Christopher Landon pokes fun at horror movies in Freaky

Christopher Landon pokes fun at traditional horror films in 'Freaky'.

The 45-year-old director has helmed the new comedy-horror flick, which features Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton as a serial killer and a school student who unintentionally swap bodies, and Christopher wanted the movie - a dark twist on the novel 'Freaky Friday' - to joke about stereotypical horror films.

He said: "I think we know that we needed the classic stalking robotic killing machine, a man of very few words, so that we could kind of lean into those tropes and poke fun at them a little bit."

The 'Happy Death Day' filmmaker explained how he'd been influenced by the horror films he'd watched growing up and made sure that certain elements featured in the motion picture.

Christopher explained: "It's stuff that I've been informed by all these other old horror movies that I watched growing up, where there was always defaced mannequins.

"We see that all the time in horror movies. And so it was kind of fun to throw those elements into this movie. But yeah, you had to have the mask, you had to have this giant scary killer, and of course he has a really cool dagger in this one."

Christopher also revealed that he enjoyed including features that would not be seen in traditional horror films, such as the character of Joshua (Misha Osherovich).

He told Collider: "I think for me, what was a lot more fun was sneaking in more subversive and kind of left-of-center content into the movie that's not traditionally in a horror film and certainly not in a mass-marketed horror film.

"A character like Joshua alone is not someone that you typically see in this kind of a film, but I love that he exists."