Freaky Review

November 19, 2020 at 5:58pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a rather fun and interesting twist on the whole body swapping concept. They essentially merge the idea of Freaky Friday, with that of a slasher film. It’s rather brutal, and it does not hold back in any situation. It’s certainly modern in many of the concepts, and it provides a good amount of laughs while still keeping things serious enough the whole way through.

It’s also sort of charming in regards to the characters and how they interact with one another. At the same time it was very predictable, even prior to jumping into this one just from its trailer I had an idea of what would happen. It does throw a small surprise in here or there, but you can probably guess the just of this one purely by reading what the concept is.

Still, some shockingly well done performances lead the way and it keeps things focused on what’s going on. It’s got great pacing, a good quantity of deaths and of course lots of smaller scale action which is fun. The heart of this is really based around the leads. Strangely enough this might be the best performance I’ve seen from Vince Vaughn who nails the large terrifying killer alongside the girl stuck in a scary guy’s body.

Then there’s Millie (Kathryn Newton) who’s another one of those gorgeous girls they try to down dress who nails the shy girl and then overly confident monstrous killer. With that, I also loved how they didn’t try to hide the fact that both perspectives had to get used to their body. The killer was not used to the weaker young girl body whereas Millie certainly enjoyed the extra power provided.

I was also generally impressed with the presentation here, it looks great despite keeping the scale of everything quite intimate. The gore is beautifully showcased, as are some of the more generally gruesome moments.

It hits the typical slasher beats, but does go on its own to provide some stand out creative deaths which is harder to do these days. The acting was solid from everyone involved, with the leads of course standing out. I did find the joke timing to be well done, and it had some rather hilarious moments sprinkled throughout.

It’s creative in many ways, and perhaps shockingly memorable despite being such a straight forward sort of experience. I had a lot of fun watching, even though I could very well guess how things were going to go. I think the whole swapping aspect was just done well enough to make this engaging and perhaps a tad mysterious as well.

The Conclusion

Freaky provides a rather enjoyable, funny and gruesome take on the whole body switching concept. This really is headed by some interesting moments from both Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton. The former particularly standing out, but I also thought that Newton handled things very well when she went around getting down to business.

They hit the typical marks, but also do some surprise things throughout. They play around with the traditional slasher tropes in some fun ways, with the odd surprise here or there as well. It’s very predictable however, but you may be a tad jolted by the deliverance of the killings as they do not hold back.

Very creative and distinct in that presentation, which I hadn’t anticipated. They definitely waste no time with smooth pacing and fast paced action that keeps everything flowing. It’s also strangely grounded in terms of being realistic in how the bodies are used and how the characters attempt to fix things up. A straight forward, yet sill enjoyable slasher film.

Freaky Review at Theater with Standard Viewing

Rating Overall: 7.2