Max Landis is the screenwriter behind films such as Bright, Chronicle and American Ultra. The 33-year-old is also the son of John Landis, a famed film director known for Coming To America and Animal House. Max's career is now on the line since eight women have come forward to The Daily Beast, accusing him of emotional and sexual abuse.
A majority of the women shared their stories anonymously other than Ani Baker who detailed a time where Max threatened to kill her. According to Ani, she and Max had consensual sex and afterward, she slapped his butt in a playful way leading him to snap. “He turned around and he put his hands around my throat and he got very close to my face,” Ani told the publication. “He said, ‘I will fucking kill you. Do you understand what I’m saying? I will fucking kill you.’”
Another woman who goes by 'Julie' dated Max for two years and told the publication that she didn't realize she had been raped for the better part of their relationship until it was over.
“He showed me abuse and humiliation porn and constantly tested my boundaries—this became murkier and murkier as our relationship got more tumultuous, as I grew to view sex with him as the only way to receive love and connect,” Julie wrote in her statement.
"This lead to me allowing myself to become more and more abused. He claimed that seeing me cry was a turn-on—this later turned into a routine of him yelling and humiliating me until I cried, then having sex with me while I continued to cry with no regard or effort to make things right," she added.
"He’d instigate fights, belittle and upset me, just so he could have sex with me, and the real, legitimate fights ended the same way. He choked me until I passed out and did humiliating, degrading things to me that I still can’t manage to write out on paper.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Max for comment. Read the full expose here.