FREAKY:
CLEVER BODY-SWAP HORROR-COMEDY IS DELIGHTFULLY TWISTED!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
A teenage girl swaps bodies with a serial killer in Freaky
A teenage girl is suddenly murdered one night and she mysteriously wakes up in her killer’s body and vice versa in Freaky, the latest horror-comedy from director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day 1 and 2) who had previously played with slasher and time-loop tropes ala Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow with the Happy Death Day movies. Now, he’s doing the same sort of thing with body-swap movie tropes found in movies such as Freaky Friday, The Change-Up, and the recent Japanese anime film Your Name, but with a slasher twist.
I was completely onboard for this movie when I first saw the trailer, a horror sendup to body-swap movie tropes where the victim winds up in the killer’s body and the killer ends up in the victim’s body, this is a very smart, clever idea and has a lot of potential both as a horror movie and a dark comedy. That’s pretty much why I enjoyed Landon’s own Happy Death Day a lot, Landon is able to take these familiar and tired tropes we’ve seen a million times before in other movies and put a funny and unique spin to them.
So, is Freaky a worthy successor to Happy Death Day or was Happy Death Day just a lucky shot? Oh, it is a very worthy follow-up to the Happy Death Day films!
I found this movie to be very entertaining and a refreshing departure from typical horror/slasher movie fare, much like what the Happy Death Day movies and The Cabin in the Woods did. Just like those movies, Freaky is very self-aware and tongue-in-cheek with its premise and is more about having fun with its scary concept rather than legit nightmare fuel, and it succeeds in that regard.
The film follows high school student, Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton-Gary Unmarried, Paranormal Activity 4, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) who is frequently tormented by other students (and even a teacher) and doesn’t get much respect at school aside from her friends. One night, she becomes the newest target of an infamous serial killer known as the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn-Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Wedding Crashers, Hacksaw Ridge), and after being stabbed by his dagger, Millie mysteriously wakes up in the killer’s body and the killer wakes up in hers, and that’s where the fun really begins.
Millie and her friends, Nyla (Celeste O’Connor-Irreplaceable You, Selah and the Spades, Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Josh (Newcomer, Misha Osherovich), and Booker (Uriah Shelton-The Glades, Lifted, The Warriors Gate) have only 24 hours to reverse the switch before it becomes permanent and before the killer uses Millie’s body to turn the school’s Homecoming dance into a slaughterhouse. To make matters worse, she’s also being hunted by the police who are determined to bring the killer down.
The film also stars Katie Finneran (Night of the Living Dead (1990), You’ve Got Mail, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous) as Millie’s mom Paula Kessler and Alan Ruck (Speed, Twister, The Exorcist (TV series)) as Mr. Fletcher.
Overall, Freaky delivers…well, “Freaky” fun that completely embraces the potential and sheer ridiculousness of its premise. Take the movie, Freaky Friday (Either the original or the Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis version) and mix it with Halloween and Friday the 13th and with a very self-aware sense of humor, that’s basically this film in a nutshell with the highlights being Vaughn and Newton’s performances.
Vince Vaughn alone is worth the price of admission in quite possibly his funniest performance in years. I mean, come on, it’s Vince Vaughn playing a teenage girl and he plays the part very well.
Vaughn in this movie reminds me a lot of Jack Black in the recent Jumanji movies and just like in those movies, a lot of the comedy comes from him trying to act like a girl and it’s hilarious, from imitating Millie’s school mascot dance to having a romantic moment with the boy she has a crush on that’s both funny and heartfelt at the same time. Here’s something I never thought I’d say about Vince Vaughn but when he’s playing himself (The serial killer), he is actually legitimately creepy and it shows that he’s come a long way from playing Norman Bates in that godawful Psycho remake or his laughable performance in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, rock on Vaughn.
However, Vince Vaughn is only a piece of the puzzle, Kathryn Newton goes full-on psycho b*tch with sadistic and outrageous results. She doesn’t get quite as many humorous moments as Vaughn, but it looks like she’s having the time of her life with this performance every time she’s onscreen.
At first, Newton’s character isn’t all that interesting, just your standard horror movie protagonist but once the serial killer takes over her body that’s when she truly shines. She’s violent, sadistic, and funny all at the same time and even makes you smile and laugh along with her but feel bad about it shortly afterwards, one minute she’s telling off one of the jocks that wants to make out with her with a hilarious insult and the next she’s slicing the wood shop teacher in half with a saw, yeah, she’s definitely a lot of fun to watch but maybe it’s best not to hang out with her.
As much as I enjoyed this movie, it does have some problems mainly regarding some of the tropes that aren’t being satirized and are instead just being used to get the plot going. They do the whole “Everyone at school is being cruel to this girl and calling her ugly despite the fact she’s totally hot, but a makeover and new coat completely changes that” cliché and it isn’t funny or even a clever variation of the trope, it’s just the same, tired high school movie cliché that should have stayed and died in the 90s, it didn’t work in the recent Power Rangers movie and it certainly doesn’t work here.
Maybe I’m just nitpicking, the unnecessary high school cruelty in the beginning doesn’t ruin the whole experience. Freaky is still a very fun departure from traditional slasher movies that still brings on the gore but also has a darkly comical and cynical edge to balance it out and show the funny side of the situation.
Don’t be a “Freak” by watching The Craft: Legacy, go watch Freaky instead for your horror movie fill. It has blood, gore, a dark sense of humor, and an interesting take on the body-swap genre.
