GO FUCK YOURSELF!” You’ll have to trust us on this one: director extraordinaire Christopher Landon is speaking purely hypothetically… and with a riotous laugh. His strong reaction is understandable: SFX has just asked what his message would be to horror genre cynics who jump to conclusions about his new film Freaky and dismiss it as “just another slasher movie”. Because let’s face it, there have been rather a few since John Carpenter basically invented the subgenre with 1978’s Halloween.
“I’d say, that’s the whole point of this movie: we’re expecting you to have seen slasher movies,” he elaborates, before citing the film’s crucial sci-fi twist: “We’re expecting you to have seen body-swap movies [too]. But what you haven’t seen – yet – is a body-swap movie that collides with a slasher. But I stand by my original answer: go fuck yourselves!”
Landon sums up Freaky’s plot as “about a young, shy high school girl [Millie] who swaps bodies with a serial killer,” combining the tropes of films as disparate as Scream, Mean Girls, and the recent Jumanji films in one simple premise. Or, as co-writer Michael Kennedy more succinctly put it in his initial pitch to Landon, “‘Freaky Friday meets Friday The 13th’. My ears perked up!”
“This is the first time I’ve ever written a movie with another writer,” Landon says, admitting such collaboration was “something I’ve always feared because I’m a bit of a control freak.”
His control freakery has served him well in the past: although best known as the director of the Happy Death Day movies, Landon has worked prolifically as a writer. One of his earliest hits was 2007’s Rear Window-inspired Disturbia, a hidden gem in Shia LaBeouf’s filmography; he went on to write four Paranormal Activity films.
But together, Landon and Kennedy found their groove, and Killer Body (as Freaky was initially titled) quickly took shape. “Our sense of humor is very much aligned,” says Landon of his writing partner. “We’d assign each other chunks of 10 pages, write them separately, and email them and rewrite each other. Then we’d get together and rewrite it all again. It was a three-tiered process – but it worked really well for us.”
LANDON ON HIS FEET
The son of late actor Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House On The Prairie and Highway To Heaven), Landon denies watching other horror movies for inspiration. “Although I can’t speak for Michael – he watches horror movies day and night. And I would be too, but I don’t get to watch anything anymore, except Elmo!” (He and husband Cody Morris are parents to an infant son, Beau.)
“We talked about movies,” he adds of the preparation process. “But not Freaky Friday – the original or the remake. We didn’t talk about body-swap movies at all! We talked about John Hughes's films and Jennifer’s Body, and they inspired us in different ways.”
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE
COLIN TREVORROW’S DUEL OF THE FATES IS ONLY THE LATEST UNTOLD TALE OF THE SKYWALKERS. SFX INVESTIGATES THE STAR WARS ADVENTURES THAT NEVER MADE THE SCREEN.
The Omega Man
Mark Griffiths and John Ridgway are bringing back “Time Lord Satan” Omega in a new comic series
Teenage Kicks Right Through The Nightmare
Will School’s Out Forever be a post-Covid viral sensation?
Here Be Monsters
Paul WS Anderson is letting the beasts out for Monster Hunter – and he really wants you to see them
THEO JAMES
The Divergent star talks AI, letting loose and his move into producing
Regression Therapy
Russell T Davies offers an alternative take on a classic Doctor Who story in his new drama It’s A Sin
KILL PILL
TIME IS A LIE… REALITY BENDING THRILLER SYNCHRONIC IS HERE TO EXPAND YOUR MIND. OR MAYBE JUST BLOW IT…
Golden Years
Star Wars: The High Republic explores the rise of the Jedi in a new range of novels and comics
BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC
Party on, dads
TL HUCHU
Ghost writer: meet the creator of your new favourite urban fantasy
Defense Needs A Final Push
The second half of Washington’s lost season is underway and in order for the Redskins to have any chance of winning a few games out of their final six contests their defense must answer the bell – consistently.
The 12Th Dimension
Where’s the hindsight from the “experts?”
Doc Hollywood
Film star I would’ve been a therapist if I wasn’t an actress
A sporting chance
With the world shut down, sports fans and athletes look to sport simulation videogames
Jumanji Turns 25 Are You Game?
Why This Action-packed Adventure Movie Has Stood The Test Of Time
Kevin Hart And Dwayne Johnson's Special Bond
Back in the game with a new ‘Jumanji’ sequel, the funny pals talk about family, fame and who deserves to be the sexiest man alive
Karen Gillan
The fan favourite talks biceps, burgers and the Doctor’s binoculars…
Reportaje De Los Talentos: La Nueva Generación
Es excitante y apasionante ver que las nuevas caras en la F1 nos van a dar mucha emoción en los próximos años.
New Noise - Goodbye June
Memphis-based family outfit paying tribute with the power of the riff…