We've seen several teasers for Osgood Perkins' Longlegs at this stage (you'll find another below), and while we have caught a couple of chilling glimpses of Nicolas Cage as the titular serial killer, the character's full visage has been kept under wraps - with good reason.
"It's driving people towards a freak show at a circus tent," Perkins tells Entertainment Weekly. "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," adds 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, 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."
“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).
The movie is set to hit theaters on July 12. Will you be seeing this one opening weekend?