Ruth Harker

Ruth Harker

Ruth Harker
Notability:	Antagonist
Type:	Nurse Psychopath Serial killer
Gender:	Female
Location:	Oregon
Associations:	Dale Kobble
Relations:	Lee Harker
Status:	Deceased
Died:	1993
Introduction:	Longlegs
Final:	Longlegs
Actor:	Alicia Witt

Ruth Harker is a fictional Satanist and a secondary antagonist featured in the 2024 horror film Longlegs. She was played by actress Alicia Witt.

Biography[]

Ruth Harker lived in Oregon and was the mother of a girl named Lee Harker. In the 1970s, a Satanic killer named Dale "Longlegs" Kobble came to the Harker's residence with a malefic birthday greeting for young Lee. Ruth ultimately ends up forming a pact with Kobble in order to protect Lee. She became his willing accomplice and a serial killer by proxy, delivering dolls empowered by Satan that Kobble constructed to random victims. Kobble took up residence in the Harkers' basement, a secret that Ruth was to keep for many years. So long asRuth agreed to serve him, Lee would remain safe.

By the mid 1990s, Lee had grown up and become somewhat estranged from her mother. She became an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was tasked with hunting down the Longlegs killer. Ruth, now having fully adopted Kobble's views on Satanism, continue to carry on his work. The dolls that Kobble made had a small metal ball within the head, supposedly containing a portion of Satan's power. She would deliver the dolls to the patriarch of selected households, whereupon exposure to the evil contained inside would cause the father to have a psychotic break and murder his family.

Lee Harker eventually followed the forensic breadcrumbs of the case, which brought her back to the family homestead. While searching the house for her mother, Ruth emerged outside and murdered fellow F.B.I. agent Browning. Ruth evaded capture and then went to the home of Lee's boss, Agent William Carter to deliver another Satan doll. Lee was too late to save William and his wife, Anna, but she did succeed in stopping her mother, and was forced to shoot Ruth, killing her.

Notes & Trivia[]

The character of Ruth Harker was created by writer and director Oz Perkins.
Ruth Harker falls into the category of the "Evil Nun" trope, though it should be clear that she was never actually a nun, but wore the attire of one in order to garner trust when accessing people's homes and dropping off creepy gifts.
Ruth Harker skirts close to the domineering mother film trope, though the viewer sees very little of Lee's life with Ruth. Given the back story provided however, it is highly likely that Ruth maintained a very strict household for Lee while she was growing up. The domineering mother trope is most famously used by Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho in 1960 starring Anthony Perkins, father of Longlegs director Oz Perkins.
Nothing is known of Ruth's husband, who was also Lee's father. The concept of absentee fathers is a running them in Oz Perkins films, likely relating to his own unique relationship with his infamous father Anthony Perkins.
The surname Harker may have been taken from the character of Jonathan Harker from the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. Lee Harker's fellow FBI agent is Agent Browning, similar to Tod Browning, who directed the first Dracula feature film in 1931. Or it might just be a coincidence. You decide.
Actress Alicia Witt is also known for playing Final Girl Natalie Simon in the 1998 slasher Urban Legend as well as Paula on episodes of The Walking Dead.

Final Fate[]

Shot to death in an act of self defense by Lee Harker.

References[]