“Freaky” Review
Vince Vaughn (Center) portrays the Blissfield Butcher who becomes possessed by the soul of a high school girl.
Producing some of the finest horror films of the past decade, including “Get Out,” “The Invisible Man” and “Oculus,” Blumhouse has become a tour-de-force in the film industry. One of their most popular series, the “Happy Death Day” films, took a comedic, self-reflective look at the genre and the director of those films, Christopher Landon, took the concept of “Groundhog Day” and turned it into a hilariously terrifying series of films.
Now, Landon has taken the concept of another popular comedy, “Freaky Friday,” and twisted it into a comedy/horror film with “Freaky” which is one of the more entertaining horror films of the year.
Taking place in an average American town, “subtly” named Blissfield, the film focuses on a teenage girl named Millie (Kathryn Newton) who narrowly survives being stabbed by a serial killer called the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn). However, since the Butcher was wielding an ancient, magical dagger, both he and Millie wake up the next morning having switched bodies. With Millie in the body of an infamous serial killer and the Butcher in the body of a teenage girl, Millie has to convince her friends who’s who and try to reverse the process.
What makes this film stand out is it’s fantastic sense of humor. From minute one, it is abundantly clear that this film isn’t taking itself too seriously with several horror cliches appearing in the first scene including sex-driven, pot-smoking, booze-drinking teenagers who serve as killer-fodder being hilariously killed off.
Kathryn Newton brings a lot of thrills to the role of Millie, both as a high schooler and when she’s possessed by the soul of a serial killer.
Vince Vaughn alone is the main reason to see this film because of how well he commands humor through horror. Having to watch him act like a teenage girl is not only funny, but surprisingly believable. Oddly enough, he’s even more funny before the transformation when he’s a serial killer.
While Vaughn is fantastic both as a comedic and dramatic actor, as Gus Van Sant’s remake of “Psycho” will show, portraying a disturbed mind in a serious manner is not exactly his strength. However, for a role of this caliber, Vaughn makes it humorous by playing this role completely serious.
Kathryn Newton also does a good job and, when she has to act like her body is possessed by a deranged psychopath, it’s actually intimidating at times. The film also shows that she does have problems with a workaholic sister and grieving, widowed mother at home and bullies at school, including one asshole of a shop teacher (Alan Ruck).
These problems not only make the character of Millie more relatable, but also make the inevitable payback against these bullies all the more satisfying.
The concept of this film, despite having been done before, is handled in a unique way mainly because the filmmakers put a scary twist onto it. While purely original horror films, like the work of Jordan Peele and Ari Aster, are making a big comeback in popular cinema, sometimes just putting a twist on a familiar premise is enough as long as that twist is done well.
Since this film is from the same studio that made 2019’s “Black Christmas,” a remake of a classic film which had an aggressive feminist message, “Freaky” does a much better job of being a feminist film than the former.
This is mainly because Millie is slowly empowered over the course of the film and learns about her inner strength as the film progresses. Unlike “Black Christmas,” which put the message before making a good film, “Freaky” does the opposite and, as such, the film is both good and empowering.
However, the film isn’t without its flaws which mainly revolve around Millie once she has been possessed by the Butcher. The best moments of “Millie” are either when she says threatening stuff in the voice of a teenager or when she pretends to be the real Millie, both of which occur very little.
Most of the time, she just stares and looks threatening, which is fine for a while. However, since it’s the soul of a serial killer in the body of a teenager, there should have been more of Newton being more diabolical, especially since Vaughn is given much more to do.
“Freaky” manages to combine big laughs with big scares and is definitely another hit for Christopher Landon. With so many comedic horror films under his belt, one hopes that Landon can finally get his hands on serious horror.
