Longlegs is one of the latest movies to create quite a bit of ~buzz~. The Nicolas Cage horror film has been labelled by critics as both the “creepiest” and “scariest” movie of the year so far, and you can watch it in Australia from today, 18 July, 2024.
If you’re confused about why you keep seeing Longlegs pop up on your feed, we’ve put together all the info we know about this horrifying lil’ film.
It’s not actually about daddy long-legs spiders, or anything to do with arachnids, but rather about a serial killer called Longlegs played by notable weirdo Nic Cage. What more would you expect from someone who created his own pyramid tomb in New Orleans??
The movie follows FBI agent Lee Harker, played by Maika Monroe as she tries to track down Longlegs. She soon stumbles upon some occult evidence and finds she has a chilling personal link to the killer. Oooh. Spooky vibes for sure!
I love a good cat-and-mouse serial killer movie. (Image: Neon)
The Atlantic described it as The Silence of the Lambs meets Hereditary, saying the film weaves together both a serial killer story and “satanic panic” and “inexplicable psychic power”.
It’s not just a critical success – it’s breaking records at the box office for its distributor Neon as well. It opened in the United States on 12 July, 2024 and in its first weekend, earned $22.6 million USD – over double what Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson’s Fly Me To The Moon earned, at just $9.4 million USD. It debuted with a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, which has now dropped slightly to a perfectly respectable 85%.
Below, here’s everything you need to know about the best horror film of 2024.
This image has all the good hallmarks of a horror! (Image: Neon)
When is Longlegs being released in Australia?
The horror film hits cinemas in Australia on Thursday 18 July, 2024. If you want to be among the first to see it, go grab some tix now!
Who’s in the cast of Longlegs?
Maika Monroe plays Agent Lee Harker and Nicolas Cage plays Longlegs. It also stars Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby, Lauren Acala and Kiernan Shipka.
Who wrote and directed the film?
Longlegs was written and directed by Osgood Perkins. Fun fact, he’s actually the son of Anthony Perkins, who played horror icon Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho. I guess horror runs in his blood? It’s not his first rodeo either, he directed indie horror The Blackcoat’s Daughter and dark fantasy Gretel & Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale.
What’s the plot of Longlegs?
Longlegs has Silence of the Lambs in its DNA – it’s about an FBI Agent tracking down a serial killer. Perkins says he “ripped it off”, but in an interesting way.
“It’s sort of like doing a little bit of a magic trick, right? With the left hand, you’re saying it’s Silence of the Lambs. And then you let the right hand take a right-hand turn, and it’s not the Silence of the Lambs at all,” the director told NPR.
“The movie is about this seemingly unsolvable case of the Longlegs killer, who has a weird habit of not being at the scene of the crime.”
The cipher looks wild. (Image: Neon)
What have the cast said about the film?
Nic Cage took inspiration for his serial killer character from his mother. Yep, he drew on experiences from his father from Dracula, and for Longlegs, his mum. There’s probably a lot to unpack there in his therapy sessions, but his performance is apparently… killer. (Sorry! I couldn’t help myself.)
Physically, his Longlegs character has a “strange connection” to the colour white, with prosthetics and a white complexion transforming his face in the film. He told EW this was inspired by the time he accidentally had a run-in with his mother in the bathroom wearing a creepy white face cream.
“My mum put on Noxzema cold cream. I was two years old, and I opened the bathroom door [to see] what she was doing,” he said.
“For no reason, she turned her face really fast and stared at me after [putting on] the cold cream. The whiteness of the cold cream just really spooked me.”
Emotionally, he used his mother’s schizophrenia as a way to shape his character.
“It was a deeply personal kind of performance for me because I grew up trying to cope with what she was going through. She would talk in terms that were kind of poetry. I didn’t know how else to describe it. I tried to put that in the Longlegs character because he’s really a tragic entity,” he said.
“He’s at the mercy of these voices that are talking to him and getting him to do these things.”
Is there a Longlegs trailer?
Yes, and there’s actually some additional promos that give you a look into just how chilling this freaky movie is going to be. You can watch them all here:
What are reviewers saying?
Flickering Myth called Longlegs “the scariest film of the decade”, while Awards Radar labelled it as “the best serial killer horror film since The Silence of the Lambs”.
But the best description I’ve seen online so far comes from Bloody Disgusting, who has me itching to see this film IMMEDIATELY.
“Longlegs gets under your skin and stays there, immersing you so thoroughly in the repulsive, discomforting nature of evil through terrifying imagery and a tactile atmosphere that it’s unshakable,” the reviewer wrote.
“Its nerve-shredding, insidious style of horror serves as a perfect rebuttal to society’s obsession with true crime; evil just exists, and it taints everything it touches.”
Welp. I’m currently regretting my decision to purchase a ticket and somehow simultaneously even more pumped… not sure if I’ll survive this one or not. Good luck to me!
Feature Image: Neon & Getty
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