Just think for a moment of how many iconic pop culture quotes have come from the lips of Nicolas Cage. “I lost my hand! I lost my bride!” from Moonstruck would be nothing without his enraged delivery. “I’m gonna steal the Declaration of Independence” from National Treasure wouldn’t be anywhere near as magnificent without Cage’s deep well of dedication. Personally, I’m always tittering over his execution of the line “I’d like to apologize to you gentlemen for referring to you all as homosexuals” from David Lynch’s Wild at Heart.
Even weaker movies previously used to ridicule this man now resonate as microcosms of Cage’s relentless artistic conviction. Most would sleepwalk through anchoring The Wicker Man. Not Cage. He put so much energy into lines like “How’d it get burned?” or “Not the bees!”—no wonder those deliveries will live on eternal.
Cage’s passion for his work is one of the many qualities transforming this man into a cultural icon. Also informing his esteemed reputation as a performer? Cage’s multiple forays into horror cinema. The Adaptation leading man has become something tantamount to a horror fixture over the years. Not all of his horror star vehicles have become masterpieces. However, they often reflect why it’s impossible not to love such a bravura artist.
Cage’s connections to horror cinema were solidified early in his career. This was thanks to one of his earliest star vehicles, Vampire’s Kiss. Here, Cage played literary agent Peter Loew, who swoons for a lady who may or may not be a vampire. Throughout the feature, Cage portrays Loew losing his sanity as the man believes he’s becoming an Orlok-esque creature of the night.
The story quickly turns grisly, and some of Cage’s most famous moments of gung-ho acting are a result of this feature. The man’s full-throttle dedication to this chaos followed in the footsteps of Isabelle Adjani’s iconic Possession lead performance in utilizing maximalist acting flourishes to communicate a human being’s scary evolution. Sometimes, what is most frightening is what you can’t see. Other times, what’s most terrifying is what’s screaming in your face.
After Vampire’s Kiss, Cage’s primary career focus turned to romantic comedies, dramas, and (in the late ’90s) big-budget Jerry Bruckheimer action blockbusters. This left little time for expanding his horror movie connections. It didn’t help that the self-aware meta-era of late ’90s horror cinema (kicked off by Scream) would’ve been ill-suited to Cage’s talents.
This man fully commits to whatever material is in front of him. Whether it’s Dream Scenario or G-Force, Cage shows up to work. He is not an actor who delivers wisecracks about how “this is just like Friday the 13th IV!” He immerses viewers in the art they’re experiencing rather than reminding them of other famous pop culture properties.
However, in 2006, Cage finally returned to horror movies. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a triumphant comeback signaling a welcome evolution of American horror. Instead, this Oscar-winning performer inhabited the ill-advised 2006 remake The Wicker Man. The feature is a pale imitation of the original Christopher Lee masterpiece. However, Cage’s lively line deliveries offer the woe-begotten project’s greatest pleasures.
Starting in the early 2010s, Cage began inhabiting the world of horror more frequently, a pairing that initially came about thanks to his infamous financial woes. Such problems reportedly necessitated his taking on movies that went straight to premium video-on-demand services. Whether it’s cheapie direct-to-VHS features in the 1980s or Redbox filler in the 2010s, horror often dominates those realms. It’s a cheap genre producers and finances deem instantly marketable.
Cage’s first 2010s horror film, Drive Angry 3D, at least went to theaters, though it became one of the actor’s biggest box office bombs of all time. After that, Cage anchored a smattering of low-budget horror movies, including Pay the Ghost.
Primarily, Cage’s DTV efforts focused on political thrillers and action movies. These genres taking precedent was likely because producers wanted to cash in on his biggest 1990s hits. After a few years in the wilderness, a horror movie brought Cage back to genuine respectability. With Mandy, Cage entered a brand-new, exciting era as a performer.
Under the direction of Panos Cosmatos, Mandy was a revenge horror film in which Red Miller (Cage) goes on a quest to avenge his murdered wife. Cosmatos crafted a visually heightened world for Mandy, in a land full of neon-red lighting and striking silhouettes.
Such flourishes finally gave Cage an appropriately stylized 2010s movie on his resume. Here was a motion picture as bombastic as Moonstruck’s iconic leading man. It was the perfect blend of lead actor and worthy material. Even better, Mandy uncovered a kind of horror Cage lent such tangible haunting humanity to.
Grief is unthinkably harrowing to endure. It’s as frightening to contend with as any member of the Universal Monsters canon. Cage captures the anguish of coping with grief in an unforgettable Mandy sequence where a pantsless Miller, his face all bloodied, screams in agony in his bathroom.
Cage portrays this mixture of rage, pain, confusion, and so many other emotions in a raw fashion. It is a brutally messy depiction of grappling with loss, the reality that someone you love is never coming back. The cramped room quietly accentuates how struggling with grief leaves one feeling trapped.
