Why Longlegs Won't Reveal Nicolas Cage's Look Before Film's Release

Filmmaker Osgood Perkins and Cage explain keeping the killer a secret.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Genre fans love to see Nicolas Cage pop up in a movie, to the point that some efforts will put his face and name front and center in a film's marketing. Longlegs, on the other hand, is taking an entirely different marketing approach and has avoided offering any glimpses at the appearance of Cage's ruthless killer in the upcoming experience. Writer/director Osgood Perkins and Cage himself have opened up about why they're attempting to keep a lid on the look of the killer, with Perkins likening the reveal to being that of a "freak show," as Cage ominously warns his on-screen look will "change your reality." Fans can see Longlegs in theaters on July 12th.

"It's driving people towards a freak show at a circus tent," Perkins confirmed with Entertainment Weekly. "We've got the thing behind the curtain, and when there's enough people gathered 'round, we're going to pull the curtain."

Cage continued, "It's the equivalent of putting a warning label on a jar of nitroglycerin ... The monster is a highly, highly dangerous substance. The way it's moved, unveiled, deployed has to be treated very carefully. Forget about the movie theater blowing up; the whole city could blow up, nay the country, maybe even the world. He is going to change your reality. Your doors of perception are going to open, and your life is not going to be the same."

The movie is described, "FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer (Nicolas Cage). As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family."  

In addition to being a compelling horror movie, Cage also expressed how he found an unlikely personal connection to the role, as his mother grappled with a variety of mental struggles, including schizophrenia and depression.

"I was coming at it from, what exactly was it that drove my mother insane?" the actor admitted. "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's at the mercy of these voices that are talking to him and getting him to do these things."

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Longlegs comes to theaters on July 12th.

Are you looking forward to the movie? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror! 

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