Freaky
universalIt’s safe to say that right now there’s not many who can do horror-comedy better than Christopher Landon. While Landon’s latest Freaky doesn’t quite have the charms of his previous Happy Death Day franchise, it still manages to deliver a bloody fun time with a good dose of B-movie thrills as well as humour and heart. At this point, we have seen many filmmakers who have spent large portions of their careers trying to bring back the 80s nostalgia to their movies or incorporate it into mainstream culture. Many have failed, and very few have succeeded. So, credit is due to Landon and his writing team for having the audacity to fool around with 80s nostalgic concepts while coming up with their own kooky, high-concept romp.
Every generation gets a Freaky Friday spin that it deserves. Rather having a mother and daughter’s bodies switched, this time, it’s a high-school student and a serial killer. The plot follows Millie (Kathryn Newton), a reticent high school nobody who leads somewhat of a miserable life after the tragic death of her father. She continually gets picked on by both her peers and teachers, falls behind in class, while still harbouring a crush on a boy whom she’s sure doesn’t know she exists. As if her typical teenage problems aren’t enough, Millie finds herself on the wrong end of the semi-mythical murderer called the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn), who had just brutally slaughtered a group of teens the night before. However, a strange turn of events sees Millie wake up in the Blissfield Butcher’s body, and he wakes up in hers.
Freaky is everything that you might expect from the body-swapping genre in the sense that most of the gags are played out through this drastic reversal of gender roles. It is undeniably fun seeing Millie, who is based on the Final Girl archetype, trying to navigate her ways inside the giant 6-foot-5 Jason Voorhees-esque frame, as well as seeing the killer trapped inside the petite body of a teenage girl. The shift in the pro/antagonists’ identities should give Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton a plethora of opportunities to work up their acting magic. Vince Vaughn is given a lot of meat to chew on with his role - but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy thing to pull off. Vaughn could easily have turned his girlish imitations into a stereotypical, over-the-top caricature; instead, he gracefully imbues his performance with a feminine persona that’s surprisingly sincere and, if not, endearing. I wish the same thing could also be said for Kathryn Newton. What prevents her from being as memorable as her onscreen nemesis is due to the limitations of her character. As a one-dimensional antagonist whose sole purpose is to murder people merely for the sake of it, the killer is viewed like a cardboard cutout version of Michael Myers, Leatherface and Jason Voorhees or any other bloodthirsty brethren that came before. Therefore, it is understandable that Newton has very little to do other than providing a few menacing, empty stares. Still, Landon does give her some great moments to soak up the screen with gruesome kills that will surely satiate gore-hounds.
Freaky is unexpectedly effective when it comes to the violence as it makes every bit of its R-rating count. That said, it’s not so much scary as tongue-in-cheek, and even so, Landon doesn’t hold back on the gore by making sure every kill feels earned. While the slayings are creative, the crude jokes and witty one-liners are also wonderfully delivered by the supporting cast as they bring levity to the bloodshed when needed. Aside from its mindless entertainment value, the movie doesn’t have much to offer beyond the veil of its likeability. The screenplay suffers too much from the on-the-nose writing that feels rather forced. There is a stronger story in there somewhere about gender perception, bodies and dynamics where men can be vulnerable, and women can be feared. Yet, Christopher Landon and his writing team instead opt for a safer, goofier and somewhat familiar jump-scare ridden route.
In the end, Landon’s latest oeuvre is a homage to classic slashers’ franchises, and although it may not revolutionize the genre, there is no denying how charming it really is. Despite its shortcomings, Freaky is one helluva good time that shouldn’t be missed.