Skip to main content
Longlegs film image; woman staring at wall covered in papers

Methods to Madness with Longlegs' Osgood Perkins

VIFF Talks

This event has passed

Even before its release, Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs had become the stuff of legend, anointed by tastemakers as “nightmare fuel” of the highest order. And by the time the public had their fill, Longlegs was not only the most successful release in NEON’s history, but also the most successful independent film of 2024.

In this lively VIFF Talk, Perkins shares his methods for depicting madness and delves into the dark secrets of Longlegs’ success. Expect some welcome candour as he discusses borrowing liberally from his influences to create familiar narrative constructs, while also retaining enough freedom to explore the themes that fascinate him as storyteller. This deep dive will illustrate his creative process of amassing narrative connections, establishing thematic underpinnings, and assembling a group of collaborators who can make it all a nightmarish reality.

 

Presented by

Talks Supported by

Community Broadcast Partner

Guest
Date

Sept 28

Time

6:00 pm

Venue

The Rio

19+
90 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Osgood Perkins

Osgood Perkins headshot

Osgood Perkins most recently wrote and directed Longlegs, starring Nicolas Cage with Range and Oddfellows producing. Released wide by Neon, Longlegs grossed over $100 million, becoming Neon’s highest-grossing film to-date. He is also currently in post on The Monkey, which he adapted and directed based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, with Peter Safran and Atomic Monster producing and Theo James starring, as well as on Keeper, his original idea that he directed with Tatiana Maslany starring. Both projects sold to Neon in competitive bidding wars, making them the second and third films Neon bought from Osgood this past year.

Osgood made his directorial debut with The Blackcoat’s Daughter. The film stars Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka and premiered at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival to rave reviews before going on to release through A24. He also directed Gretel & Hansel, which was released theatrically in 2020 by MGM / Orion and stars Sophia Lillis. Additionally, he wrote and directed I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House, which premiered at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, and is currently streaming as an original on Netflix.

In 2020, Osgood directed his first episode of TV as part of the CBS All Access reboot of The Twilight Zone. His episode was unlike most as he was able to write and direct his own anthological episode, an idea and process that was supported by producer Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw team.

Kier-La Janisse headshot

Kier-La Janisse, Moderator

Kier-La Janisse is a film writer, producer and acquisitions executive for Severin Films. She is the author of House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (2012/2022) and A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (2007). She has also been an editor on numerous books including Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive (2021) and Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s (2015). She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021), and produced the acclaimed blu-ray box sets All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror (2021) and The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle (2023). She is currently in development on several book and film projects. For more see kierlajanisse.com

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Fugitive Kind
The Fugitive Kind film image; woman sits behind a brooding man with a guitar

The Fugitive Kind

Dir. Sidney Lumet
121 min

Sidney Lumet's movie brings together two of the greatest actors of the period, Brando and Anna Magnani, reason enough to check out this underrated poetical drama about a handsome musician who washes up in a small southern town.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light film image; painted reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows that combine to look like a flower

Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light

Dir. Paul Wagner
118 min

Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Fairy Creek

Dir. Jen Muranetz
86 min

Considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the Fairy Creek blockade led to more than 1200 arrests. What Jen Muranetz's film gives us is the story from the front line from the activists' point of view (often, from the treetops).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Super Happy Forever

Dir. Kohei Igarashi
94 min

This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Inedia

Dir. Liz Cairns
107 min

Liz Cairns makes a mesmerizing feature debut that sees a young woman suffering from mysterious food allergies join a remote island community practicing alternative healing methods. She soon realizes that not everything is as it seems.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Drop Dead City
Drop Dead City film image; someone holding a newspaper up in front of a brick wall

Drop Dead City

Dir. Michael Rohatyn & Peter Yost
108 min

New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre