The True Story Behind Longlegs' Ending Is Horrifying

People who have seen Nicolas Cage's new horror movie "Longlegs" know how heavily the eerie dolls made by the actor's titular serial killer factor into the plot — particularly its ending, where Lee (Maika Monroe) finds out that one of Longlegs' satanic dolls has been influencing her home all along. However, audiences might not know that the doll aspect of the intense movie's finale was actually inspired by a very real, unsolved murder mystery.

Thankfully, there's no direct equivalent to the story of "Longlegs" in real life, but the movie's doll sequences draw inspiration from the JonBenét Ramsey case, in which a six-year-old girl child beauty queen was found dead in her home's basement in late 1996 under mysterious circumstances that involved a strange ransom letter, a complex and ongoing investigation, and a massive amount of national attention. As writer-director Osgood Perkins told Inverse, one doll-themed detail from the Ramsey case caught his eye and ended up influencing "Longlegs."

"The murder took place approaching Christmas, and one present that the parents had gotten for JonBenét was a life-size replica doll of herself, wearing one of her pageant dresses," he explains. "It was in a cardboard box in the basement, 15 feet from where she was killed, and there was something so insane about that, I'd cataloged it away."

JonBenét Ramsay's parents reported her disappearance from their home on December 26, 1996. Later that day, she was found strangled in the house's basement. The case's many mysterious and sordid details almost immediately caught the media's eye, and the surviving members of the family became subjects of widespread attention. Early police mistakes made properly investigating the case difficult, and almost every person with a connection to JonBenét and the house — including the victim's parents — has been suspected of committing the murder at one point or another. Despite the fact that the spotlight has been on the case for so long, no one has ever been charged for JonBenét's murder.

Time will tell whether "Longlegs" has what it takes to make it to the pantheon of best Nicolas Cage movies, but it's definitely one of the creepiest. In the Inverse interview, Osgood Perkins cites numerous other influences for the film, from killer thrillers like "Psycho," "Silence of the Lambs," and "Se7en" to the history of sympathetic magic. However, the movie's stealthy connection to this very real, very tragic murder case might just be its most chilling inspiration.