How Osgood Perkins’ Film Became This Summer’s Scariest Movie

Longlegs is this summer’s much-anticipated horror flick—a serial killer thriller reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Psycho, and Zodiac, but with an added layer of demonic madness.

Starring Nicolas Cage in an unrecognizable, maniacal performance as a predator targeting young girls, this film leaves a lasting impact long after the credits roll. It’s a genre film that disguises its insanity under a veneer of conventionality, exploring themes of motherhood, intuition, and dark worship without offering many comforting explanations.

Combining procedural elements with fairy-tale influences, Longlegs is quintessentially the work of Osgood Perkins, notable for his distinctive blend of menace and surrealism in previous films like The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, and Hansel & Gretel.

Osgood Perkins, the son of Psycho icon Anthony Perkins, has carved out a niche in horror with his unique voice and stories often revolving around women grappling with alienation and threats. His latest work continues this trend, focusing on Maika Monroe’s character, FBI special agent Lee Harker, who is on a mission to unravel a series of grisly murders spanning 30 years. Committed by a mysterious figure known as Longlegs, these crimes bizarrely involve men killing their families under apparent persuasion.

In a pre-release interview, Perkins discussed the themes of Longlegs, parental dynamics, maintaining the enigma of monsters, and Cage’s transformative role.

Everything Perkins creates starts with a kernel of truth, even in the case of Longlegs. He emphasized that this story stemmed from the broader theme of parents telling stories, or even lies, to their children, a concept derived from his own upbringing in a significantly public family where certain truths were obscured.

Perkins revealed that Cage, during initial conversations, connected with the project on a personal level. Cage felt the film resonated with his relationship with his mother, which aligned with Perkins’s own thematic focus. This mutual understanding laid the foundation for a collaborative and open creative process.

With regards to the marketing approach, Perkins noted that the intention was to keep Longlegs concealed initially, revealing the ‘monster’ only at crucial moments. This tactic creates suspense and allows the film to hold back key elements for maximum impact.

One of the notable aspects of Longlegs is its deliberate ambiguity about the antagonist’s backstory and motives. Perkins believes that leaving certain aspects unknown enhances the terror, drawing from mythological inspirations where deities symbolize the mysteries of the unknown.

To aid Cage in bringing Longlegs to life, Perkins provided detailed, lyrical passages about the character’s background. These were not explicit narratives but evocative thoughts and symbols, allowing Cage the latitude to interpret and embody the character’s essence fully.

The film’s dialogue, meticulously scripted and punctuated to suggest a specific rhythm, allowed Cage to explore the role deeply. Though based on fixed text, this detailed approach offered creative freedom within structured boundaries, culminating in a performance that both Perkins and Cage fine-tuned collaboratively.

Longlegs blends familiar elements of serial-killer thrillers with its own unique twists. Perkins aimed to invite audiences into a recognizable framework, only to subvert their expectations gradually. Inspired by classics like The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, and Zodiac, Perkins mimicked specific motifs and turned them into fresh, unexpected turns in the narrative.

These deliberate choices anchor the audience in a familiar yet unstable terrain, making it easier to surprise and unsettle them as the story unfolds.

The film’s mythic and fantastical qualities, reminiscent of Perkins’s Gretel & Hansel, serve to evoke collective unconscious themes. This approach helps create a space where conventional expectations can be disrupted, ensuring the audience remains engaged and off-balance throughout.

One intriguing detail, the film’s use of a T-Rex song lyric, reflects Perkins’s respect for Stephen King’s storytelling style, which often blends cultural references with narrative. This lyrical choice further roots the film in a blend of the known and the unknown, enriching its complex narrative texture.

With Longlegs, Osgood Perkins delivers a haunting, multi-layered horror film that is both thought-provoking and deeply unsettling. By adeptly blending familiar thriller tropes with his unique vision, he ensures the film stands out in a crowded genre.

Source: The Daily Beast