Nicolas Cage Compared ‘Longlegs’ to ‘Pinocchio’
The trailer for Longlegs, Nicolas Cage’s new horror movie, makes it looks like a serial killer film. Interestingly, Cage compared the film to a character from Pinocchio. However, the film was directed by the son of a horror movie legend.
Nicolas Cage said ‘Longlegs’ is about ‘a possessed Geppetto’
Anthony Perkins was a talented actor who appeared in numerous films and television shows, but he will always be most remembered for playing Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Bates was one of the first realistic serial killers to be portrayed onscreen in an American movie. Perkins would reprise the role in three sequels. His son, Oz Perkins, is now a horror director known for the offbeat films Gretel & Hansel and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. He also directed Cage’s upcoming film, Longlegs.
During a 2022 interview with Document, Cage had a lot to say about the up-and-coming director. “He’s pretty strong in the horror genre at the moment,” he said. “But he’s actually Anthony’s son. He’s done some really good movies. Gretel & Hansel was terrific. [Longlegs is] about a character who’s hearing voices. It’s kind of like a possessed Geppetto, who’s making these dolls.”
Nicolas Cage is a big fan of Anthony Perkins
Cage elaborated on Longlegs. “So, I’m gonna be doing that with Oz, who’s also an actor, and I’m excited about that,” he said. “I told him that I thought Anthony Perkins was in the same club, in some ways, as James Dean and Montgomery Clift — but that his dad was spookier. There was this strange tension under him that made him a little more edgy than the other two. Especially, you know, when you see him in movies like Psycho.”
Cage also said that Dean was a huge influence on him as an actor. Dean and Clift are often considered two of the best actors of all time, but Perkins is rarely lauded that highly. His performance in Psycho, however, is generally regarded as one of the best horror performances.
The trailer for ‘Longlegs’ has some religious references
That’s quite the comparison! Geppetto was the character from Carlo Collodi’s children’s book The Adventures of Pinocchio who created the puppet Pinocchio before he came to life. Today, the character is most familiar to audiences through Walt Disney’s 1940 film Pinocchio. In the Disney version, Geppetto is a kind father figure to the title character. Apparently, Cage will be playing a much darker figure in Longlegs.
What exactly does Cage mean when he talks about a “possessed Geppetto”? Does he mean the killer in Longlegs acts “like a man possessed,” or is he referring to something supernatural? The trailer for the film doesn’t feature the paranormal, but it does include quotes from a religious text (the Book of Revelation), so it could go either way. Specifically, the trailer quotes a passage from the Book of Revelation about the devil himself.
A lot of modern movie marketing is intentionally mysterious. Trailers give fans a tantalizing glimpse of something, hoping they’ll shell out some money to know what’s going on in the movie. So far, Cage and company are doing a great job with that! Both the trailer and Cage’s comments make Longlegs look cryptic.
