Freaky is a fun horror-comedy where you don’t have to think too hard and can sit back and enjoy the ride. It has all the gore someone would want in a slasher flick with some creative kills filled with cartoonish reactions. It mashes the genres up in a fun and interesting way while staying completely true to itself. 

 

The story revolves around a girl Millie (Kathryn Newton), with a usual messed up life whereby her family is in a mess like her ever since her father died. One night she becomes the victim of a serial killer (Vince Vaughn) who stabs her with an ancient mystical dagger that switches her body with the killer. After swapping bodies with the deranged serial killer, she discovers she has less than 24 hours before the change becomes permanent.

 

From Director Christopher Landon, Freaky is a fun-filled blood galore. While not perfect, it’s still a great entertainer joined together by amazing performances and a decent script. Both the horror and comedic aspects of the film are established well with graphic kills and actual moments of suspense while the characters, especially the leads, react to the absurdity of the situation. The main thing I didn’t like was that not too much backstory is given for the killers origins or the ancient knife responsible for the body swap. It’s a bit cartoonish as well and that works both in favor and against it at moments. For example, the lead is a despised girl who is constantly bullied in school because she doesn’t look like “other girls.” One day, she ties her hair, puts on a leather coat together with red lipstick, and now she a hot chick who grabs everyone’s attention. Though, those are minor things that do not drag down the immensely fun and well-crafted story.

 

Acting-wise, Vince Vaughn is just too good in both his characters and so is Kathryn Newton. They both completely own their characters. Though, as mentioned previously, the lack of development with Vince Vaughn’s character is a major drawback. Celeste O’Connor is good as Nyla and so is Misha Osherovich as Josh (Millie’s friends). The rest of the cast also do the required decent enough job.

 

A major asset of the film is the brilliantly executed set-pieces when it comes to killing. The Cinematography by Lorie Rose is also decent though it had some lighting issues. The Production Design team also did a decent job in creating the high school set up together with the aftermath’s of the killings even if it had to look cartoonish in some instances. Another asset was the Editing which showed great pace in build-up to the story carried all the way to the finish, though, as mentioned before, it could not pick up the exclusion of The Butcher’s or the knives back story. The music from Bear McCreary was disappointing, though, as it never gave you the chills of a horror-comedy.

 

Overall, Freaky is surprisingly a really good film filled with a fun rollercoaster of events and thrilling kills. Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton both play their roles excellently, and it could not have been as good without them. It’s really recommended. Please Hollywood make more mindless (not dumb), entertaining, movies.

 

 

STW: 22/30, D: 22/25, C: 7/8, E: 4/5, A: 7/10, PVD: 9/12, S: 4/10