There's a slew of upcoming horror movies coming down the pipeline, and if you've been watching any of them, then you've probably at least heard of Longlegs. It's been everywhere. A common thread of thought from fans has been comparing the new Neon movie to Silence of the Lambs. Now, the film's editors, Greg Ng and Graham Fortin, collaborators of director Osgood Perkins, told me the real inspiration behind the Nicolas Cage movie.
In fact, the film's inspiration comes from movies you might not expect.
Longlegs hit the 2024 movie schedule on July 12, and has been the talk of the town in the time since. The flick follows an FBI Special Agent who is tasked with hunting down a serial killer who has been involved in the murder-suicides of myriad families. The horror film starring Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe has received critical acclaim and out-performed at the box office in its first days – I'd argue thanks to the incredible marketing campaign around it.
And as the flick continues to have long legs (pun so very much intended) on the big screen, I had the chance to sit down with the editors and ask what their inspirations were. Ng agreed that while Silence of the Lambs is the film everyone has been comparing it to, there are a lot of older films that Osgood Perkins actually recommended and had them watch to get the vibe of the film down so that the scares "stand on their own:"
I mean there's obviously the comparisons to Silence of the Lambs, Seven...those were sort of major references, but Oz, also, he's not necessarily a fan of contemporary horror. He loves old movies, and oftentimes, we just talk about movies. Part of the joy of working with Oz is that he has such love and knowledge of old movies, so coming into the edit suite was going to film school. I watched all these movies that I would never have watched if I wouldn't have been sitting there with him. We talk about The Long Goodbye, like, some Robert Altman movies that sit, and are very patient with the performances, and letting the footage speak for itself. Sometimes, when editing something, you're like, 'Okay, well, this is a scary movie, so we got to have the music, we got to have the sound design.' And then you start building it up, and you realize that it's over-decorated. So part of that process is then, like, 'Okay, we'll strip it down to its essentials. It's scary enough to stand on its own.' If it's really working, you don't need to embellish it more than what it is.
He's right that many people have compared Longlegs to the Academy Award-winning film Silence of the Lambs, which starred Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. The movies have similarities in tone and in similar authority-criminal relationships. Seven made sense too, but I was surprised to hear The Long Goodbye and other flicks referenced.
The Long Goodbye is on a long list of Robert Altman movies that were massive hits back in the '70s, and if you've seen Longlegs, you could definitely see how the way the story is delivered in the film can be seen as similar.
Fortin also commented that it was just "fun" to nerd out on older films, saying that sometimes, the movies they would watch to inspire editing didn't even have anything to do with Longlegs:
Another film that we talked about, or was mentioned, was Don't Look Now. And we also talked about [David] Cronenberg films, and sometimes the films have nothing to do with Longlegs, but again, like Greg was saying, it's just fun to nerd out on films.
It's undoubtedly one of those films that will sit with you for a while, and you'll rewatch it to see what you missed the second time around – something that you can easily do with most of the best horror movies out there. But what makes Longlegs one of the best films of the year is its editing and its outstanding dedication to suspense.
Both Ng and Fortin are working on two other films coming out with Osgood Perkins – the long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King, The Monkey and a new film called Keeper, so there's no denying that we're all going to be on the edge of our seats once again coming up. For now, maybe I'll dive back into these classic films that helped Longlegs grow so tall as well.
