One of the best horror-comedies that we have seen in years has arrived on Blu-Ray, DVD, and various digital formats. Ready to get Freaky with Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton?
The switching bodies cinematic legacy is full of entries, and it just scored a worthy addition with the Vince Vaughn starring Blumhouse thriller Freaky.
As Freaky commences, Millie (Newton) is a somewhat moody teenage girl who feels her “friendship” with her mother is the only thing keeping the family matriarch (Katie Finneran) from completely drinking herself to death. Now, she just drinks herself to sleep every night. Millie’s older sister is the only one dealing with her father’s death constructively. Although, some professionals may argue that diving into her police work has made her a workaholic.
It’s been a year since the husband/father that held the family together died. Millie’s friends are supportive and patient. Josh (Misha Osherovich) and Nyla (Celeste O’Connor) even go to football games, something they’re not that keen to attend, to support Millie as she dons the giant Beaver head and mascot costume. They do agree, though, that something should change with their BFF and her family.
Freaky begins as so many classic slasher films do, with a quartet of killings in the most spectacular of manners. Vaughn is the serial slayer behind the disturbing mask (credit Blumhouse with another spectacularly spooky mask, a la Happy Death Day, and of course their return to Halloween). This is the most bombastic of beginnings, a surefire sign that fans of the slasher genre are in for a treat.
Freaky exhibits major self-awareness, something Blumhouse films usually possess in spades. A sense of history is always important in any film milieu but is especially the case with the horror/thriller. Writer-director Christopher Landon (who co-wrote the script with Michael Kennedy) gives his audience major winks—from the town’s name, that epic opening scene, and how that ties something to the entire film, a cursed dagger!
After that football game, Millie lets her pals go because she knows that her mum is just running late. Horror fans will immediately notice that this scene will serve as the classic killer’s introduction to our main protagonist. Sure enough, as lightning crashes and thunder booms, there is Vaughn (behind his mask). Millie yells out that her sister is coming to pick her up and that “she is a cop and has a gun.”
Think that stops the entity that is now being called the Blissfield Butcher? Nope!
What it does do is find fate sending our Freaky story into originality overdrive. That cursed dagger is in the Butcher’s hand and as he wields it into Millie’s shoulder, something extraordinary occurs. He spontaneously endures the same wound. Both subjects are shocked. Just then, Millie’s sister does show up and she does fire that gun—sending the Butcher running into the night.
When it hits both souls that they’ve switched bodies, it is the next morning. Millie looks into the mirror and is shocked at what is looking back at her. The Butcher is no longer a middle-aged man and awaking at an abandoned warehouse is Vaughn’s body with Millie inhabiting his mind. The teenager is simultaneously shocked, disgusted, and horrified. What she sees in the mirror is only the police artist’s sketch for this serial killer.
This situation presents the ripest of quandaries for both our subjects. The slasher can now go about their business across town without fear of being recognized. After all, nobody is searching for a female teenage blonde. The Blissfield Butcher is now free to kill at will, something Newton brilliantly embraces. She is now literally portraying a different character. On the other side of the coin, Vaughn channels his inner teen girl to our collective utter delight.
In the hands of two supremely talented thespians, Freaky is an utter blast. That old adage about if the performers are having fun, so too does the audience could not be truer than with what is presented with Vaughn and Newton. The dynamic duo has us smiling from ear-to-ear and yes, we are talking about a serial killer on the loose movie that produces the most joyous of responses.
After all, the movies—more often than not—are seen as an escape from the ills of the world. In the cinematic era (say, the last 100 years or so), the art of moviemaking has been there to enlighten, sure, but mostly… it is to entertain. Freaky is blissfully entertaining.
With every curse, there is always a way out and for Millie and the Butcher, but the clock is ticking. You have to love a filmmaker whose awareness of genre moviemaking is so spot-on that he knows that nothing adds layers of tension and suspense like a time frame. Something (no spoilers here!) has to occur by midnight or each soul will be stuck in that body for eternity. Can you imagine a teenager, stuck in a serial killer’s body, spending the rest of her years in prison for crimes you did not commit? That would drive even the sanest individual, insane.
Vaughn is clearly having a blast and that old adage is so true—if those up on the screen are having fun… so too will the audience. Acting is not a contest (even if they do pass out awards for the endeavor), but some may immediately compare the Wedding Crashers star’s aptitude at capturing female teens with what we saw from Jack Black in Jumanji: The Next Level. It’s apples and oranges. They are vastly different characters.
In some ways, the Vaughn performance is hardly a shock. His talent has long been documented. Newton’s turn completely surprises. Yet, if you look at her recent roles, the seeds of that talent were there all along.
Newton was astounding as Leslie Mann’s daughter in Blockers and stood toe-to-toe with acting giants in Big Little Lies as Reese Witherspoon’s daughter, Abigail. Lastly, her scene-stealing turn as the iconic character Amy March in the television miniseries Little Women in 2017 set this entire ball in motion.
Sure, Freaky is escapist entertainment, but it is much more than that on a visceral level. Horror films, in particular, can serve as a mirror to the society at large. Now, it doesn’t get too deep on the cerebral scale. But it does look at the entity of cliques and how the landscape that is high school can only define us if we let it.
After enjoying the utter joy that is the film, dive into the bonus features and learn how such an entertaining blast was crafted. Start with…
Christopher Landon’s Brand of Horror looks at the director whose work at combining comedy and horror seems almost effortless—which of course, means it was incredibly difficult. This featurette zeroes in on Landon’s envisioning of this world and how his excitement for this project permeated the cast and crew.
Next up, dive into Split Personalities: Millie vs. The Butcher. The key to this entire thing working has to be the connection between Vaughn and Newton, even though they are rarely in the same room. This is a fascinating featurette that highlights the uncanny talents that went into both thespians achieving greatness with their characterizations, and thus making Freaky fantastic.
A slasher movie is only as good as its so-called “kills” and Freaky has its share of off-the-wall death scenes. How those were achieved is brilliantly laid out in the extra Crafting the Kills. Don’t you just love it in a horror flick when someone “gets it” and it spawns a literal physical reaction from the audience? How each of the superbly sensational scenes was achieved lies at the heart of this featurette. You may even want to watch this one twice.
The idea of a so-called “Final Girl” is nothing new to the horror genre, dating back decades. Final Girl Reframed shows how Freaky took this concept and turned it on its head because Newton’s Millie is the “Final Girl” and as we’ve laid out here, she is anything like we’ve seen before.
Lastly, when witnessing the fabulousness of Freaky on subsequent viewings, I could not recommend the Feature Commentary with Co-writer/Director Christopher Landon enough. The filmmaker’s insight is not only informative, but wholeheartedly entertaining—like the film itself.
Film Grade: B+
Bonus Features: B+