FREAKY (2020)

Studio:     Blumhouse
Director:    Christopher Landon
Writer:     Michael Kennedy, Christopher Landon
Producer:  Jason Blum
Stars:     Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Katie Finneran, Celeste O’Connor, Misha Osherovich, Alan Ruck, Uriah Shelton, Dana Drori

Review Score:

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Summary:

A cursed dagger causes a teenage girl to swap bodies with a serial killer.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Wednesday the 11th – Serial killer ‘The Blissfield Butcher’ slaughters teenagers Isaac, Sandra, Evan, and Ginny. Afterwards, Butcher steals an ancient dagger named ‘La Dona’ from Ginny’s father’s art collection.

Thursday the 12th – Charlene Kessler, a deputy, ribs her misfit teenage sister Millie about going to a local theater production with their mother Coral instead of to her high school’s Homecoming. Charlene notices that Coral, who still grieves the death of her husband one year ago, has started drinking again.

At school, Millie discusses the murders with her best friends Nyla Chones and Josh Detmer. Millie and Nyla also discuss Millie needing to live for herself instead of for her mother. Millie endures bullying from classmate Ryler as well as from shop teacher Mr. Bernardi, whose class Millie shares with her crush Booker Strode.

Booker’s football teammates harass Millie when she performs as their beaver mascot during the Homecoming game. Millie tries to arrange a ride home with her sister Charlene when Coral ends up passed out on their couch, leaving Millie alone at the field.

Butcher attacks Millie. Butcher stabs Millie with the dagger, but Charlene’s arrival frightens Butcher away. The police bag the dagger as evidence.

Friday the 13th – Millie and Butcher separately wake to discover they swapped bodies. In Butcher’s body, Millie tries avoiding locals who recognize her as the killer. In Millie’s body, Butcher attends school posing as an assertive version of Millie.

Butcher kills Ryler by freezing her in a locker room cryo-chamber. Butcher also kills Mr. Bernardi by slicing his body in half with a power saw.

Following a long fight, Millie convinces Nyla and Josh that she is inside Butcher’s body. They look up ‘La Dona’ and learn it is a ceremonial Aztec dagger. Spanish teacher Senora Cayenes translates the blade’s legend, which says if a sacrifice performed with the knife is unsuccessful, the two souls will swap and the change will become permanent after 24 hours. Millie, Nyla, and Josh realize they have to recover the dagger so Millie can stab Butcher and regain her body before midnight.

Millie, Nyla, and Josh encounter Butcher in a hallway. Butcher shouts for two deputies, causing the three friends to flee in Josh’s car. Charlene chases the trio to the discount department store where Coral works. Millie hides in a changing room. Believing she is talking to a man, Coral speaks to Millie through the door. Millie ends up comforting her mother over her father’s death while also affirming her love for Coral. Coral awkwardly asks Millie out on a date, which Millie gets out of by claiming to be a married man.

Nyla and Josh help Millie escape by disguising her in an Aaron Rodgers mask. Using Instagram, the friends track Butcher to a mini-golf arcade where he is with Booker. Millie, Nyla, and Josh arrive in time to stop Butcher from killing Booker.

Millie, Nyla, and Josh capture Butcher and tie him up at Josh’s house. Millie convinces Booker about the body swap by revealing she wrote him a romantic poem anonymously left in his locker. Josh stays behind to watch Butcher while Millie, Nyla, and Booker drive to the police station to steal the dagger.

Josh’s mother comes home. Josh tries to explain why it looks like Millie is tied up by claiming they are involved in sexual role-play. Butcher gets loose and chases Josh and his mom.

While Nyla distracts Charlene at the police station, Millie and Booker confess their mutual crush in the car. Millie and Booker kiss, even though Millie is in an adult man’s body.

Charlene catches Nyla trying to steal the dagger. Butcher and Millie separately enter the scene. In the commotion of Millie trying to convince Charlene what happened, Butcher escapes with the dagger. Charlene tries to arrest Millie, but Millie uses the strength of Butcher’s body to lock Charlene in a cell.

Millie, Nyla, Josh, and Booker rush to a party at the old mill that is also Butcher’s lair. At the party, Butcher murders three football players who attempt to rape him. Butcher also kills a closeted football player who kisses Josh.

Millie and Butcher fight. After a chase, Nyla and Josh manage to hold down Butcher. Millie recovers the dagger. Millie initially believes the countdown expired, but remembers Booker taught her a trick about setting her watch five minutes fast. Millie stabs Butcher, swapping their bodies back. Deputies arrive and gun down the real Butcher. Millie kisses Booker in her real body before reuniting with Coral and Charlene.

