“I don’t think about other horror films when I’m writing. Silence of the Lambs, yeah, that was the key to getting into it. But once you’re into it, you have to throw all that stuff away, otherwise you’re going to do (something) generic,” he said Digital spy.

Related: Maika Monroe Had a “Visceral Reaction” to Nicolas Cage’s Long legs transformation

“For me it was Gus Van Sant movies. It was My own private Idaho and the soft touch of things, the tenderness, the strange kind of rootless, free-floating sadness that such pictures have.

“It’s way more interesting to me than, like, it jumps out of the f**king thing and grabs you by the neck. That stuff is easy, but casting a spell like, Elephant does or Last days was much more powerful for me.”

It’s easy to assume that Maika Monroe, who plays FBI agent Lee Harker in Long legswould draw inspiration from Jodie Foster’s performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs also.

But for Monroe the inspiration came more from Lisbeth Salander in The girl with the dragon tattoo.

Related: Long legs is one of the best films of the year

“I think there are a lot of similarities in the way they go through life; they are a bit of an outsider, feel uncomfortable in normal situations and don’t have conversations,” she explains.

“Yet there is a light that comes out of them when they are working on these things. That is where they are most comfortable and where they feel at ease.”

At the moment of writing, Long legs still sits at a spotless 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. While Perkins gets most of the credit as writer/director, he also wants to stress that this wasn’t a one-man band.

“The great thing about making films is that you’re not alone; you’re the opposite of alone. The idea of ​​a director making a film is quite old-fashioned, I think, and a bit of nonsense because everyone puts their own soul into it,” he noted.

“There’s a satisfying moment in every movie where you realize, ‘Oh, everyone involved wants this to be good.’ Everyone wants to do their job better than the person next to them or as good as the person next to them.

“I just try to keep it light and let people do their thing… I always say that, you just try to make something good that you like and want to stand behind.

“You’re going to have to do blocks of interviews that are seven hours long and tell you how you did it. The answer might as well be, ‘I did it because I wanted to do it properly and I wanted to give people a positive experience.'”

Long legs will be released in theaters on July 12.

Film editor, digital spy Ian has over 10 years’ experience in film journalism as a writer and editor. Starting as an intern at industry bible Screen International, he was promoted to UK box office results reporter and editor, and carved out his own niche in horror films, visiting genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. In 2019 he became Movies Editor, a role in which he has interviewed hundreds of stars including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopaedia for Marvel, and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on stage at MCM Comic-Con. Wherever he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.