Freaky with Telstra Box Office
There's been a lot of body switching movies, Freaky Friday and The Hot Chick being the front runners for comedy body switching movies, but now the classic trope has a new horror twist - and it's pretty good!
Starring Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, Freaky is the classic Freaky Friday tale but sees a quiet, mousy high school student Millie (played by Newton) switching bodies with a brutal Michael-Myersesque serial killer dubbed The Blissfield Butcher (played by Vaughn). As it is a horror movie, it follows the classic horror trope of starting out with four teenagers being murdered by the precise and methodical aging Vaughn who steals an ancient dagger known as La Dola. When Millie is left behind after her schools' football game, she unwittingly becomes the next target of the Blissfield Butcher and La Dola, but is only stabbed by the ancient blade that also leaves it mark on the Butcher.
The next day, in the classic Freaky Friday twist (complete with the Friday the 13th style writing) Millie and Butcher have switched bodies and Butcher realises that his new innocent appearance has earned him a second chance at his legendary slayings as he goes on a murderous rampage at the school. At the same time, the terrified Millie in a dirty, wanted man's body also makes her way to the school to try and get help from her friends Nyla and Josh in helping her return to her body.
Honestly, watching Freaky was a heck of a lot of fun. Vince Vaughn shines the brightest when he plays The Butcher, despite flitting back into his comedy roots easily picking up Millie's character, but playing the quiet and methodical serial killer is a scary new take on a Vince Vaughn we haven't seen a lot of. He captures the psychopathic tendencies of the Butcher well and it's a direction that we need to see him going in more often! Kathryn Newton also nails the body switch - albeit not as well as Vaughn did because Vaughn was stellar - by turning into the cool, tough, slick, quietly contemplative version of The Butcher, but she fails to land her original mousy persona of Millie because honestly, there is just no way that this chick isn't actually cool in real life. While it does work, it just doesn't land as well as her cool facade does when it comes up.
Nonetheless, the stars completely outdo any previous body switching versions (we are looking at you Lindsay Lohan!) and while following the same sort of storyline of both horror slashers and body switching movies as we have seen before, it actually manages to blend the two genres and tropes together seamlessly. This film was unfortunately a product of COVID-19 era theatrical releases, but it was well blended that it's worth checking out if you want a cool new slasher film to watch!
I give Freaky three and a half out of five stars
