Nicolas Cage to Return For Another ‘Longlegs’

Nicolas Cage is going to freak us all out once again in a new Longlegs.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nicolas Cage will be working with Osgood Perkins, the writer and director of Longlegs, on a new movie. However, this isn’t a direct sequel to Longlegs; it’s described as taking place within the same fictional world.

The film will also come from Paramount Pictures rather than the first film’s distributor, Neon.

The 2024 thriller Longlegs proved to be a significant success, especially considering its low budget. While it earned $128 million globally – not a massive amount – that’s a substantial return on an investment of under $10 million, making it one of the more profitable and suspenseful films of recent years.

Nicolas Cage delivers another unforgettable performance as the main character, playing a truly frightening villain in the tradition of classic movie monsters. The film also features Maika Monroe as an FBI agent investigating a supernatural serial killer – Longlegs, for those who haven’t seen it.

Neil Perkins is a remarkably prolific horror director. He’s released three films—The Monkey and Keeper, along with the upcoming The Young People (scheduled for 2026)—in the last two years, and also produced Backrooms. This impressive output comes from the son of the legendary actor and horror icon, Anthony Perkins.

Despite hinting at retirement recently, Nicolas Cage continues to work steadily. He’s scheduled to appear as Spider-Man Noir in the upcoming Prime Video series Spider-Noir, which will begin streaming in May.

10 Horror Movies That Saved Bad Franchises

1. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Released well before films like Scream, Jason Lives cleverly poked fun at the predictable tropes of slasher movies. It came after a string of Friday the 13th sequels that were increasingly focused on over-the-top violence. Jason Lives stands out because the characters actually acknowledge the silly conventions of horror films – pointing out how characters always make bad decisions. While many Friday the 13th movies are unintentionally funny due to their poor quality, Jason Lives, written by Tom McLoughlin, is genuinely witty and breathed new life into the tired zombie villain.

2. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

As a huge horror fan, I always knew Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger were connected, even before they finally clashed in Freddy vs. Jason in 2003. Both franchises really defined ’80s horror, but honestly, they both started to lose their way after a while. The Nightmare on Elm Street series had a few cool moments later on, but it wasn’t until New Nightmare in 1994 that it felt genuinely scary again – and it made sense, since that was the first one Wes Craven directed since the original!

Like Jason Lives, New Nightmare was really clever. It played with the idea of the franchise itself, being about the making of a new Freddy movie, and even featured the actors who played characters in the original films – Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp, playing themselves! It’s always said that movies are like dreams, so a movie studio felt like the perfect place for Freddy to come back and haunt everyone trying to bring him back for another hit. Sadly, every attempt since then to just make a straightforward Nightmare on Elm Street slasher hasn’t really worked.

3. Bride of Chucky (1998)

The first two sequels to Child’s Play didn’t just bring Chucky the killer doll back to life, they continued the story of his feud with his original owner, Andy Barclay. Starting with the fourth movie, the series’ title changed to Bride of Chucky and beyond, signaling a new direction that breathed fresh life into the franchise. Instead of repeating the same story of a child battling an evil doll, the films became more bizarre and dreamlike, with a noticeable increase in humor and even some dark romantic themes.

In Bride of Chucky, Chucky finds a partner in both crime and love – Jennifer Tilly, who played the role perfectly – and they embark on a road trip to regain their human forms. The movie features over-the-top violence, surprisingly suggestive puppet scenes, and even killer baby dolls! It’s no surprise Bride of Chucky became a cult hit and reintroduced Chucky to a new generation of fans, who have continued to support the sequels, a reboot, and even a TV series.

4. Saw VI (2009)

Though James Wan and Leigh Whannell created the Saw series, many fans agree the best installment came later. Saw VI features a truly deserving victim – a cold-hearted insurance executive – and cleverly connects Jigsaw’s twisted games to the flaws in our healthcare system. Think of it like A Christmas Carol, but with buzzsaws and torture devices instead of ghosts. The film also boasts what is arguably the best trap in the entire franchise: the executive, Peter Outerbridge, is forced to decide which of his employees lives or dies while they’re strapped to a spinning merry-go-round rigged with a shotgun. As the ride whirls, the employees desperately try to convince him to spare them, even turning on each other in their fight for survival. It’s a uniquely American brand of horror!

5. Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

It’s tough for horror movie sequels to become scarier than the original, often relying on more gore and violence. This was particularly challenging for the Paranormal Activity series. The first film’s power came from its realistic, shaky camcorder footage of a couple sleeping, with only minor disturbances hinting at a haunting.

Once the sequels introduced more obvious supernatural events, like in Paranormal Activity 2, the illusion that the footage could be real surveillance was lost. The third film tried something different, going back in time and using the look of old VHS tapes to add a nostalgic feel. Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman used this grainy style effectively, but later Paranormal Activity movies returned to the present and struggled to come up with fresh ideas. Eventually, the films became unbelievable – and audiences started to lose interest.

6. Riddick (2013)

The movie Riddick cleverly flips the script from the first film, Pitch Black, where Riddick used his night vision to escape monsters. Now, he is the monster lurking in the darkness. This sequel is better than both of the previous films, including the overly ambitious The Chronicles of Riddick, and doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre. It feels like a series of connected short stories.

The first part of the movie is a tense survival story, with Riddick stranded on a harsh planet. Then, it becomes a cat-and-mouse game as a group of mercenaries hunt him, and he begins to eliminate them one by one. The final section feels a bit repetitive of Pitch Black, but the movie is still a thrilling ride. Vin Diesel is particularly strong as a lone hero, and his connection with a spunky alien dog, who becomes his companion, is a highlight. If you’re looking for a good Vin Diesel movie outside of the Fast & Furious franchise, this is the one to watch.

7. Alien: Covenant (2017)

As a big fan of the Alien films, I think it has a surprisingly strong run of sequels – I’ll even defend Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection a little. But honestly, while Prometheus looked amazing and had some cool themes, I always get tripped up by the plot holes and moments that just don’t make sense. (Seriously, why were those people running directly towards that rolling vehicle?) I much prefer Alien: Covenant. It’s not perfect, but Michael Fassbender gives an absolutely incredible performance playing two different androids. It actually feels more like a spiritual sequel to Blade Runner than just another Alien movie, and that makes it way more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of the classic xenomorphs attacking astronauts, but it’s got so much more going on.

8. Halloween (2018)

David Gordon Green’s Halloween aimed to revitalize a series that had become increasingly complicated and outlandish. After the original, groundbreaking Halloween film, the sequels added layers of convoluted mythology – Druids, cults, and surprise family connections – making things progressively sillier. Green’s approach was to ignore everything except the first film, effectively hitting the reset button. This initially worked, bringing a legitimately scary feel back to the franchise. However, his sequels, Halloween Kills and especially Halloween Ends, didn’t live up to the promise of his first film, and the series began to feel repetitive. By the end, Michael Myers lost his menacing edge, leading many to believe it was time to retire the character – at least until the next attempt to reboot the series.

9. Prey (2022)

While many 1980s monster movies failed to launch successful franchises, Predator did relatively well. Predator 2 is a thrilling, action-packed sequel, and Predators feels like a clever, suspenseful story in the vein of The Twilight Zone, but with aliens. However, the Alien vs. Predator films didn’t quite live up to their potential, and The Predator seemed to be significantly altered after its initial vision. The franchise regained momentum with Prey, a prequel set in colonial America that features the Predator hunting Comanche warriors. Prey was so well-received that it led to a theatrical sequel from the same director, as well as an animated Predator film called Predator: Killer of Killers available on Hulu.

10. Scream (2022)

The original Scream cleverly satirized decades of tired slasher movie tropes. Scream 2 continued this by poking fun at sequel conventions. However, the series began to lose its edge with Scream 3, as the satire of trilogies felt too similar to the sequel jokes it had already made. Scream 4 attempted to lampoon remakes, but since it wasn’t a remake itself, it awkwardly included commentary on early YouTube culture.

The long break before Scream (2022) actually benefited the franchise. It allowed the filmmakers to target a new trend: “legacyquels” – sequels that revisit older franchises with new casts. This fresh material made the new Scream so successful that a sequel, Scream VI, followed quickly after just one year.

2026-04-15 16:57