Was the fictional serial killer from the just released (opened Friday July 12) super-hit horror film Longlegs behind the attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump? The occultist serial killer, played with Trump-like hilarious vigour by Nicolas Cage (his demented role ever) in the B.C.-filmed Longlegs, has evil Svengali-like power over people to kill each other on the 14th of any month when it is a person’s birthday (in the film it’s only young girls’ birthdays) but many people get murdered in the process.

By R. Paul Dhillon – Editor DESIBUZZCanada

Was the fictional serial killer from the just released (opened Friday July 12) super-hit horror film Longlegs behind the attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump? 

The occultist serial killer, played with Trump-like hilarious vigour by Nicolas Cage (his demented role ever) in the B.C.-filmed Longlegs, has evil Svengali-like power over people to kill each other on the 14th of any month when it is a person’s birthday (in the film it’s only young girls’ birthdays) but many people get murdered in the process.

And ironically, it’s an unhinged FBI agent, played with absolute torment by horror queen Maika Monroe, to help save one last victim of Longlegs. 

It just happens that Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946 and yes the attempt to kill was nearly a month too late but then the alleged killer wouldn’t have seen the movie until Friday and maybe he would have liked to try it on Sunday July 14 but Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania was unfortunately on Saturday, July 13. (And the attempt was made just ahead of the Republican convention on Monday where Trump was officially anointed the Presidential candidate and he unveiled his running mate JD Vance, who is married to an Indian woman named Usha.)

Longlegs storyline and attempted assassination adds to the creep factor of the movie and begs the question whether writer-director Osgood Perkins, interestingly the son of horror king Anthony Perkins who played the serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic murder-fest Psycho, pulled the 14 date specifically from someone like Trump’s birthday? I know it’s a stretch but would love to hear Perkins reasons for choosing 14th. 

Indie distributor Neon, which used unique marketing to push the film to nearly $23 million opening this weekend, has a huge hit and connection to Trump’s birth date and assassination attempt is only going to propel the film to what now seems like a surefire domestic $100 plus million box office. 

Was Trump, like the little black girl saved by Monroe’s damaged heroine, the last victim of Longlegs saved by the FBI and secret service? Well the jury is still out as conspiracy theorists have already pinned the near miss on Trump on the deep state that took out President John F. Kennedy, the Usual Suspects being CIA and FBI. Well this is the United States of America for you where guns rule and assassinations of presidents is a past time and the country is murder central. 

I watched Longlegs on Saturday, something long planned (actually bought tickets online on Friday) and the film is a rock solid horror classic with lots of mood, a cinematic aesthetic with use of different film-digital ratios by writer-director Perkins, to give it authenticity and solid central performances by Monroe and even the over the top play by Nicolas Cage in pitch perfect pitch! 

The film, which has been well reviewed by critics and now audiences alike, isn’t as scary as it’s being advertised but has that psychological horror that made Silence of the Lambs a classic. 

Now I measure psychological horror to my ultimate scare fest - the Stanley Kubrick directed The Shining - so Longlegs is not even close but gets the Cigar. 

And it does borrow one kill from The Shining in the form of a one chop-up axe scene similar to when Jack Nicholson’s character takes an axe to another Shiner, the Scatman Crothers character who comes to save the young boy and his mother in The Shining. 

This past weekend sure was eventful one with Longlegs debuting and Trump surviving a close death now only to surely get elected? That is if they let him make it to the November election or Joe Biden finally acknowledges his dementia and goes off to La-La Land!

R. Paul Dhillon is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, who has made over 40 productions. He has a StarWalk on the BC Entertainment’s Hall of Fame on Granville Street in downtown, Vancouver.