“Wednesday 11th” flashes across the screen in blood red letters as four teenagers discuss the local urban legend of the “Blissfield Butcher”. Those familiar with slasher film conventions will quickly surmise they’re dead teens walking and, sure enough, they soon find out that this boogeyman is very real. In the midst of the carnage however, no one notices that something’s been taken: a rather sinister looking dagger. The following day we meet our heroine: Millie Kessler. After her mother fails to pick her up from a football game, she almost becomes the Butcher’s latest victim. But when she’s stabbed with the stolen dagger, things start to get strange. The next morning, Friday 13th (of course), Millie and the Butcher wake up… in the other’s body. Hilarity and more murder ensue.
So, if Happy Death Day was Christopher Landon asking ‘what if Groundhog Day was a horror film?’ (and its sequel, Happy Death Day 2 U, explored more of the idea’s sci-fi elements), Freaky is him asking ‘what if Freaky Friday was a slasher film?’ And, like Happy Death Day, the answer is a fun, smart, horror-comedy that manages to be both genuinely funny and suitably tense, as well as a body swap story that avoids most of the clichés associated with them.
Of course, the body swap isn’t an original story idea, nor is the gender swap, and they work best when the contrast is stark. And what could be a starker contrast than a teenage girl and a middle-aged male serial killer? When we first meet them, Millie (Kathryn Newton) is an ordinary high-schooler, kind but unconfident—fragile under the surface from the upheavals her family has gone through following her father’s untimely death—with a tendency to try and be all things to all people that leads some to bully and mistreat her (although the ‘wallflower whom nobody finds attractive until she puts on a different outfit and some makeup’ being played by someone gorgeous is a cliché that just needs to be allowed to die Hollywood, please). The Butcher (Vince Vaughn) is the archetypal, Michael Myers-esque, implacable masked killer.
So, having established who we’re supposed to root for, the body swap completely turns this on its head. Vaughn’s performance is worth the price of admission alone; funny without resorting to being camp and with a core of emotional sincerity. Newton isn’t given quite as much to do but she has a great line in unnerving Kubrick-stares. In fact, the performances are so good, and you spend so much time with them swapped, that when things are inevitably resolved (I don’t think that fact alone is too much of a spoiler) I actually felt sad that Vaughn was back to being the bad guy and was still giving “murder Barbie” the side-eye. The supporting cast are also good, particular standouts being Celeste O’Connor and Misha Osherovich as Millie’s best friends Nyla and Josh, and the inclusion of Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s best friend) as a bullying teacher is a fun touch.
Aside from the odd, clunky line of exposition, the script is smart, taking inspiration from post-modern teen slasher flicks by giving us some timely observations about power dynamics. Millie, as the Butcher, is able to get back at some of those who’d picked on her, admitting that she kind of enjoys the physical power his body gives her. The Butcher, meanwhile, notes how physically weak Millie’s body is in comparison but realises the subtle power it gives him—after all, no one’s going to suspect the innocent teenage girl of being a vicious murderer are they? It’s also very funny. Yes, we get us gags about peeing standing up but there are also some cracking lines that deconstruct everything from current culture, popular culture and even horror film tropes—Misha Osherovich is a veritable fountain of these—as well as great moments of physical comedy. But it also shows love for the old-school style slashers. The font used for the dates and titles, for instance, is the same as the Friday 13th franchise, and Millie’s love interest (Uriah Shelton) is called Booker Strode—a reference, of course, to the Heroine of the Halloween franchise. Another way it reflects these are the violence. If you like your slashers bloody, you’re going to be happy. Freaky is definitely more violent than Happy Death Day and doesn’t mess around, with four deaths within the first ten minutes. There’s also a good mix of brutal and inventive—knives and other assortment of bladed weapons? Check. Now how about freezing someone solid, to the point where they shatter into pieces?
Landon has confirmed Freaky and Happy Death Day are set in the same world, and has teased a potential future crossover. As he himself stated, both films definitely “share the same DNA”, and a crossover sounds intriguing. However, in order for the formula not to go stale, it will need to move beyond ‘take high-concept X and turn it into a horror film’. But for now, Freaky is another bullseye.
