Movie Review: ‘Freaky’

Review by James Lindorf

Growing up during the heyday of the Friday the 13th movies, every time that elusive date rolled around meant one thing for many television stations, horror marathon. Over the years, the enthusiasm for showing the series and celebrating the unlucky day has dwindled. Nowadays, you have to hunt for good horror content harder than Jason searches for an unruly teen. This year may be the beginning of a new tradition as this Friday, the 13th gets “Freaky.” On November 13th, Universal will be releasing Blumhouse’s latest horror-comedy “Freaky” from writer-director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day).

Landon, who wrote the script with Michael Kennedy, had the challenging task of balancing a traditional slasher film with its gender-bending body-swapping twist. Seventeen-year-old Millie Kessler spends her days trying to survive bullies, a sadistic shop teacher played by Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,) and a rocky home life. When Millie finds herself the Blissfield Butcher’s latest target, her town’s mythical serial killer, her senior blues become the least of her worries. Everything is going to plan for the Butcher until his newly acquired mystical dagger causes him and Millie to switch bodies magically. Now, Millie has just 24 hours to get her body back and win over the boy of her dreams. Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies) stars as Millie alongside Vince Vaughn, who plays the town’s infamous killer.

While “Freaky” doesn’t hit the heights of Landon’s “Happy Death Day,” it is the best thing I have seen Vince Vaughn do in almost a decade. He gets to show a lot more range than his familiar comedies allow. He doesn’t get lost in his performance of Millie. Still, it makes him add some jokes to a quiver running low after years of playing similar comedic characters. When he is the Butcher, it is clear that if he was less charismatic, he could have easily gone the way of Taylor Mane or Kane Hodder and played great horror villains. Vaughn is always somewhat imposing based on sheer size at just over 6’5” and 200+lbs, but here he looks like an unstoppable killing machine that could rival Jason and Michael Myers.

Kathryn Newton is excellent as Millie; I would have loved to see a drama or rom-com about everything going wrong in her life at the start of the story. When it is her turn to play the killer, things are a bit off. Newton is playing the part perfectly because it feels like there is someone else in her body slowly getting used to the situation. That is very impressive on the surface but doesn’t quite fit the tone of the movie. Newton and Vaughn are well supported by Millie’s best friends, Josh, the comic relief played by Misha Osherovich, and Celeste O’Connor as the straight-person Nyla.

Another tone breaker is how woke the movie is. It is great to see writers incorporating new social norms into their films because familiarity breeds understanding and acceptance. However, Landon and Kennedy take it a little too far by including these moments where they wouldn’t logically appear. I can’t imagine anyone is worried about proper pronoun usage while taking on a notorious killer. If those moments were more naturally integrated, it would feel like they embraced the world as it should be, instead of giving the audience a light tap from the message hammer.

“Freaky” has a few faults while juggling its genres, but they are overwhelmed by many good to great moments. “Freaky” is a must-see for fans of movies like “Tragedy Girls,” “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil,” and of course, Landon’s own “Happy Death Day.”

Genre: Horror Comedy
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Celeste O’Connor, Misha
Osherovich, Uriah Shelton, Dana Drori, Katie Finneran, Alan Ruck
Directed by: Christopher Landon
Written by: Christopher Landon, Michael Kennedy
Producer: Jason Blum
Executive Producers: Couper Samuelson, Jeanette Volturno