Even the bright orange wallpaper and yellow toilet seat cover heighten the unnerving quality of this sequence, reinforcing the idea that your pain does not infiltrate the entire world. All the color has gone out of Miller’s life. Yet bright hues still populate this bathroom. The world is still spinning. These reminders that not everyone or everything is sharing in his harrowing grief are also terrifying.
Such precise visual elements perfectly accompany Cage’s pronounced but emotionally visceral portrayal of life-changing sorrow. Such a vivid performance crystallizes how overwhelmingly frightening it is to navigate grief. Everything about this scene demonstrates one truth: Cage’s acting style and horror cinema finally became perfectly in sync with Mandy.
After Mandy, Cage returned to horror cinema’s doorstep more frequently. A year following Mandy’s general theatrical release, Cage anchored the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space. In early 2021, his Five Nights at Freddy’s pastiche Willy’s Wonderland hit PVOD services.
His horror movie resurgence even included the actor playing one of his dream roles in Renfield. This Chris McKay directorial effort allowed Cage to don Dracula‘s cape and teeth. Though the film’s reception was underwhelming, Cage lent a welcome chaotic and committed energy to the role. His Dracula deserved better. Still, at least Cage can hold his head high with a solid interpretation of a horror icon.
Cage’s newest horror movie foray is the summer 2024 release Longlegs. Here, the Leaving Las Vegas leading man plays the production’s titular serial killer. Writer/director Osgood Perkins immediately establishes a unique approach to utilizing Cage in the film’s prologue.
Warning: Mild Longlegs spoilers below.
This opening sequence is framed in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, partially cutting off the top half of Cage’s Longlegs. We see his chin and hints of his mouth, but not his entire body. At the very end, he bends down to get to the eye level of the little girl he’s talking to… then the camera immediately cuts to the opening credits.
Cage has been a leading man for nearly all of his 40-year career as an actor, horror or otherwise. That’s especially endured in his career’s PVOD movie era. Here, producers tried to squeeze the most out of their Cage footage. Longlegs, meanwhile, has a less-is-more approach to Cage’s physical presence.
He’s initially framed in such a way as to conceal him from the viewer. When he does show up on-screen, Cage is as unrecognizable as he’s ever been in a movie. His skin is eerily pale, puffy cheeks transform the shape of his face, wild white hair dominates his scalp.
It’s a striking physical appearance that immediately visually separates Longlegs from any other figure in Cage’s extensive filmography. As for Cage’s performance, he’s incredible, terrifying, and so mesmerizingly Nicolas Cage. Past Cage horror films were either about masterful wall-to-wall maximalism (like Mandy) or generic jump scares (like The Wicker Man). Here, Cage inhabits a subdued, bleak landscape.
Everyone from paint store cashiers to the daughters of FBI agents is reserved. This dedication to such a sparse world makes Cage’s outsized flourishes feel extra creepy. He’s like an alien speaking a language the other muted characters can’t possibly comprehend.
Cage’s most enormous swings as a performer are made even creepier thanks to the default visual style Perkins and cinematographer Andrés Arochi bring to Longlegs. This movie is filtered through wide shots that go on for some time. The camera lingers on characters, often from a distance. The approach delivers truly skin-crawling material when combined with Cage’s most unhinged flourishes. A sequence of Longlegs screaming in his car while driving is unbearably tense thanks to appearing in an unbroken fashion.
A later scene of the same character singing an ominous tune about how he’ll come back “not once, not twice” to a mother and daughter is similarly petrifying because it’s all caught from this one unwavering perspective. There are no cuts or other angles to offer viewers a release from the frightening madness of Longlegs. We are trapped with the man’s unhinged behavior. Cage’s dedication to that is even easier to appreciate, thanks to this camerawork. Much like with Mandy, the visuals of Longlegs deftly complement Cage and vice versa. Two great artistic qualities are working in tandem.
Nicolas Cage’s extremely specific acting used to be a go-to source of mockery on the internet. Those tired memes missed all the endless virtues of an artist so thoroughly committed to his craft. His bravura qualities have especially served Cage well in horror movies, allowing the actor to flourish in the genre.
He’s provided the jolts of energy in mainstream titles like Renfield. In a maximalist arthouse classic like Mandy, Cage can encapsulate a movie’s manic fever-dream energy. When it comes to Longlegs, meanwhile, Cage provides a disturbing aberration to a subdued world.
Horror cinema has always been a welcome home for go-for-broke performances. Whether it’s Lon Chaney, Vincent Price, or even Toni Collette’s most maximalist Hereditary moments (“I AM YOUR MOTHER!”), horror functions as a place where actors feel comfortable leaving it all on the floor. In giving such heightened turns, these artists tap into deeply real elements.
Nicolas Cage’s exploits across the horror genre, including Longlegs, beautifully exemplify this incredible phenomenon. Considering the many iconic movie quotes Cage has delivered in his career doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of his acting talents, especially when he’s getting his horror movie freak on.
For more, read an in-depth interview between Longlegs writer-director Oz Perkins and Nicolas Cage in the latest issue of FANGORIA. Longlegs is now in theaters.
