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Christopher Landon Set To Direct The Next 'Scream' Movie
The creator of Happy Death Day and Freaky will direct the seventh movie in this horror franchise.
Woodsboro just got a little gayer!
A seventh Scream film is in the works and it’s set to be helmed by director Christopher Landon, making him the first out gay director in the franchise’s long history.
Landon is a veteran of the horror genre, having directed Happy Death Day and its sequel, as well as the slasher comedy Freaky.
He is taking over for the filmmaking duo Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett), who directed both the fifth and sixth movies in the franchise and will be staying on as executive producers.
Landon, who came out as gay in 1999, posted a photo of Ghostface on Twitter on Wednesday with the text, “Looks like 7 really is a lucky number. More to come…”
Looks like 7 really is a lucky number.
— christopher landon (@creetureshow) August 2, 2023
More to come… pic.twitter.com/4MOfXIGJwa
He may be the first gay man to direct a film in the series, but Scream has always been queer. The first, second and fourth movies in the franchise were written by Kevin Williamson, who came out as gay in 1992 and saw parallels between growing up as a queer kid and the plight of the final girl. He even said the Scream movies were “coded in gay survival.”
Despite this there wasn’t a canonically queer main character in the franchise until Jasmin Savoy Brown’s character Mindy joined the cast for Scream (2022).
Fans, however, would argue that Billy and Stu from the OG film were queer-coded. The homoerotic pair were the first Ghostface killers and last year Williamson further cemented this idea when he confirmed that he based the characters on real-life gay killers Leopold and Loeb.
Landon’s films Happy Death Day and Freaky are already beloved by queer fans, making him the ideal director to take over this horror legacy. In a 2019 interview with Queer Horror Movies he said, “My sexuality hasn’t played too great a role in my work, in terms of being marginalized, but I have always strived to bring a queer perspective to my movies.”
When asked if his sexuality informs his films Landon responded, “OH FUCK YES.”
He added, “I mean, I made a studio zombie movie with a Britney sing-along and a horror set-piece while Dolly Parton’s 9-5 blared. My shit is G-A-Y. But I also think growing up queer and feeling like I didn’t quite belong really reinforced a strong sense of empathy in me. My characters are often misunderstood and stand a little outside of the world around them.”
There is no word yet on when we can expect the seventh entry into this beloved horror franchise, but it will likely be a while since the production is on hold until the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved. But while you wait, you watch the first five Scream movies which are currently streaming on Paramount+.
We can’t wait to see what a gay director will do with these characters!
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
