2024 is already keeping horror fans’ diaries packed with exciting new horror movies, and the title on everyone’s lips is Longlegs. Over the past few weeks, we have been drip-fed information about the Osgood Perkins film through a series of cryptic posters, eerie teaser trailers, and haunting social media posts that give serious Creepypasta vibes. And genre lovers have lapped it up, testing their code-cracking chops to decipher symbols shared within the teaser that pointed to the title of the Neon film, which many first believed could be Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo.
If the unique marketing tactic for the Oz Perkins horror hasn’t sucked you in, the cast just might, with It Follows star Maika Monroe and Hollywood icon Nicolas Cage both signed up. Best known for her work in the iconic David Robert Mitchell film, as well as Watcher, The Guest, and Hot Summer Nights, Monroe will hit our screens for a second time this year in They Follow, the eagerly-anticipated sequel to It Follows.
Nicolas Cage is an actor who simply needs no introduction, with more than 100 feature film roles, a trophy cabinet packed full of Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs, and a cult following. First entering the world of horror in 1989 with Vampire’s Kiss, he has since appeared in the likes of The Wicker Man, Ghost Rider, Colour Out Of Space, Mandy, Pig, and most recently, Dracula horror comedy Renfield.
Longlegs has a release date of July 12 in theatres, but much of the film is shrouded in mystery outside of that. However, we’ve got our detective caps on to get to the bottom of all the information about what could be 2024’s scariest horror film.
Background and production of Longlegs
Longlegs has been described as “in the being of classic Hollywood psychological thrillers” (per Deadline), which means that Oz Perkins could have been talking about the film back in 2020 during an interview with Polygon detailing future projects.
He said: “As nicely as horror movies have come out of the reputation gutter and become more well-thought-of by the general public, I think the thriller should be next up. The Hitchcockian thriller had a moment in the ’90s, a brief resurgence, but it’s spent most of the past two decades in shittier stature. Where’s our Vertigo? That’s what I’m working on next. I’ve started writing now, and Vertigo is the big one, with trace amounts of Frankenstein and The Social Network in there too.” A horror in the style of Alfred Hitchcock mashed up with a monster movie and the bleak rise of social media? Sounds wild, we’re in.
The project was officially announced in 2022 with Oz Perkins attached as director, who many will know is the son of Norman Bates actor Anthony Perkins, so the work of Hitchcock is in his blood. Perkins has previously written and directed the likes of The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, and Gretel & Hansel. His first acting role came in 1983 in Psycho 2, where he played a young version of his father’s character.
Production for Longlegs began in 2023, as principal photography ran from January 16 to February 23 in Vancouver, British Columbia, with Andrés Arochi serving as cinematographer. Nicolas Cage not only stars in the film but is also set to produce Longlegs under his company Saturn Films, alongside Dan Kagan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Dave Caplan, and Chris Ferguson.
Casting and Characters
Part of Longlegs’ mystery is who exactly the horror icons within will play, but there have been some hunts. It is believed Cage will play the film’s serial killer, with him describing his character as “a possessed Geppetto, who’s making these dolls…” while in conversation with Halloween creator John Carpenter for Document Journal.
We catch a brief glimpse of Cage in character in the most recent teaser trailer, which seems to lend itself to this comment, with Cage posing with his arms over his head and obscuring his face similar to a puppet, and looking truly terrifying with filthy, bright clothes and matching hair. We also catch sight of dolls being made by a mystery character, in a dark and dingy room with candles, of course.
Maika Monroe will star as Lee Harker, an FBI agent assigned to the serial killer’s case who uncovers a personal connection to the murders. The most recent teaser introduces us to her character as she stares at a board filled with clippings and symbols, pointing to a possible occult or supernatural narrative thread. I Am The Pretty Thing… star Erin Boyes is also set to play an FBI agent in the film, and Mayans M.C. actor Dakota Daulby will appear as Agent Horatio Fisk.
Urban Legend and Dune star Alicia Witt is set to appear in an unannounced role with Blair Underwood, Lisa Chandler, Erin Boyes, Rryla McIntosh, Dakota Daulby, and Charles Jarman.
Plot Synopsis
The official synopsis for Longlegs reads: “FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes an unexpected turn, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.”
It’s unknown what period the film is set in. Still, the vehicles, costuming, and general set design within the teaser trailer and posters suggest the narrative could span from the ’70s through the ’90s if all of the crimes we have seen in the marketing campaign are, presumably related.
