Surprise horror hit ‘Longlegs’ raises the question, is Oregon safe to live in?

It may not go on to win any Oscars, but the horror movie “Longlegs” opened to a surprisingly big box office take this weekend. Or, as a Variety headline puts it, “’Longlegs’ bedevils with phenomenal $22.6 million debut.”

The movie, which takes place in 1990s Oregon, wasn’t expected to rake in that much money, let alone leave the higher-profile “Fly Me to the Moon” -- which stars A-listers Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum -- in the dust, with that movie making only $10 million in its opening weekend.

According to Variety, “Fly Me to the Moon” cost a whopping $100 million to make, while “Longlegs” was, as the article says, “produced for under $10 million.”

Apparently, a clever marketing campaign, a creepy trailer, and the prospect of Nicolas Cage as a costar helped lure audiences into what some are calling a “The Silence of the Lambs” for the current era.

The movie is written and directed by Osgood Perkins (whose father, Anthony Perkins, played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s chiller classic, “Psycho”) and stars horror favorite Maika Monroe, who honed her scary-movie chops in such fare as “It Follows” and the Oregon-filmed thriller, “Significant Other.”

Monroe plays an FBI agent who’s trying to catch a serial killer who, as The New York Times says, “somehow persuades fathers to slaughter their families and then commit suicide. Coded notes, signed ‘Longlegs,’ are left at the crime scenes and law enforcement is stymied.”

Cage, who is nothing if not attention-getting both for the roles he takes, and the way he chooses to perform them, plays the killer.

Longlegs, as the Times review says, is “an apparent victim of botched plastic surgery whom Cage plays as a rhyming-and-singing lunatic beneath a frizzed gray wig. In one amusing scene, as Longlegs enters a hardware store sporting what appear to be slippers and a housedress, he resembles nothing so much as a bizarre amalgam of Buffalo Bill and Tootsie.”

“Longlegs” was filmed in Canada, but the Oregon references have apparently already amused some local moviegoers.

For example, a moment in the film about the media response to the crimes prompted one user on X to post: “desperately need a screenshot of the headline from longlegs that says, ‘Is Oregon safe to live in? Experts say no.’”

“Longlegs” isn’t the first time Cage has been in an Oregon-set movie. Also released by Neon, the 2021 film “Pig” starred Cage as a former star chef in Portland who has turned his back on the culinary world and retreated to the Oregon woods, where he lives with his truffle-hunting pig. When the pig is abducted, Cage’s character is determined to retrieve the animal, and returns to Portland to search for his pig.

“Pig” was written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, who has gone on to earn positive reviews for directing “A Quiet Place: Day One.”

“Longlegs” is playing at area theaters.

— Kristi Turnquist covers features and entertainment. Reach her at 503-221-8227, kturnquist@oregonian.com or @Kristiturnquist

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