While it got off to an incredibly slow start, the 2024 summer movie season proved to fare better than last year’s string of high-profile bombs with a rare hit in the mix. We saw films like “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool and Wolverine” make well over a billion worldwide, along with other huge hits such as “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters” and the expected bombs such as “Borderlands” and “The Crow.” But amidst all other releases, one film managed to stand out above the rest, and though it did not quite reach anywhere near the financial heights of the other films mentioned, its achievements are nothing short of astounding.
That film in question is “Longlegs,” the horror feature from independent studio NEON, starring “It Follows” star Maika Monroe, Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood and Nicolas Cage.
The film was shot on a budget of under $10 million, and within just over a month of its release, it grossed over $100 million worldwide, becoming NEON’s second highest-grossing film to date behind the Oscar winning “Parasite” and the highest-grossing independent film of the year. There are many reasons that can contribute to “Longlegs” performing as incredibly well as it did, between the amazing and utterly terrifying film itself, its knockout cast and most importantly, its top-notch marketing.
“Longlegs” was announced November of 2022, with Cage to star in the film and Osgood Perkins (son of Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins) attached to write and direct following “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” and “Gretel and Hansel.” Production went by relatively quietly, with the rest of the cast being announced early in 2023, after production wrapped that winter. The production itself was fairly quick and simple, and in most cases would not be anything special. But then, in the vein of other incredibly cryptic marketing campaigns such as “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield,” Perkins and NEON decided to make the proper build-up to the film’s release something vague, confusing and utterly wild, and as soon as the new year rolled in…
All hell broke loose.
On Jan. 5, 2024, NEON’s official YouTube channel released a video titled “Every year there is another,” featuring a seemingly average family photo with a disturbing 911 call in the background and ending with a mysterious cipher at the end. Two more teasers, “Remember to say your prayers” and “We’ve been waiting for her,” released on Jan. 12 and 19, respectively, which continued to show bizarre footage and ominous dialogue from the film itself and ending with two more ciphers, with all three eventually being translated to “Longlegs,” “Hail Satan” and “July,” respectively.
Except there is one detail that has been left out until now. These little teasers were not marketed as being for “Longlegs.” They were seemingly randomly posted by the NEON YouTube account for some upcoming project of theirs, and there was no way to tell what the ciphers translated to until much later. Then, on Feb. 2, it was confirmed that the teasers were indeed for “Longlegs” with an official teaser entitled “You’ve got the teeth of the hydra upon you.” This brief teaser was just as cryptic as the previous three, showing disturbing and out of context shots from the film including grisly murders, references to the Bible and religion, very faint shots of Cage as the titular character and a black veil with a barely visible pair of eyes staring directly at the audience.
Needless to say, these short teasers got people talking about the film, and curiosity surrounding “Longlegs” only grew larger with time. This was further proven by the absolutely stellar early reactions from critics and audiences in May, two months before release. The early reactions were soon followed by two more brief teasers titled “Sweet: Part Two” and “Dirty: Part Two,” which combined with “You’ve got the teeth of the hydra upon you,” was revealed to be a reference to the song “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” by T-Rex, which is featured in the film itself and whose lyrics open the film. These two promotions continued the tradition of being cryptic and utterly disturbing, while slowly but surely peeling back just enough layers to get the attention of audiences who had not already been sold on the film, either by its teasers or its equally haunting posters.
Finally, on May 20, NEON released a full-length trailer for “Longlegs.” While the trailer is certainly more traditional, clueing audiences into the actual story of the film and preparing them for an off-the-walls, modern “The Silence of the Lambs” satanic serial killer plot, it still kept plenty of details concealed and did not budge at revealing any major plot details or too much of Cage’s appearance. This trailer was followed by an accolades trailer entitled “The End” on July 1 and one last teaser a few days before release, hyping up how Monroe’s heart rate escalated to 170 BPM upon seeing Cage in full makeup and character for the first time on set. Alongside these trailers was an alternate reality game (ARG) site known as “The Birthday Murders” (complete with gruesome and eerily realistic pictures of crime scenes, so reader’s discretion is heavily advised) and a billboard that prompted viewers to dial a number and receive a message from the titular murderer himself.
The release of “Longlegs” on July 12 finally brought an end to the utterly insane, viral marketing of the film, with the only major things coming after being a couple of short videos breaking down some of the secrets in the film and expanding upon Cage’s character. The marketing for the film will easily go down as some of the best and most intriguing in recent memory, and for good reason with how it sent people in droves to discover what the film itself was about. “Longlegs” and its marketing should very well be a textbook example of how to properly market films going forward, and the lengths its marketing went to ultimately paid off in the best way possible.
