Freaky, A Review

Basic switch. Killer new look.

From Blumhouse productions (Fantasy Island, Truth or Dare), Freaky follows Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton, Big Little Lies), a quiet girl whose Father has recently died, leaving her Mother Coral (Katie Finneran, Why Women Kill) and sister ‘Char’ (Dana Drori) all at odds with one another. Millie yearns to go away to college but doesn’t want to abandon her Mother, resulting in her isolating herself. At school things aren’t much better, with Millie constantly being tormented by her classmates and abusive woodshop teacher Mr. Bernardi (Alan Ruck). Millie’s two best friends Josh (Misha Osherovich) and Nya (Celeste O’Connor) encourage her to come out of her shell and ask out her crush Booker (Uriah Shelton), but Millie remains in her shut-in state.

All the while Millie’s personal crisis is happening, Blissfield is being targeted by a serial killer (Vince Vaugn) known as the ‘Blissfield Butcher’. After a school Homecoming game Millie is left behind in the parking lot when Coral fails to pick her up. All on her own Millie is attacked by the Butcher, and despite putting up a fight she is stabbed in the shoulder. After she is stabbed however Millie and the Butcher somehow swap bodies and remain stuck with the other’s face. Now stuck in the body of a serial killer, Millie must first convince her friends and family it is really her before somehow stabbing the butcher again to switch back all before midnight. But with a notorious killer now taking on her image, can Millie manage to get her body back without first being killed herself?

Body swap films in general are always a fun watch and I like how the actors involved get to really show off their talents. Here, Vaughn and Newton were hilarious playing each other and I thoroughly enjoyed both performances. I also liked how the body swap was used for the horror genre when it’s more commonly associated with comedy and romance. Having a teenage girl and serial killer swap bodies was brilliant both comically but also in terms of plot. Now with the face of a teenage girl, The Blissfield Butcher was able to kill freely with no one suspecting him. Millie on the other hand was stuck with the face of public enemy number one, the whole thing was very clever.

I really liked how Freaky completely played into the horror genre, using many common tropes and even commenting on and joking about them. Things like the party in the clearly dangerous warehouse; the very stereotypical ‘sassy’ best friends and the killer walking yet still catching up with you- everything just screamed classic horror/slasher. Despite these stereotypes however, Freaky still felt like a fresh and new film and I think it’s because the film allowed itself to fall into these tropes that it worked so well. Jokes like Nyla and Josh acknowledging they were doomed because they were gay and black, or the characters ‘splitting up to cover more ground’ all felt very self aware and well written. Freaky definitely knew what it was doing in terms of its jokes and I think any horror fan will be able to appreciate the film for what it is.

At its core, Freaky really was just a good, old-fashioned slasher, guaranteeing a fun time for any fan of the genre. The deaths in this film were pretty gory and I had a great time seeing The Butcher pick his way through Millie’s classmates. It sounds weird, but in these slasher type films or series (eg Netflix’s Slasher, Happy Death Day) the gorier or bloodier the death, the better. There’s just something enjoyable about these over the top killings, and Freaky is definitely a great example of this.

Overall, Freaky was an enjoyable watch. I liked the classic slasher aspects and the very self aware jokes the film made towards the horror genre. The body swap aspect also added extra layers to the performances and I liked the comedy from both Vaughn and Newton. A fun mix of horror and comedy and a great watch all around.