery than a horror, considering the crime angle, it is pretty damn disturbing in places. It even makes the lyrics to Get It On <\/em>by T-Rex disturbing! Or maybe I just never realised what they were before. The antagonist, the titular Longlegs, is only a small role in the whole film but my god, is Nicholas Cage creepy! From his voice, to the speech pattern and the way he looks. And then there\u2019s the singing, especially the happy birthday to Lee! It feels like that is how he hypnotises his victims \u2013 if that\u2019s what he even does. I\u2019ve seen this film twice now and I am still curious about Lee and possibility that she has some sort of psychic power. What\u2019s clever about this film is that there are so many mundane scenes that when the more disturbing stuff hits it makes it that little bit more terrifying. The one thing I had forgotten about was the dolls! There\u2019s almost an underlying story of voodoo \u2013 if you interpret it that way \u2013 that Osgood never really seems to explain. The one thing I will say, in terms of the accomplice to Longlegs \u2013 be prepared for a shock, and a messed-up ending\u2026 and I don\u2019t mean Cage\u2019s little kiss and wink to camera!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers Even though he is a modern director, I would honestly put Osgood Perkins up there with the likes of Ari Aster and Jordan Peele, who also lean into the elevated horror that seems to be hitting our screens in the recent years. The Monkey               I\u2019m going to say … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions\/1232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}