Longlegs’ Director Proclaims Nicolas Cage Is ‘Unrecognizalbe’ as Serial Killer

He’ll be waiting! After all the shrouding of secrets hidden within Longlegs’ eerie and brilliant marketing campaign, horror fans now have an idea of what Nicolas Cage’s serial killer looks like, thanks to the film’s official trailer. But is Nic Cage truly “unrecognizable” in the footage from two weeks ago, as writer and director Oz Perkins suggests? The filmmaker absolutely believes so. Perkins addressed Cage’s total transformation in a brand-new interview with SFX magazine, which goes on sale June 12. Perkins said (per GamesRadar+):

“We derived the voice of the character, the look of the character, the attitude.
What references is
Nic going to use in terms of people in his life or other actors?
He’s very upfront that he pulls from other people a lot.
So which other person is he going to do?”

Longlegs

Release Date

July 12, 2024

Runtime

1hr 41min

Studio

Automatik Entertainment, C2 Motion Picture Group, Neon

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Perkins continued:

Oz Perkins Compares Longlegs to Other Twisted Terrors

Back in January, horror fans lit up the internet reacting to the very first 37-second Longlegs teaser trailer. Not only was there no sign of Nicolas Cage’s creepy character, but the title itself was withheld — or so it seemed. Clever cinephiles and horror diehards who watched very closely caught the clues which revealed it to be the first-look footage from Longlegs.

It was an igneous marketing campaign by NEON, just not of the same revolutionary nature as say the way The Blair Witch Project (1999) utilized the burgeoning internet. Now, director Oz Perkins is leaving the secrecy behind and not only opening up about Cage’s cunning killer, but he compares Longlegs to that of the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs as well as Zodiac and Se7en. Perkins said during the same sit-down:

“So, it’s Silence Of The Lambs, but
it’s also kind of Zodiac, it’s sort of Seven.
There’s kind of a pattern, a cipher, the sort of things you recognize.
I’ll say the word Manson early on in the movie. Do you know what I mean?
You make it fair.
But then you do your truth on the other side.”

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Fans who haven’t seen the “You’ve got the teeth of the hydra upon you” (below) and the Longlegs “Sweet” teasers can check them out now. And to watch the official, full-length trailer, which features Nic Cage’s amazing transformation, visit NEON’s YouTube page to see it and all seven videos pertaining to Oz Perkins’ upcoming horror flick.