Longlegs viewers struggling to sleep due to ‘horrific’ Nicolas Cage performance

Cinemagoers are being left with sleepless nights over Nicolas Cage’s “haunting” and “horrific” role in new film Longlegs.

The psychological horror was released on Friday (12 July) after much hype, which included being branded “the best serial killer film since The Silence of the Lambs”.

It seems the marketing for the film has paid off in a big way, with distributor Neon registering what will be its most successful opening weekend ever at the box office.

The film, which was budgeted at $3m (£2.3m), is set to make up to $23m (£17.7m) in the US. Neon’s previous films include I, Tonya, Triangle of Sadness and the Oscar-winning Parasite, which is its most successful overall.

Directed by Osgood Perkins, Longlegs, which is set in the 1990s, follows FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) as she investigates a series of murders attributed to a Marc Bolan-obsessed killer known as Longlegs.

Cage plays the creepy killer, and his performance is leaving many viewers feeling somewhat disturbed.

The actor has been praised for his work, which has been called an “unhinged masterclass” and has left many with sleepless nights. “I woke up at 2am, thought of Nicolas Cage in Longlegs and got so scared I had to sleep with the light on,” one person wrote, with another adding: “Nicolas Cage as Longlegs will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Another viewer expressed surprise at Cage’s role, writing on X/Twitter: “I never thought I would be scared of Nicolas Cage,” while Cage/Rage, a podcast dedicated to the actor, branded the performance one of his best, writing: “The man was built for horror.”

Others said that, while they felt the film did not live up to the hype, Cage’s performance remained a highlight: “Saw Longlegs today. It was a good movie. It just didn’t live up to the advertisements. Nicolas Cage was still very much Nicolas Cage, which is always fun”

In The Independent’s four-star review of the film, critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote: The actor’s unpredictability has always best served the descent into madness, and less so characters who have comfortably made themselves at home there. And his performance here is at its best when he actually drops the ‘weird’.”

Longlegs is in cinemas now.