Longlegs and 3 Other Movies Directed by Oz Perkins, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes
The director hasn't made that many movies, but all of them are at least curious.
Born to actor Anthony Perkins, Oz Perkins entered the world of cinema on the set of the Psycho sequel, playing the younger version of Norman Bates. Oz rose to fame in 2015, directing one of A24's first "smart horrors," The Blackcoat's Daughter, and later cemented his success with a new take on the Hansel and Gretel story.
The recently released Longlegs is already being called a leading representative of the genre in 2024, so we've collected all of Perkins' directorial efforts and sorted them by Rotten Tomatoes score.
4. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, 2016
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 59%
Lily gets a job as a nurse for an elderly writer named Iris. Iris is almost immobile, so Lily is left to fend for herself in her large house. From their first meeting, Iris calls Lily Polly, and after the girl finds out that this is the name of the main character in a horror novel Iris once wrote, the girl decides to read it.
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is the second directorial project of Oz Perkins and it has many flaws. Its plot – except for a few details and a predictable ending – is almost completely exhausted by what you read in the first paragraph.
However, style and atmosphere are two components that the movie's creators have managed so well that everything else can be easily forgiven.
3. Gretel & Hansel, 2020
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%
Gretel and her younger brother Hansel run away from home after their father dies. Wandering through the woods, the children come upon a house where the lights are on and the smell of food wafts through the windows.
The siblings are met by Holda, an elderly woman who invites them to stay with her in exchange for help with chores. Hansel is happy and quickly begins to trust Holda, while Gretel has nightmares and hears children's cries every night.
Oz Perkins' underrated folk horror plays with the viewers already in the title, swapping the names of the characters of the German fairy tale. Perkins reworks the archetypal plot of children encountering a cannibalistic witch into a story of a young woman becoming aware of her own power.
2. The Blackcoat's Daughter, 2015
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%
The Blackcoat's Daughter is Oz Perkins' directorial debut. To the ominous melodies of the younger Perkins – Elvis – a frightening drama unfolds on the screen about what happens when you suddenly realize that there is no one to turn to for help, and instead of a heart you find an immense emptiness inside.
For Rose and Kat, the new year has started off badly – the girls' parents did not come to pick them up, they stayed at a boarding school for the holidays and, it seems, are carefully guarding some secret. At the same time, somewhere at a gas station, a man finds Joan – another lonely girl who cannot even explain how she ended up so far away from the city.
1. Longlegs, 2024
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%
Neon promoted Longlegs as The Silence of the Lambs successor and a horror movie that could scare anyone, thanks in part to Nicolas Cage as the maniac.
In fact, the master of slow burners Oz Perkins made a leisurely movie about a dysfunctional family and white lies – a kind of psychotherapeutic investigation of mental trauma.
Lee Harker is making progress in his career at the FBI – either through psychic abilities or heightened intuition. She begins to work on a frozen case: for 30 years, birthday girls born on the 14th have been receiving creepy gifts. Mysteriously, on dates close to his daughter's birthday, the father goes insane and kills the entire family.