Freaky is a comedy slasher film that explores the body swapping gag in a new way. It is a Blumhouse Production directed by Christopher Landon, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Kennedy. Vince Vaughn stars alongside Kathryn Newton, Katie Finneran, and Alan Ruck.
Vince Vaughn plays the Blissfield Butcher who wanders around town on the hunt for teen-agers to kill. After adding to his body count, he makes off with an ancient dagger with some strange powers. When the Butcher sets his sights on a shy, bullied girl named Millie, played by Newton, his plans go awry when the dagger casts a spell which has the air switch bodies. Millie has only twenty-four hours to retrieve the dagger from the police evidence locker, find the Butcher who has adapted to using his new disguise to add a few more notches to the aforementioned body count.
So once again, the body swapping plot device is in play, which usually is handled rather clumsily. This particular idea was actually rather amusing in an expectedly grotesque sort of way. Newton’s shift to the Butcher persona was rather compelling. Vince Vaughn acting like a teen-age girl could be rather hilarious. The weak moments in his performance have more to do with the writing than his effort. The rest of the cast was fine. Newton and Vaughn do pretty well carrying the heavy load of this film.
Yeah, the film is rather stupid in many ways, however it still manages to avoid being irredeemably bad. If one is in the mood of some entertaining, gruesome absurdity, this one delivers.
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