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Posted in: Movies, NEON | Tagged: film, Longlegs, maika monroe, NEON, nicolas cage, osgood perkins
Longlegs Director on Creating the Killer's Distinctive Appearance
Filmmaker Osgood Perkins reveals the goal behind Nicolas Cage's appearance in Longlegs and how Botched influenced his image.
Article Summary
- NEON's horror hit Longlegs impresses with a $22 million opening and praise for lead actors Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage.
- Director Osgood Perkins discusses the creation of Cage's character, influenced by the TV show Botched.
- Perkins aimed to keep Cage's appearance hidden, using audience imagination to create fear and intrigue.
- The film's careful shots avoid full depiction of Cage's look until the suspenseful reveal. What did you think?
For its impressive opening weekend, NEON's recent horror flick, Longlegs, became the studio's biggest opener, garnering over $22 million at the box office. Additionally, the film has received mostly positive reception so far (likely assisting its solid box office opening), with critics and audiences praising the performance of its FBI agent lead, Maika Monroe, and the unnerving performance of veteran actor Nicolas Cage as the film's titular killer.
Now, with Neon's Longlegs generally leaving audiences unsettled, here's what the writer and director of Longlegs had to say about creating Cage's buzz-worthy appearance and the intention behind creating this brand-new genre icon.
Longlegs Director Pulled Inspiration from Botched for the titular Character
While chatting with IndieWire about the creation of Cage's appearance in Longlegs, director Osgood Perkins tells the site, "We don't need to see him; that's the oldest trick in the book, the audience's imagination will provide better than you can. The idea ultimately was to say, 'Hey, this guy is obviously something you don't want to see.' The idea was that he'd been busted by shitty plastic surgery. And that's about the mask, it's the masked killer, it's a genre imperative, whether it's Michael Myers or Jason or 'Black Phone.'" Perkins then goes on to explain, "If you ever watched episodes of Botched, there's no end to striving for perfection in your whole look, and that's what we were trying to do."
For most of the film, the careful shots tend to avoid depicting Cage's appearance in full, which typically adds a layer of intrigue, as mentioned by Perkins. But for those of you who have seen the film, do you think the eventual reveal of Longlegs actually lives up to the hype? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The popular new horror film Longlegs is currently in theaters everywhere.
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