‘Freaky’ (2020) Review: A Fun and Fresh Take on a Familiar Story

Mike Lefton

4 years ago

Put a group of horny teenagers in a big empty mansion filled with creepy artifacts, dark hallways, scary music, and you can rest assured a psychopathic serial killer is going to show up out of the darkness and brutally kill them all. And that’s exactly how Freaky opens, which might sound like the basis of any generic slasher film. But Christopher Landon’s 2020 gender-swapping, comedy, slasher film proves itself to be anything but generic. In fact, the opening title card says it all: WEDNESDAY, THE 11^TH, written in a bold, bloody typeface reminiscent of a Friday the 13th film straight out of the 1980s.

A Twist on the Slasher Genre

The plot of this film concerns a 16-year-old girl named Millie struggling in high school who is ultimately attacked by a notorious (and thought to be unreal) local serial killer, The Blissfield Butcher, whose M.O. is attacking teenagers on the night of homecoming. But when he uses an ancient dagger to stab her on the grounds of the high school football field, their spirits are magically swapped from one body to another, leading to a wild ride of soul searching… and slaughtering. Millie, now trapped in the body of a middle-aged man, must convince her friends, Nyla and Josh (played by Celeste O’Connor and Misha Osherovich, respectively), that she is really her, while the infamous killer stalks the halls of the high school disguised as a transformed Millie. Together they must figure out how to get her body back before she is permanently stuck in The Blissfield Butcher’s body forever. Slick directing, a cast of colorful characters, and a great story are among the many things I really enjoyed about Freaky. Not to mention that seeing Vince Vaughn skillfully play both a serial killer and a teenage girl here is a great way to forget that he once played Norman Bates in the 1998 remake of Psycho.

Balancing Comedy and Horror

Freaky is listed as comedy/horror, which I must admit is a sub-genre I frequently have trouble with, as in many of these types of films, there is often too little comedy or too little horror for the label to make sense. On the other hand, this film is constantly teetering on the edge of both genres and delivers the goods when necessary. There are some highlight comedic moments (a screaming Vince Vaughn as a 16-year-old girl is one of them), as well as plenty of highlight gory slasher moments for most lovers of the genre to relish in. But that’s not even the thing I liked best about Freaky; it’s that the film took bold risks with confidence and even tackled some very genuine and serious issues without coming across as self-righteous or preachy. The main character, Millie (played by Kathryn Newton), is constantly picked on at school by everyone from the popular girls to the smug guys on the football team and even her shop teacher. It seems straightforward enough at first, but her backstory, on the other hand, is more difficult to unpack. She is struggling to connect with her family one year after her father’s death, she lacks self-confidence due to the daily bullying she receives, and she even appears to be struggling with an identity crisis as she does everything, she can to console her still-grieving mother, while mostly giving up on her dreams and interests. She even portrays the school mascot, which could be perceived as an outlet for hiding one’s identity. Later in the film, while still in the Butcher’s body, Millie talks about having felt “empowered” and “strong” in this new body, and she is reassured by her love interest, Booker (played by Uriah Shelton), that strength comes from inside the head and the heart; a lesson Millie ultimately must learn on her own.

While the beats of this tale might seem familiar, and they are, the adventure it takes us on is fresh, fun, freaky, and still has enough heart to keep you equally invested in the characters’ respective journeys. Freaky isn’t setting out to reinvent the wheel; it’s doing what movies are supposed to do: entertain us.

You can watch ‘Freaky’ on HBO Max.