Freaky: Genuinely Fun Horror – Amazon Rental Review

A girl and a masked slasher switch bodies. Hilarity and gore ensue.

SUMMARY

For decades the people of Blissfield have been attacked by the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn), a masked slasher. During one of his newest attacks, the Butcher acquires the dagger of La Dola. The next day, he attacks local teen Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton), who manages to survive after being stabbed in the shoulder after her police officer sister, Char (Dana Drori), arrives and scares the killer away. The next day, Millie awakes inside of the Butcher’s body and vice-versa. Now the murderer is plying his deadly trade in her body and she has to convince her best friends Nyla and Josh (Celeste O’Connor and Misha Osherovich) to help her get her body back before the high school is a bloodbath.

END SUMMARY

Taking place in the same universe as Happy Death Day and its sequel, apparently, this movie also took that film’s idea of “take a comedy premise and make a horror film,” this time combining Freaky Friday with Friday the 13th. The film even drives this home by having the events take place on that day, making it quite literally Freaky Friday the 13th. It’s with that kind of deliciously terrible humor that this movie starts and it just keeps going from there. 

A lot of this movie’s success is due almost entirely to Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton. Each one has to play both the villain and the heroine and they both nail it. Vince Vaughn’s portrayal of a teen girl in the body of an aging serial murderer (complete with above-average strength) is so perfect that you can even understand why some of the characters in the film start to buy it so completely. Kathryn Newton, on the other hand, has to play Jason Vorhees if he was a cheerleader. She’s cold and ruthless and wants to kill everyone, but also, she weighs like 98 pounds, something that makes many of her attempts to commit homicide genuinely comical.

This movie is further proof that one of the best ways to make a comedy movie is to take a ridiculous premise and treat it completely genuinely. Yes, this dialogue is pretty funny and the movie benefits from that, but most of the humor really just comes from how sincerely everyone plays this absurd idea. 

Overall, if you’re a fan of horror or dark comedy, this is a must-see. 

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