Butcher later escapes his ambulance. Butcher attacks Millie, Charlene, and Coral in their home, but the three women fight back and kill him.

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Review:

Serial killer. Teen girl. Magic dagger. An unsuccessful stabbing causes the polar opposite pairing to swap bodies. They have 24 hours to reverse the curse or else the switcheroo becomes permanent. What else does anyone need to know about this to-the-point premise?

Simplicity is the secret to “Freaky’s” success. Should you ever need a textbook example of fluid film structure, particularly for a crowd-pleasing comedic thriller, this is it. Director Christopher Landon and co-writer Michael Kennedy’s snappy script barely has an ounce of fat to slow it down or give it an unattractive bulge. Every element introduced directly services story. Side characters deceptively appear disposable in singular scenes only to bound back a second time to pay off gags you didn’t see set up. “Freaky” stays speedy with inventively gory kills staged with whiplash-inducing momentum to make them feel outrageously fantastical. Amidst a wealth of self-aware slasher savagery, the movie makes time for emotional moments that are surprisingly sweet without dampening action. Whether it’s being sassy, silly, stabby, or even sentimental, the breeziness behind “Freaky” makes the movie’s mixture an easy treat to swallow.

The other key ingredient in “Freaky’s” flavorful recipe for fright-spiked fun is Vince Vaughn. Some ado has been made of the actor’s entertaining embodiment of a high school girl in a man’s big body, with some swooning fans baking up imaginary Oscar buzz. Awards of that caliber aren’t in any realm of possibility, though that’s not to say Vaughn’s role isn’t a winner.

Vaughn’s performance is still on the shtick-y side. Giving himself the gait of an inexperienced girl trying to maneuver a bulky frame, which is oddly ironic since main character Millie also performs as the varsity football mascot, Vaughn runs in a non-masculine yet not necessarily effeminate manner where his elbows suddenly become rubber. Shrill screams and manic panicking join his circus act repertoire too. Vaughn does take it down several notches when quieter scenes require subtler touches. Just know that how well you take to “Freaky” directly correlates to affinity for Vince Vaughn’s rapid speaking style and physical pratfalls. If Vaughn doesn’t usually amuse you, neither will “Freaky.”

A knock-on effect of Vince Vaughn’s exaggerated scenery eating is that co-star Kathryn Newton gets a comparative short shrift by having to play a silent stalker in a young woman’s body. While Vaughn juices up on Jolt cola and goes for broke, Newton tilts her head down, tilts her eyes up, and walks like a slightly slower Terminator. She gets to turn the tables on her various bullies in thoroughly menacing fashion, except through no fault of her own, her material doesn’t demand the multifaceted pop of her counterpart’s.

The film doesn’t rely heavily on typical body swapping plot points, e.g. “stranger in a strange person” navigation, getting other people to believe what’s happening, and finding a way to set the situation straight. You accept the idea immediately because it’s the movie you signed up for. Unconcerned with the facts behind their fiction, Landon and Kennedy don’t devote a single second more than is essential for explanations, with charming characters coming to accept the impossible in record time. The countdown clock keeps pressing “Freaky” to blow by setup stuff only for quick jokes so the nimble runtime can focus on meatier matters.

Some of the best bits employ body swap trappings to explore altered territory for tropes. When his alarmed mother asks about Millie being tied up and gagged in their dining room, Millie’s gay guy friend Josh tries to come out as straight with a cover story about kinky role-play. Not willing to miss a moment to express his true feelings, Millie’s crush Booker makes the gutsy choice to have a romantic heart-to-heart complete with kissing even though Millie is in Vince Vaughn’s body. “Freaky” toys with irreverence regularly, and flirting with cheekiness pays dividends almost every time.

It’s a shame “Freaky” ends on its only bad sequence. The awkward ending seems like something rushed into a rework after a focus group screening, or a scene in need of a focus group to identify that it doesn’t work. An empowerment message lurks underneath this epilogue, yet the clunky action accompanying it concludes “Freaky” on a quizzical note. At least it’s not enough of an offense to override the smoothly satisfying taste up until that point.

A spiritual sister to “Happy Death Day” (review here) in more ways than one, “Freaky” affirms Christopher Landon and his collaborators have a distinctive corner all to themselves in the category of hip, humorous horror. “Freaky” doesn’t worry about birthing a franchise, filling a preordained spot on a studio’s slate, or phoning it in. The movie does its own thing, everyone has a good time doing it, and that energy carries over to viewers enjoying the madcap mania at home.

Review Score: 75

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