Freaky (2020)
Directed by Christopher Landon
A mystical, ancient dagger causes a notorious serial killer to magically switch bodies with a 17-year-old girl.
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His victims, at least at the start, are the sort who violate the first two rules in Scream , the ones warning off sex and substances if you want to survive.
After the “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream” franchises, Wes Craven was aptly known as the “Master of Horror,” at least in late 20th Century movie lore.
Set to release on Friday November 13 on all formats, Freaky delivers a high school horror mash-up centred around Homecoming which wears every single one of its forebears on its sleeve – from Scream to Carrie to, of course, Child’s Play, Big and all the Freaky Fridays .
Stealing a page from Scream and other slasher classics, a group of frisky teens are sitting around talking about the Blissfield Butcher, a mythical killer who has apparently been around for decades, but none of them actually believe exists.
Funnier than Scream , and much gorier, too, it’s just as smart about what it’s sending up.
Freaky opens with a spot-on ‘80s slasher film prologue (borrowing, perhaps, from Wes Craven’s Scream).
Director Christopher Landon, now a revered alum at Blumhouse Productions for his Happy Death Day (2017) and Happy Death Day 2 U (2019) titles (he also cut his teeth on the tail end of the production company’s most profitable franchise in 2014’s Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones ) segues from reconstituting Groundhog Day (1993) to a horror film version of Freaky Friday ’s body switching antics for the succinctly titled Freaky .
A film that’s ultimately done in by overestimating its own sense of cleverness and creativity, it’s a lot like director and co-writer Christopher Landon’s most notable success, Happy Death Day, which mashed-up a Groundhog Day premise with a slasher movie.
Con Happy Death Day (2017), combinó el bucle de tiempo de Groundhog Day con el típico slasher movie , y hoy regresa con Freaky , otra divertidísima fusión de subgéneros que parte de la pregunta ¿qué pasaría si Friday the 13th tuviera un bebé con Freaky Friday ?
With all due respect, the Freaky Friday concept has been explored just about as much as Groundhog Day, so it was always going to take a clever angle to make this worthwhile.
And now we’re being treated to Christopher Landon’s Freaky , a mash-up horror flick along the lines of the director’s 2017 movie Happy Death Day , which took the temporal-loop concept of Groundhog Day and made it gruesome.
The teen villains are so monstrous, from a toxic female cohort dispatched in a ridiculous cryotank (think the cold version of what Michael Myers does with a hot tub in Halloween II , 1981) to a group of gang rapey boys and even Alan Ruck as an extremely rude shop teacher, there’s never a moment to pause at the violent audacity of whatever or whomever the Blissfield Butcher is or what his motivations for incessant slaughter might be.
The killer’s mask is a gruesome mix of Jason’s and Leatherface’s from the “Friday the 13th” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchises, and one of the butcher’s early kills (and his reaction thereto) emulates Michael Myer’s impaling of Bob Simms in the original “Halloween.”
Nonetheless, Freaky is also his most skillfully directed project so far, not just in the way of gruesomely creative kills (there’s a sadistically fun woodshop murder) but also in terms of photography with moody lighting and thoughtful shots playing homage to the classics that paved the way (there’s a great Halloween nostalgia pull involving a knife going through a door that made me smile).
After we witness clueless teens get the bloody axe in the opening sequence (a nostalgic throwback that pays homage to “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween”) we meet 17 year old Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) still coping with the loss of her father one year prior, and who hasn’t made plans to commemorate Homecoming with her pals Nyla (Celeste O’Connor) and Josh (Misha Osherovich).
By default, items like Blake Edwards’ extremely underrated Switch (1991), starring a phenomenal Ellen Barkin, and even 2002’s Rob Schneider comedy The Hot Chick (which features a winning Anna Faris and Rachel McAdams) both exude a formidable queerness which, despite the outspoken gay character, feels almost entirely absent from Freaky —as if, by merely presenting a gay character accepted as being on par with others the narrative breezily excuses itself from having to actually engage with him beyond the superficiality of acknowledgement.
And like gender-swapping flicks such as "Switch," "All of Me" and "The Hot Chick," that's exacerbated by suddenly being in the possession of different sorts of body parts.
While the movie’s title winkingly references 2003’s Freaky Friday, a closer comparison might be the 2002 Rob Schneider vehicle The Hot Chick .
Akin to films like the Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsay Lohan family comedy Freaky Friday and Rob Shneider romp The Hot Chick , Freaky stars Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton as an outcast teen girl and an outcast backwoods killer who are be forced to walk a mile in each other’s shoes after an attack goes haywire.
Prelude to a Kiss , Dating the Enemy, The Hot Chick , The Change-Up , Vice-Versa .
But the committed performances and energetic pacing keep it afloat, especially when compared to the only previous Hollywood movie to use a remotely similar premise, “The Hot Chick” (2002), in which petty crook Rob Schneider switches bodies with cheerleader Rachel McAdams.
