Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christopher Landon
Starring: Kathryn Newton, Vince Vaughn, Celeste O’Connor, Misha Osherovich, Uriah Shelton, Dana Drori, Katie
Finneran, Alan Ruck
Director Christopher Landon's horror-comedy
Happy Death Day
offered a clever, refreshing spin on the
Groundhog Day format of a protagonist being forced to
relive the same day over and over until they can find a way to break the
cycle. That movie's protagonist was a bitchy sorority sister who kept
getting murdered by a masked killer, waking up at the beginning of the
very same day when her lifeforce has been drained. To break that cycle,
Happy Death Day's anti-heroine had to transform herself from the person most likely to
die in a slasher movie, the vacuous airhead, to the person most likely
to survive – the 'Final Girl', the likeable heroine who bravely puts
others before her.
With his latest, Freaky, Landon delivers a horror spin on another classic comedy trope.
Remember all those '80s body swap comedies, where young people would
swap bodies with pensioners or boys with girls? Well in
Freaky it's a classic Final Girl type, a shy high
schooler, who swaps bodies with a hulking masked killer. Surely the
original title must have been 'Freaky Friday the 13th'?
Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) is the embodiment of the classic
Final Girl, a shy, bookish teen who wears dowdy clothes and can't pluck
up the courage to ask out the boy she likes. The Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn) is the classic slasher antagonist, a lumbering psychopath who kills
everything in his path. When they meet, it's murder.
Well, attempted murder. Cornering Millie late at night while she waits
for a lift from her wine-guzzling mother, the Butcher attempts to stab
her with an ancient Mayan dagger he stole from a local toff's
collection. Along with cutting his intended victim, the Butcher stabs
himself, and when Millie and the Butcher's blood mingle, their souls
transfer between their bodies. The Butcher is now trapped inside the
body of a teenage girl, while Millie finds herself encased in the
killer's giant frame.
Hijinks ensue as the Butcher embraces his new body, continuing his
killing spree under the guise of innocent Millie, while Millie and her
friends attempt to track down the Butcher to reverse the curse.
Much of the fun of Freaky comes from seeing Millie's
various detractors (she seems to be bullied by everyone from classmates
to teachers) die grisly deaths at the hands of the Butcher. While in
Millie's body, the Butcher only has the strength of her young frame,
which forces him to find novel ways to off his victims. Newton plays the
Butcher-inhabited Millie in the manner of Schwarzenegger's Terminator, a
focussed killing machine that always seem to be looking for its next
victim.
The comic highlights come from Vaughn as the Millie-inhabited Butcher.
Vaughn may recreate the movements and mannerisms of a teenage girl in
broad fashion, but it's undeniably amusing, arguably the actor's finest
comic performance since Swingers.
As with Happy Death Day, a subplot concerning a deceased parent (in this case Millie's father)
adds an element of pathos without ever detracting from the film's
breeziness. There's a genuinely affecting moment where Millie has a
conversation with her mother while in the body of the Butcher. Unaware
that she's speaking to her daughter, Mom opens up about her struggles
and Millie gets to fully realise exactly what her mother has been going
through. Isn't it always easier to tell your troubles to a stranger than
to your loved ones? Landon is the son of
Little House on the Prairie star Michael Landon, America's
Dad, who died while Christopher was 15 – make of that what you
will.
Like Happy Death Day, Freaky makes for perfect Friday night at the multiplex
fare, the sort of movie that keeps you entertained for a brisk 90
minutes but is so easy to enjoy you'll likely find yourself returning to
it at home every couple of years. The horror-comedy sub-genre has given
us some of the dumbest, most cynical movies imaginable, but Landon
appears to have nailed what makes these two flavours go together – an
appreciation and respect for both forms.
