Nicolas Cage has said he based his satanic serial killer character in Longlegs on his mother, something he has described as “constructive”.

Directed by Osgood Perkins (the son of Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Psycho), the horror thriller follows FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) who is assigned to a number of unsolved killings across town connected to a mysterious figure known as Longlegs.

Cage plays the titular Longlegs, who is joined by other cast members Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby and Kiernan Shipka.

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In a recent interview with the New Yorker, the actor revealed that he drew inspiration for the character from the unlikely source of his own mother, Joy Vogelsang.

“Not that she was satanic,” he clarified. “But her vocalisations, the way she would move.”

He added that there were just a few vocal tics that he recalled from his childhood that were helpful for him when getting into the Longlegs headspace.

“She would talk, like, ‘Oooh, Nicky, you looked just like a little bird when you were born’,” he continued. “And that was just scary. I think my mom did as well as she could with the situation in which she was contending with, but it was still scary. So I thought, O.K., I want to make this character as a sort of homage to my mother.

Producers of the film were very careful not to release images of Cage’s look in the film ahead of its release – and that applied to his co-stars too. It has been reported that the first time Monroe laid eyes on him in full character, her heart rate leapt to an alarming 170bpm.

In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “At its heart, Monroe is superb as Harker, offering up a buttoned-down performance that never breaks. Hopefully, Longlegs doesn’t get her pigeonholed as a Scream Queen; she deserves more.”

“As for Cage, also a producer here, it’s just another worthy addition to his canon of crazies. Despite limited screentime, it might just be his most bonkers role yet. “Is it scary being a lady FBI agent?” asks one little girl of Harker. Well, when you’re confronted with Cage’s Longlegs, it most certainly is.”

For those who have already seen the film, read here about the ending and what it all meant.