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And like gender-swapping flicks such as "Switch," "All of Me" and "The Hot Chick," that's exacerbated by suddenly being in the possession of different sorts of body parts.
When you think about it, it’s a little bit strange there’s an entire genre of body-switching movies, from the “Freaky Friday” iterations to “18 Again!” to “All of Me” to “The Change-Up” to “Heaven Can Wait” to “Face/Off” to “Dream a Little Dream” and you could even include the likes of “Big” and “13 Going on 30” as a sub-genre in which there’s not technically a body switch per se, but a kid is living inside a grown-up’s body.
(He’s on a par with the quality of physical comedy that Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin showed in “All of Me.”)
In a world with “Freaky Friday” (1976, 2003), “Vice Versa” (1988), “All of Me” (1984) – and please don’t forget “Big” (1988) and “13 Going on 30” (2004) too – a deranged sicko switching bodies with a self-esteem-challenged teenage girl is a textbook case of out-of-the-box thinking.
When both Millie and the Butcher wake up the next day (on a Friday the 13th no less), it’s obvious that they have switched bodies, and the clock is ticking for Millie to find the notorious killer who’s hanging out in her skin so they can switch back before it’s too late and they’re forever stuck in this very Vice Versa-esque scenario.
The filmmaker continues that mash-up trend with "Freaky," yet another slasher offering but this time where the killer and his would-be victim end up switching bodies a la the likes of "Like Father, Like Son," "Vice Versa" and, yes, this film's namesake, "Freaky Friday," among others.
In a world with “Freaky Friday” (1976, 2003), “Vice Versa” (1988), “All of Me” (1984) – and please don’t forget “Big” (1988) and “13 Going on 30” (2004) too – a deranged sicko switching bodies with a self-esteem-challenged teenage girl is a textbook case of out-of-the-box thinking.
Looking back through history, from the original 1973 version of “Freaky Friday” starring Jodie Foster and based on Mary Rogers’ book to Tom Hanks in “Big,” Jennifer Garner in “Going on 30,” and even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s “Jumanji” series, all of these films are comedies at the heart.
When you think about it, it’s a little bit strange there’s an entire genre of body-switching movies, from the “Freaky Friday” iterations to “18 Again!” to “All of Me” to “The Change-Up” to “Heaven Can Wait” to “Face/Off” to “Dream a Little Dream” and you could even include the likes of “Big” and “13 Going on 30” as a sub-genre in which there’s not technically a body switch per se, but a kid is living inside a grown-up’s body.
In a world with “Freaky Friday” (1976, 2003), “Vice Versa” (1988), “All of Me” (1984) – and please don’t forget “Big” (1988) and “13 Going on 30” (2004) too – a deranged sicko switching bodies with a self-esteem-challenged teenage girl is a textbook case of out-of-the-box thinking.
This isn’t the first derivation of “Freaky Friday,” and it surely won’t be the last, but at least it’s a fresh twist (on the heels of director Christopher Landon’s previous reimagining of a classic comedy plot fused with the horror genre – “Happy Death Day”).
Director Christopher Landon, now a revered alum at Blumhouse Productions for his Happy Death Day (2017) and Happy Death Day 2 U (2019) titles (he also cut his teeth on the tail end of the production company’s most profitable franchise in 2014’s Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones ) segues from reconstituting Groundhog Day (1993) to a horror film version of Freaky Friday ’s body switching antics for the succinctly titled Freaky .
A film that’s ultimately done in by overestimating its own sense of cleverness and creativity, it’s a lot like director and co-writer Christopher Landon’s most notable success, Happy Death Day, which mashed-up a Groundhog Day premise with a slasher movie.
But this isn’t a bad thing — Landon proved how good he is at playing with genre conventions without getting lost in them in Happy Death Day and its sequel, and while Freaky doesn’t reach the same heights as those films, it has more on its mind than just geeking out on its cleverness.
And Freaky has an excellent pedigree as it’s directed by Happy Death Day director/screenwriter Christopher Landon.
Like Landon’s other claim to fame, Happy Death Day , Freaky is filled with references to other horror movies and their tropes without ever winking at the audience or seeming to pat itself on the back for how clever it is.
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That same affinity is on display in “Freaky,” although the mask is quickly ditched and the clever carnage is increased, matching the most gruesome deaths of “The Burning,” “The Prowler” and other hits from that bygone era.
If you were concerned that Landon’s latest might fall a bit lighter on the side of horror like Happy Death Day did, have no fear, because the Blissfield Butcher amasses an impressive body count here, with a few of the kills feeling like they were homages to other slasher slayings (I didn’t have my notebook with me to take notes, but two of Freaky’s deaths that have stuck with me since the screening seemed to be tipping their hats to Jason X and 2008's Prom Night).