Freaky Review

Freaky is a horror-comedy that mashes up the slasher film with a body swap comedy. What was created was a wonderfully self-aware film that pays tribute to both genres.

Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) is a quiet and bullied high school student. She lives in the small American town of Blissfield. But Blissfield has been plagued by a serial killer, The Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn), and Millie seems like she’s going to be the next victim. What happens instead is Millie and The Butcher swap bodies. Millie and her friends have to capture The Butcher and reverse the curse whilst The Butcher continues to kill using Millie’s body.

Freaky was a brilliantly simple concept for a horror-comedy that it is surprising no one has thought of before. The concept of Freaky suited Christopher Landon. Landon’s previous two films were the Happy Death Day films which crossed Groundhog Day with the slasher genre. Landon knows the tropes of the genres he’s spoofing and Freaky wears its influences on its sleeve.

Freaky was originally titled Freaky Friday the 13th which tells audiences what the film is: Freaky Friday crossed with Friday the 13th. Freaky started like many slasher films with a group of teenagers getting brutally killed by a big, masked man. Victims get wine bottles shoved down their throats and heads smashed with a toilet seat. The film continues in that vein because when The Butcher takes over Millie and he discovered the disadvantage of being in a teenage girl’s body is she’s not that strong.

The kills were effectively silly and gory and the filmmakers ensured that everyone who was killed was thoroughly unlikeable. Newton and the creative team were clearly having fun with the female Butcher’s methods of murder.

The body-swap side of the story was a standard affair. There were the usual scenes of characters waking up confused when they were in a new body and Millie trying to convince her friends that she wasn’t a mass murderer. The most fun moment was when The Butcher was having breakfast where he tried to kill them without them realising. Millie in The Butcher had the typical scene where she has to prove to her friends she was not a homeless psychopath. A scene where Millie got to experience the benefits of a penis was a bit too similar to a scene in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Newton impressed in the lead role. She had to play both a meek and mousy teenager and the slasher villain. There was a metamorphosis when the body swap happens because Newton turned from a girl who wore dowdy clothes and has a fringe to putting her hair into a ponytail and dressing in a red leather jacket. Newton was able to do an intense stare really well. Newton’s character in Freaky reminded me a bit of her character in Blockers because both were high school seniors with an overly smothering mother and scared to tell them they want to go to a college in another city.

Vaughn got to play on both his old image and his new one. Vaughn was a part of the Frat Pack and made plenty of comedies in the noughties but has reinvented himself as a dramatic actor with roles in Brawl in Cell Block 99 and True Detective. He was able to perform as the slasher villain who said little and as a teenage girl trapped in a middle-aged man’s body.

Freaky was a knowing horror-comedy that embraced the conventions of the genres it was spoofing. Gorehounds will enjoy all the kills in the film.