Vince Vaughn's same-sex kiss in Freaky is not played "for laughs"
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Freaky spoilers follow.
Freaky director Christopher Landon has spoken about a same-sex kiss featuring actor Vince Vaughn in the upcoming horror-comedy movie, saying that the moment is not played "for laughs".
Slasher movie Freaky stars The Society actress Kathryn Newton as high school student Millie Kessler, who is attacked by notorious serial killer the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn).
After Millie has seemingly been killed, she wakes up to find she's still alive but is now trapped in the Butcher's body, while he has taken over her own body and is going on a killing spree around Millie's school.
The film then follows Millie and her best friends Nyla (Celeste O'Connor) and Josh (Misha Osherovich) as they set out to return Millie to her own body before it's too late and, at one point in the movie, Millie ends up sharing a kiss with her crush Booker (Uriah Shelton) while still trapped in the Butcher's body.
Speaking to SFX Magazine about the scene, Landon shared that he directed Vaughn and Shelton to play their kiss as a truly romantic moment, telling them: "'This is not a scene I intend to shoot for laughs – I want this to be a true love scene.'
"That's the way we approached it, the way it was rehearsed," he continued. "It's sweet! It's really a scene about seeing a person for who they really are."
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He added that during one of the film's recent test screenings, the audience responded to the scene positively, adding that they were celebrating "the intent of the scene".
"We just screened the movie for the first time at a drive-in for a film festival and people were honking their horns and flashing their lights," he said.
"What I think they were celebrating was the intent of the scene. And I was grateful to not get pushback from the studio, or from anyone."
Landon also spoke about further gay representation in the film in the form of Millie's best friend Josh, saying that the production team wanted to present a "confident gay character".
"What's interesting and unique about Joshua is, because the movie is written by two openly gay men, we were able to do certain things other people maybe couldn't do," he explained.
"Joshua is this confident gay character; it's not a coming out story. But we were able to poke fun at our own culture."
Freaky is due for release on November 13 in the US, while a UK release date is currently unconfirmed.
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