Is ‘Longlegs’ a True Story? New Horror Movie Envokes Serious Satanic Panic

After a busy 4th of July long weekend, Hollywood clearly knew people would be ready to spend some time inside and relaxing based on the current lineup gracing theaters. For parents and animation lovers , Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 have been blowing up the box office, meanwhile The Bikeriders and Fly Me to the Moon put a fun and fictionalized spin on American history . Halloween is still a few months away, but horror lovers are eating good this month with A Quiet Place: Day One , MaXXXine and Longlegs all keeping audiences on the edge of their seats.

The latter, which sees Nicolas Cage take on the eerie titular villain alongside co-stars like Blair Underwood and Alicia Witt, makes its highly anticipated public debut on Friday, July 12th. Those have already seen the chilling mystery have had plenty to say about it, and some viewers are raising questions about the origins of the gruesome murderer written by director Oz Perkins. So, is Longlegs a true story? Read on to find out!

What Are Critics Saying About Oz Perkins’ ‘Longlegs’?

In the upcoming movie, FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) works tirelessly to solve murders using her official training and somewhat psychic abilities. During her search for answers, she uncovers links to the occult along with an uncomfortably close connection to Longlegs himself. As GamesRadar+ notes, critics have already been calling Perkins’ work “disturbing” and a “cinematic freak-fest forged in Hell by Satan.” When chatting with the outlet, the director expressed his surprise at hearing this, as it wasn’t his intent to disturb audiences with his work. In fact, Perkins made a deliberate decision to keep much of the physical violence that takes place on-screen obscured.

“The world is ugly enough as it is, you know? Brutality against people is not that cool. So you put it off screen, because it’s imperative to what’s going on in the story but you try to couch it a little bit,” he explained. “I’m not trying to upset anybody, and I know that people have been having very strong reactions to this movie but honestly? I just tried to make something that I thought was kind of pretty,” Perkins said of his first major-budget feature film.

Is ‘Longlegs’ Based on a True Story?

Already having been dubbed one of the scariest movies of the last decade, Longlegs is setting the standard high for 2024 horror releases. Because it takes place in the ’90s when the Satanic Panic was running rampant worldwide, people are curious whether the chilling tale has any truth to it. If you’re not familiar, the movement began in America in the ’80s, when upwards of 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse caused widespread fear. Reports of physical and sexual abuse in occult or Satanic situations came flooding in, with some allegations linking back to an alleged cult of wealthy elites which abducts children for troubling schemes like prostitution and human sacrifice.

Of course, some of the Satanic Panic narrative is still alive and well today, though Perkins said he didn’t seek out inspiration from the murderers of that time when writing Longlegs . “I can’t look at real things. I don’t like them. They don’t sit well with me. I don’t want to know,” the creative told GamesRadar+. “All this stuff couldn’t be more fictionalized and totally made up. That’s part of the fun of it [for] me. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s how FBI people probably talk. Oh, that’s how they would probably come into a room. I don’t know, maybe it’s something like this.’ It’s part of what keeps it light for me, honestly. I’m not interested in what these sickos do. To me, this is a different kind of poem, you know, and it’s totally just make-believe.”

Is Longlegs a true story? The short answer is no, but it is comparable to horror classics like The Silence of the Lambs , and it’s sure to leave just as much of a mark on the culture. Think you’re already a master on the creepiest movie genre? Answer our challenging trivia questions here to find out how much you really know!