Longlegs: Nic Cage's New Horror Movie Has A Key Connection To Hitchcock's Psycho

The forthcoming horror-thriller "Longlegs" certainly seems as if it'll be a must-see film for scary movie buffs. Starring Nicolas Cage and horror veteran Maika Monroe ("It Follows," "Watcher"), the film features Cage as FBI agent Lee Harker, who has just started the job when he's drawn into a terrifying investigation involving a serial killer on the loose and a situation involving supernatural happenings. So how does it connect to Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic "Psycho?"

The writer and director of "Longlegs" is Osgood Perkins, and he just so happens to be the oldest son of Anthony Perkins, the legendary face behind murderer and original mama's boy Norman Bates in "Psycho." The younger Perkins is, actually, quite the "nepo baby." His mother was model and actress Berry Berenson (who tragically died in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade center as a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11), and her sister, Marisa Berenson, is also quite famous (and is Osgood's aunt). Osgood's great-grandmother on Berenson's side was noted fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, one of the most influential creative forces of the 20th century (and through her, Osgood is distantly related to famed Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli).

Perkins has been directing horror flicks since 2013 — but you might also recognize him from a few movies, including one of the best female empowerment films of all time.

Since 2013, Osgood Perkins has directed a handful of well-received smaller horror films, including "Cold Comes the Night" that year, "The Blackcoat's Daughter" in 2015, and "I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House" in 2016, among others. Audiences might have also spotted him in a recent horror hit as well as a beloved Reese Witherspoon classic.

In 2022, Perkins appeared very briefly in Oscar winner Jordan Peele's third feature film "Nope," which stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as a brother and sister struggling to hold onto their late father's horse ranch who end up investigating some truly upsetting extraterrestrial incidents. Perkins shows up as Fynn Bachman, who's directing a commercial that requires one of the main duo's trained horses. With that said, though, a lot of people may know Perkins better for his scene-stealing supporting turn in 2001's "Legally Blonde."

Alongside Witherspoon as the bubbly lawyer-to-be Elle Woods, Perkins appears as David Kidney, a fellow first-year student at Harvard Law School. When David introduces himself, he shares the fact that "for the past 18 months, [he was] deworming orphans in Somalia" — but eventually, his character actually becomes vital to Elle's law school journey. Not only is he seen helping her study, but Elle returns the favor when a girl rejects David, pretending that they spent a night together and he ghosted just to make that other girl way more interested. Finally, David assists Elle as she prepares to represent accused murderess Brooke Taylor-Windham (Ali Larter) as a humble law student. Perkins doesn't have the biggest role, but "Legally Blonde" fans certainly remember him fondly.