We're now less than two weeks away from the release of a movie that has been hailed as the most terrifying serial killer thriller since Silence of the Lambs, and Neon has debuted one final trailer for Osgood Perkins' Longlegs.
This latest teaser pulls back on the horrific imagery (slightly), but still manages to be highly unsettling, and also features what might be our best look yet at Nicolas Cage as the titular killer right at the end.
Aside from a few quick glimpses, Longlegs himself has mostly been kept out of the marketing, which Perkins believes will make his full reveal all the more effective for audiences when they're sitting down to watch the movie in theaters.
"It's driving people towards a freak show at a circus tent," the filmmaker told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview when asked why Cage's character has largely been kept under wraps. "We've got the thing behind the curtain, and when there's enough people gathered 'round, we're going to pull the curtain."
"It's the equivalent of putting a warning label on a jar of nitroglycerin," added Cage. "The monster is a highly, highly dangerous substance. The way it's moved, unveiled, deployed has to be treated very carefully. Forget about the movie theater blowing up; the whole city could blow up, nay the country, maybe even the world. He is going to change your reality. Your doors of perception are going to open, and your life is not going to be the same."
You may think Cage is exaggerating a little here, but the reviews and reactions to Longlegs have hailed it as the scariest movie of the decade.
Perkins goes on to admit that he did consider revealing Cage's "monster" prior to the film's release.
"Editing a picture is a nearly psychedelic experience," he says. "It really is because it's so infinite. The permutations and combinations you can get from putting this there and that there, you're in a Rubik's Cube of possibilities. I think we found the sweet spot. This guy lives just outside the consciousness of our protagonist. He's there, but he's totally not there, but he's totally there."
Check out the new trailer below along with a grotesque look at one of the killer's victims on the cover of Fangoria, and let us know if you plan on seeing Longlegs on the big screen when it releases on July 12.
“FBI Agent Lee Harker (Monroe) is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer (Cage). As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.”
Nicolas Cage is also on board as a producer along with his production company Saturn Films (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Pig), Dan Kagan (Significant Other), Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Insidious), Dave Caplan (The End We Start From) and Chris Ferguson (Child’s Play).
Longlegs is rated R for “Bloody violence, disturbing images and some language," and also stars Alicia Witt (The Walking Dead) and Blair Underwood (American Crime Story).