If the mere prospect of Nicolas Cage playing a deranged serial killer doesn’t already have you clutching your pearls, the immersive marketing campaign for the upcoming horror thriller ‘Longlegs‘ seems tailor-made to get under your skin. From eerie billboards to a disturbingly detailed website, viewers are being afforded unnerving glimpses into the world of Cage’s ‘Satan-worshipping psycho’ well before the film hits theaters in July.
The latest piece of the viral promo effort is a new billboard spotted in Los Angeles that features only a phone number and Cage’s shadowy killer lurking in the background. As instructed by the tagline “Call the Man Downstairs,” those who dare dial are greeted by the raspy voice of Cage’s unhinged murderer on the other end of the line.
After prompting for the caller’s name and menacingly asking if they are “Rachel,” the unidentified killer lets out a series of unsettling heavy breaths and manic mutterings before ominously stating “I’ll be…waiting” and abruptly hanging up. The deeply creepy cold call gives viewers a taste of the unhinged menace Cage looks to bring to the role.
Call the Man Downstairs.
458.666.4355 pic.twitter.com/S1v3Z2zEC4— ↃL⊥\Ↄ—\ᘰ (@LonglegsFilm) June 17, 2024
For those seeking even more disturbing insights into ‘Longlegs,’ a website dubbed ‘The Birthday Murders’ has also been launched – one that appears to chronicle in lurid detail the dozens of grisly killings carried out by Cage’s character. Described as “one of the most prolific mass murderers ever to have graced the Pacific Northwest,” the site’s “Victims” section lists a total of 38 people across 11 families brutally slain by the “Satan-worshipping psycho.”
“His victims were good people: honest fathers, decent mothers, innocent little children…These families did not deserve their awful fate,” reads the chilling biographical preamble. Each murder is then chronicled with haunting prose like “The Applewhite Family: Throats slit while they slept, slaughtered like livestock in their beds.”
While undoubtedly controversial for taking such an unnerving deep-dive into the film’s fictionalized violence, the innovative campaign has certainly succeeded in ratcheting up interest and dread for ‘Longlegs.’ The Osgood Perkins-directed thriller follows an FBI agent played by Maika Monroe who discovers shocking occult links while investigating the unsolved string of serial murders.
With an eclectic ensemble cast including Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood and Nicolas Cage clearly going full madman, ‘Longlegs’ is shaping up to be one of summer’s most buzzed-about – and disquieting – horror films when it creeps into theaters on July 12th. Just be sure to let it go to voicemail if that number calls back.