Four cryptic posters shared on Neon’s social media pages give us three dates that could play into the narrative, the first of which showed a snow-covered house and a young girl with the tagline: “The birthday girl. 8 years old. Police report: January 13, 1974. So lucky to celebrate.”
The second showed several dead bodies under a bloodied sheet, taking us almost 20 years into the future with the words: “The Horn family. Former family of 4. Mother got it worst. Father said she needed it most. No signs of forced entry. November 14, 1992.” The third haunting poster showed a nun, presumably dead, with her head smashed into the hood of a car, with the line: “Door to door there she goes. Where she stops nobody knows. Except for him. He knows.”
Door to door there she goes.
Where she stops nobody knows.
Except for him.
He knows. pic.twitter.com/UMGlTRltGo— NEON (@neonrated) January 30, 2024
The final image, and arguably the most haunting, showed a woman cutting into her stomach while looking oddly elated, with the final date: “Mrs Camera. Mother. Father. Priest. Axe. 1975. It was a good day. For a good girl. To be at school.” Goosebumps.
There are also hints of the supernatural and the occult in Longlegs, with Maika Monroe’s character Lee Harker seen staring at a board filled with strange symbols and reading a book called The Nine Circles of Hell, presumably referencing Dante Alighieri’s Inferno which describes Dante’s journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil.
In the same teaser, we also see Harker look at a piece of paper with the sigil for Lucifer and a triangle surrounded by a circle and three sixes, as well as a wooden door on the floor covered with a cross. All pretty spooky stuff which, coupled with Cage’s comments about his character, point to a twist in the straightforward crime procedural.
Future Projects for Nicolas Cage
Cage is sure to be one of the biggest draws for people when it comes to Longlegs, but it isn’t the only time the legendary actor will hit our screens in 2024. Directed by Benjamin Brewer, Arcadian will see Cage take on the role of Paul alongside Stranger Things’ Jaedan Martell (Joseph), Lost in Space star Maxwell Jenkins (Thomas), and Saltburn’s Sadie Soverall (Charlotte), which is set “In the near future on a decimated Earth.”
The synopsis continues: “Paul and his twin sons find tranquillity by day but terror by night when ferocious creatures awaken and consume all living souls in their path. When Paul is nearly killed, the boys come up with a desperate plan for survival, using everything their father taught them to keep him alive.”
The actor also has two projects with unannounced release windows, The Surfer and Lords of War. Lorcan Finnegan film The Surfer, which has been filmed in Australia, will see Cage reportedly star as a man who “returns to his beachside hometown and is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local group of surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood,” according to the film’s synopsis. Nicolas Cage will join IT icon Bill Skarsgard in Lords Of War, a sequel to the 2005 film by Andrew Niccol.
Cage will reprise his role as Yuri Orlov and the latter will star in the role of Anton. The film’s official plot reads: “Yuri Orlov, the world’s most famous arms dealer, discovers that he has a son, Anton, who is trying to outdo his father by raising an army of mercenaries to fight in America’s Middle Eastern conflicts, triggering a father-son rivalry.”
Longlegs Is Coming
Every time one question about Longlegs is answered, five more seem to pop up, and it is that mystery and the horror community banding together to piece together parts of information to crack the code that has created such hype around Neon’s latest offering. A criticism of many genre films over the last ten years is that trailers contain too much information. Many fans feel like they know exactly what to expect from a film long before it hits theater screens.
And of course another common gripe is the resistance to remakes. But Longlegs throws both of those qualms out the window by slowly leaking information about the original horror story. Just as audiences are at the height of begging for it, but before they’re bored of being left in the dark.
With its creepy and cryptic posters and trailer giving us glimpses of the all-star cast, we’re starting to get a clearer picture as to who Cage, Monroe, Underwood, Witt and co will star as in Longlegs. We’re also getting a better idea about what the horrific crimes of the serial killer could entail, with the marketing materials pointing firmly to some sort of satanic or occult leanings spanning around 20 years of grisly and possibly ghostly deaths.
Will Longlegs make our list of best horror films of the year? With five months to go, who knows! But we’re looking forward to scratching our heads and cracking the clues as Longlegs fever continues to take hold.
Longlegs is in theaters July 12.
