'Freaky' Review: You Got Your Body-Switcheroo Comedy in My Slasher Flick!
0They call him the Blissfield Butcher, a serial killer who terrorizes students every year around homecoming time. The annual high school event is a big deal in this small town, and the type of ghost-story fodder that kids use to scare one another with around campfires and late-night keggers. As a quartet of teens quickly learn a few days before the big dance, however, the Butcher isn’t just an urban legend. He’s real. God forbid your parents are the sort of rich folks who dig collecting rare ethnic and indigenous art — all the better for this hulking brute to borrow a creepy African mask and use a primitive spear to impale a promiscuous young woman. (He’ll also use a tennis racket and a rare bottle of wine to kill his victims. Long live wealth status symbols as weapons!) It’s a dagger in a glass case that attracts the mass murderer’s attention, however. It’s called La Dola, historically used in ancient Mayan sacrifice rituals. That twisted visage on the handle, the one with the glowing red eyes, should make this the perfect addition to his arsenal of killing implements. So the Butcher — he’s played by Vince Vaughn; you learn his identity almost immediately — grabs it. The next day, Millie (Kathryn Newton), a young brainiac who’s catnip for bullies and d-bags alike, happens to be alone after the big football game. The Butcher shows up. She tries to hide. He finds her. Our heroine is about to become Corpse No. 5 when lightning strikes, the knife’s mystical properties are activated, and blammo! Millie’s sister Ginny (Kelly Lamor Wilson), a.k.a. the local cop, comes to her rescue and scares the maniac off. Cut, if you will, to the next day, as Millie awakens to discover her consciousness has been transferred into the Butcher. She’s now stuck inside his hulking frame. And guess who’s temporarily residing in her body? Reviews 65 Greatest Horror Movies of the 21st Century 'The Social Network' at 10: Fincher, Facebook and the Faking of an Empire Reviews 25 Best Pixar Movie Characters Bob Dylan's Greatest Collaborations Suddenly, the movie’s title makes a whole lot of sense: It’s called Freaky because, let’s be honest, Freaky Friday the 13th would have been just a bit too on the nose. You got your body-switcheroo comedy in my slasher flick! Sing it with us: Two great Eighties genres, tasting great together.… It’s a clever mash-up conceit that director/co-writer Christopher Landon and his cast milk for all its worth, none more so than the two leads. (We’ll come back to those two in a moment.) If you’ve seen the Happy Death Day movies — Landon directed both of these horrorcentric Groundhog Day riffs, and penned the second one — you know that he has a knack for grafting unexpected, familiar parts on to gorefests. Except you don’t need to be fluent in teen movies or mondo trash cinema to recognize how he and screenwriter Michael Kennedy cherry-pick elements from both categories in search of an elusive third-bowl-of-porridge recipe. The mean g