Freaky (2020) Review

 "I want my body back!"

-Millie Kessler

Unpopular high school student Millie (Kathryn Newton) is attacked and nearly killed by the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn).  The next day, she discovers she has switched bodies with the Butcher.  With only a few hours left to switch back, Millie has to convince her friends to help her and stop the Butcher from using her body to continue his murderous rampage.

What Works:

Vince Vaughn is far and away the best part of the movie.  He starts off the movie by showing us how intimidating a killer he is, but he's also hilariously good at playing a teenager girl once the body switch happens.  It's really funny and frequently creepy.  It's get uncomfortable and weird often, but it's never not entertaining and it feels like he was having a blast in the role.

As I mentioned, the beginning of the movie does a great job at setting up the Butcher.  It's better than anything in any of the Friday the 13th movies.  We're introduced to a group of shitty teenagers, as you get in slasher movies, and before you know it, all four are brutally killed by the Butcher.  It's a lot of fun to watch these terrible characters get killed, but it also shows us how intimidating a villain the Butcher is.

Speaking of brutal kills, the gore in this movie is awesome.  For some reason, I thought this movie was rated PG-13 going in and, to my delight, I was dead wrong.  These kills are way over-the-top and bloody.  I love it!  Why make a slasher movie if you aren't going to have awesome kills?  This movie puts the blood pedal to the floor and takes us on one hell of a ride.

In slasher movies, all of our characters are usually boring or unlikable, if not both.  That makes it fun to watch them get killed off, but difficult to get invested in the story.  Freaky gives us the best of both worlds.  Our core group of characters are all super likable.  Some are funny and some at least have character development.  We also get a group of awful, horrible characters that we can't wait to see bite the dust.  We get to be invested in the plot and cheer when graphic murder occurs.  What more can you ask for?!

Finally, there is one really fun sequence that takes place in a haunted mini-golf course.  I already love mini-golf and that would be a great location for a chase with a psycho killer, but this is a haunted mini-golf course!  Haunted!  We get a spooky Halloween atmosphere that I love so much.  October has come and gone, but Freaky gives us one last taste of Halloween.

What Sucks:

I will admit, there are a few things that don't make sense.  I can forgive plot holes, especially in a movie about body switching, but it was a little annoying how unconcerned Millie was with being seen as the Butcher.  At one point she's walking down the school hallways with her friends having already been seen by a staff member, but she's not even trying to hide.  Later, they go to a discount store to get her a disguise, but instead of changing clothes, they just get her a Halloween mask to wear, which she barely does for the rest of movie.  She never changes out of the Butcher's clothes!  I just didn't buy it.

Also, when the Butcher takes over's Millie's body, he goes to school after basically giving himself a makeover.  All of a sudden Millie is hot.  No way.  The Butcher would not have been able to pull that off.  And if he was able to, the movie needed to set that up ahead of time.  The guy lives in an abandoned mill and seems to barely have any social capability.  I can't buy into this either.

Verdict:

Freaky is one of the most fun movies of the year with excellent performances, especially from Vince Vaughn, awesome kills, and entertaining sequences.  There are a few moments where the decisions the characters make don't make a ton of sense, but this movie has absolutely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good