Eight women have come forward to accuse Max Landis, screenwriter and son of famed director John Landis, of sexual and emotional abuse. The women allege a pattern of behavior in which Landis lures people in with his large, vibrant friend group, then manipulates them, using their relationships and vulnerabilities as cudgels. Some women also said that Landis would enter into relationships with them, sometimes after relentlessly pursuing them, then allegedly abuse and, in at least one case, rape them.
As the Daily Beast reports, Landis was previously publicly accused of sexual abuse in February, via a Medium post in which an anonymous female writer alleged that Landis grabbed her and pinned her down while she was intoxicated during a trip. Eventually, the writer said, she “went limp and pretended to pass out,” at which point Landis stopped. That post is, in part, what prompted Landiss ex-girlfriend Ani Baker to share her own story with the Beast.
Among Bakers accusations in the Daily Beast is an alleged incident in which Landis became violent after consensual sex. “He turned around, and he put his hands around my throat, and he got very close to my face,” Baker said. “He said, I will fucking kill you. Do you understand what Im saying? I will fucking kill you.” Another woman, called Veronica in the story, said that she went to Disneyland with Landis, where they stayed overnight in a room with two beds; she awoke the next morning to him performing oral sex on her, she said, even though shed said the night before she wasnt interested in having sex again.
Another anonymous accuser, called Julie in the story, said that Landis subjected her to emotional abuse: “Hed openly critique my body in front of people and tell me privately that I had the potential to be so hot if I committed to working out more,” the woman said. “Hed graphically describe sex with his ex-girlfriends and rate their abilities compared to mine, both to me and to his friends and work associates.” She called him “a serial rapist, gaslighter, physical and psychological abuser.” She also claimed that he once told her seeing her cry turned him on—and later began to routinely yell at and humiliate her until she cried, at which point he would begin to have sex with her.
The alleged body shaming aligns with the accusations of several other women. One woman, “Kerry,” said that Landis would compliment her for not eating and buy her workout classes. Eventually their relationship also became physically abusive, according to Kerry: “Once he choked me and told me he wanted to kill me. And I would wind up reassuring him that he wasnt a monster when he felt bad about it. Because I felt bad that he was so sick.” Dani Manning, who spoke to the Daily Beast using her real name, said she had a similar experience—that while they were dating, she lost a significant amount of weight, and that Landis would “smack food” out of her hand and tell her that if she exercised more, she could be “supermodel pretty.” Like several other accusers, Manning said their relationship eventually became physically abusive.
Another accusation comes from Ashley Heffington Dionne, whose friend Callie Ray filed an assault claim against Landis in 2008—one she eventually dropped, Dionne said, after an allegedly intimidating conversation with Landiss attorney. When Ray went to the courthouse for a hearing with Dionne and her mother, Dionne said Landiss attorney confronted her: “The attorney came off patronizing as she said things like I will make you look like an idiot, and This is not going to be easy on you,” Dionne recalled. Ray decided to drop the case.
A woman named “Samantha,” another accuser, claimed that she briefly dated Landis, and that he “systematically [tried] to have sex with all the women I knew.” She described his friend group as a “cult,” and offered a succinct summation of all of the womens claims: “Were not people to him.”
A representative for Landis did not immediately respond to V.F.s request for comment.
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