Longlegs director reveals one thing he avoided as it “scares” him

Although Longlegs has been described as the creepiest horror movie of 2024, Osgood Perkins has revealed to Dexerto that there’s one thing he avoided doing as it “scares” him. 

By all accounts, Longlegs is a fictional film. But from its occult coding system and realistic FBI murder case files to Nicolas Cage’s distinctive serial killer, you’d be forgiven for assuming that certain elements were inspired by true crime. 

Dexerto took the opportunity to ask Perkins if any real-life cases helped in the creation of his hyped-up horror movie – but it turns out this was one thing he chose to avoid.

“The last thing I want to be thinking about is this kind of sh*t in real life, do you know what I mean? It scares me,” he told us. 

Rather than thinking about true crime cases, the filmmaker wanted to use Longlegs as an invitation into another world.

“It was more about, like, ‘Oh, remember this other movie called Silence of the Lambs that made us all feel this thing? Why not use that as an invitation into this other world? Come through the door of this world that we can create.’

“But I didn’t do any research. The fun of my job is you just make everything up, and you kind of guess, and you’re like, ‘I think it’s maybe that.’”

Dexerto also asked Maika Monroe about the inspirations behind her Longlegs character, FBI agent Lee Harker, who is assigned the unsolved case of Cage’s elusive killer. 

“Well, there was a lot in the script. Oz does such a great job of giving very detailed descriptions and putting thoughts written into the script, so that was incredibly helpful,” she said.  

“And Silence of the Lambs, of course, was an influence. Also, perhaps randomly, Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

Monroe went on to say: “It was fun pulling from a lot of different things and creating this character that I think is somewhat unique to this genre, and probably one of the favorite roles that I’ve done.”

Longlegs arrives in cinemas on July 12. Check out our Longlegs review for more.

While you wait, why not also take a look at the other new movies coming out this month, as well as the films arriving on streaming? And if it’s horror you’re interested in, here’s everything you need to know about Terrifier 3, Smile 2, and 28 Years Later.