Can Nicolas Cage’s new film Longlegs be the scariest movie of 2024?

Jason Struss
·2 min read
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A woman looks at a board full of notes in Longlegs.
Neon

It’s only February, but 2024 already feels like it needs a good horror movie to shake things up. Last year, audiences were spoiled with the January delights of M3GAN and Infinity Pool and the promise of yet another installment in the Scream franchise. So far this year, all we’ve gotten is a tepid Mean Girls musical remake, another Jason Statham action movie, and Argylle, which is only scary in how bad it is. (Seriously, don’t see it.)

Leave it to film distributor Neon and beloved weirdo actor Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario) to save the day. Over the past few weeks, the former has released a slow trickle of new info about the 2024 movie, starting with a series of intriguing posters that hint at the movie’s American Gothic approach to horror.

A woman kneels against a car in Longlegs.
A woman kneels against a car in Longlegs.
Dead bodies are covered with a sheet in Longlegs.
Dead bodies are covered with a sheet in Longlegs.
A woman cuts herself with a knife in Longlegs.
A woman cuts herself with a knife in Longlegs.
A person walks in snow in Longlegs.
A person walks in snow in Longlegs.

Creepy, huh? But what is the movie about, exactly? And what role does Cage, one of the most respected actors around, play in this movie? Today, Neon released the first trailer for the movie, and after watching it, none of those questions are really answered. That’s OK, though, since the movie looks incredibly spooky and should be this year’s Skinamarink, which gave off similar “What the hell?” vibes this time last year.

You've got the teeth of the hydra upon you.

The movie’s official tagline states “You’ve got the teeth of the hydra upon you,” which doesn’t bode well for the characters in the movie. (Or, for that matter, anyone having a pleasant night’s sleep after watching the movie). The movie’s plot is still a mystery, but Cage gave some insight into Longlegs when he was interviewed by New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan last year: “I play […] a possessed Geppetto. He makes these dolls, and these dolls infiltrate families and get the families to do terrible things.” Interesting. You can find more info about the movie in Buchanan’s Tweet about it.

Longlegs stars Cage, Maika Monroe (no stranger to the horror genre with such films as It Follows and 2022’s Watcher), Alicia Witt, and Blair Underwood. The director is Oz Perkins, who made the excellent The Blackcoat’s Daughter in 2015 and is the son of Anthony Perkins, aka Norman Bates from Psycho. The film was shot in Vancouver in early 2023.

Longlegs will be released in theaters on July 12, 2024.

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