It would be easy to dismiss Freaky as a standard slasher film. It would be easy to dismiss Freaky as a standard teen film. It would be easy to dismiss Freaky as a standard body switch film. It would be easy to dismiss Freaky as a standard teen body switch slasher film. Hey, haven’t we seen this or forms of it? Of course we have.
Here’s what we haven’t seen: Fifty-year-old Vince Vaughn playing a high school girl and making out with –at the time- twenty-two-year-old Uriah Shelton, playing a high school boy…without a single hint of homosexuality or pedophilia in the scene. I give Freaky thumbs up for this moment alone. Not only is it damn brave, film-wise … it serves as a lesson to the generations above – for those of you trying to comprehend the sexuality of Gen Z, note that so much of Gen Z avoids both polarity and stereotype; their sexuality is, quite often, about personal connection first, labels second. It doesn’t matter that high school coed Millie had the appearance of fifty-year-old Vince Vaughn at the time; Booker fell in love with who Millie is, not what Millie currently resembles. Kudos to the actors and writer/director Christopher Landon. Well done, talents.
On to the movie. After Happy Death Day, we should all know that Landon has a thing about comedy horror … and he seems to be pretty good at it. This one starts out the standard slasher route – a small town with a maniac on the loose and he skewers several rich kids in bloody fashion. Without anyone alive to follow, the film becomes the Millie Show. Millie (Kathryn Newton, who continues to make good films) seems a standard movie trope – the girl who in her movie world is ostracized and abused but in reality would be homecoming queen at 85% of American high schools. We can forgive the trope when we realize that Millie is the mascot and not a cheerleader at the Homecoming football game.
When Millie’s PTSD mother fails to show after the game, the Butcher (Vaughn) does. Eventually tracking his victim down, the 
Butcher pierces Millie with some sort of ancient magical knife. Pretty soon Lindsay Lohan is Jamie Lee Curtis and vice versa. Wait, different Freaky film. Well, you get the idea. The Butcher wakes in Millie’s bed with the body of a hot teenager; Millie wakes up in an abandoned warehouse with the body of homeless drifter. Let the hijinks begin!
As I said above, it would be easy to dismiss this film for playing into the stereotypes of the genre – and you wouldn’t be wrong: there’s plenty of blood and bad choice making to satisfy slasher tropes; there’s in-fighting and clique behavior to satisfy teen tropes; and there’s plenty of exaggerated acting to satisfy the body switch folks. Freaky, however, is a little smarter than standard tropes. For one thing, Vaughn really does come across as a teen girl … so much so than when the inevitable switchback happens, I didn’t want to see him die. Similarly, I loved Millie’s take on empowerment, how even a serial killer gets the benefit if the doubt when it comes to sexual politics (yeah, like we didn’t know that one already). Without being really any of the three, Freaky is sometimes funny, sometimes smart, and sometimes poignant. I wouldn’t call it spectacular, but I sure as heck want to see the next film from Christopher Landon.
The body swap genre gives acting thrills in
Watching one actor while another fills in
Vince Vaughn’s gonna stew
With a real acting coup
Next time he’s gonna switch with Owen Wilson
Rated R, 102 Minutes
Director: Christopher Landon
Writer: Michael Kennedy, Christopher Landon
Genre: Bodybag switch
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who like it when standard tropes mix it up a little
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: MAGA
