A high-concept film combining elements of films like "Freaky Friday", "Friday the 13th" and "Scream", "Freaky" is entertaining enough for people who don't mind the mingling of disparate genres. If you don't like taking liberties with genres, well, then, for a family friendly comedic Disney film, see the original "Freaky Friday", which starred a very young Jodie Foster (15 years old). For a straight horror film see "Friday the 13th". "Scream" is a self-aware slasher film which had fun with the genre and its tropes.
For fans of slasher slash horror films, "Freaky" is par for the course as far as the gore goes for MA 15+ films. The plot involves two people unintentionally swapping bodies: a middle-aged man who is a serial killer (played by Vince Vaughn) and a teenage high school girl ("Millie", played by Kathryn Newton). I can't say that "Freaky Friday" started off that genre of story but it's where I first came across it as a child, watching rental videos. Now, obviously, you're wondering how on Earth two people can swap bodies. You're overthinking things! Just go with it!
The film is amusing enough in the comedy department. Can you imagine a cute teenage girl trying to be a serial killer? Absurd, right? Well...not as sublimely ridiculous as an even younger "Hit-Girl" (played by Chloë Grace Moretz when she was 12 years old) in the gloriously violent superhero film "Kick-Ass". When "Freaky" is not being bloody or sexual (sex scenes are minimal in this film but there is sexual talk and moments of sexual menace), it does later come across as a comedic Disney action film.
The only person whose name I knew in the cast was Vince Vaughn, which I knew for his work in comedy films (right now I can't think of a film that I've seen with him in it but I'm not a film nerd). I can't say that I could have come up with his name to star in a film in which he plays a serial killer whose body is inhabited by a teenage girl. However, if someone had mentioned his name I'm sure that I would gone along with it as an appropriate choice. It's hard to say what names that I would have come up with for this role. Steve Carrell, perhaps, though he is terminally short and one scene would have been weakened with a short man doing it (the scene with Vince and a teenage boy in a shower room at high school).
Whilst you get scenes of bloody horror, you do get meta humour and sociological satire. Millie is not a stereotypical teenage girl like you see in Hollywood films. She's attractive but bland, like her female best friend, Nyla (played by Celeste O'Connor). Her male best friend, Josh (played by Misher Osherovich) is gay and sassy and is the most interesting of the three of them. He comes up with some of the meta humour and sociological observations in the film.
"Freaky" is not a film that takes itself seriously but that being said, it does its mocking with a straight face. Vince Vaughn perhaps best exemplifies that. Playing a teenage girl, he is almost subtle with it. He doesn't over-egg the pudding of his performance. In fact, there is a really 'interesting' scene with his character in the back seat of a car with a teenage boy who Millie has a crush on. The two actors in this scene must know how absurd the film is at this point but they bravely push on. Vince could quite possibly earn an Academy Award for Best Actor just for this scene!
I don't know if there are plans for any sequels to this film, turning it into a franchise. That being said, if they do plan sequels, I'd be surprised if they surprised me with what direction they wanted to take things. I've seen the first few "Friday the 13th" films and I've casually read about some of the further sequels its spawned. It's hard to imagine any sequels to "Freaky" breaking new ground, whatever direction they wanted to take things. On the topic of being predictable and I don't mean this in a negative sense, I could tell what was going to happen at the climax of a scene where Millie is trying to regain her body from the serial killer. I feel pleased with myself for having being able to recall the scene which presaged that moment. Maybe I should rewatch that scene though to make sure that it makes sense and there are no plot holes in it.
Before I forget, there must be some dark wish-fulfilment occurring in this film. I don't have a degree in English Literature, so I can't posit in detailed terms Freudian notions of transference or whatever but I do have to observe that the choice of murder victims is well set up and you could theorise notions of dark desires, displacement, transference or schizophrenia in these choices. To be more transparent about what I'm saying, I'm suggesting that these are the kind of everyday choices that ordinary people might fantasise about after a bad experience with someone.
Lastly, I do have to mention some plot holes...or just self-aware absurdities created for the film. Firstly, the first murder committed by the serial killer in their new guise...and what, exactly, was that device doing in a high school changing room? Secondly, how, exactly, was the serial killer able to continue on, after the 'resolution' to the body swap issue after they'd been...
...with regards to that second plot hole, that pretty much seems a bog standard scenario for those slasher films where the killer is like the ones in "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween".
Oh, the score for the end credits reminded me of the theme from the film "Jaws".
For fans of slasher slash horror films, "Freaky" is par for the course as far as the gore goes for MA 15+ films. The plot involves two people unintentionally swapping bodies: a middle-aged man who is a serial killer (played by Vince Vaughn) and a teenage high school girl ("Millie", played by Kathryn Newton). I can't say that "Freaky Friday" started off that genre of story but it's where I first came across it as a child, watching rental videos. Now, obviously, you're wondering how on Earth two people can swap bodies. You're overthinking things! Just go with it!
The film is amusing enough in the comedy department. Can you imagine a cute teenage girl trying to be a serial killer? Absurd, right? Well...not as sublimely ridiculous as an even younger "Hit-Girl" (played by Chloë Grace Moretz when she was 12 years old) in the gloriously violent superhero film "Kick-Ass". When "Freaky" is not being bloody or sexual (sex scenes are minimal in this film but there is sexual talk and moments of sexual menace), it does later come across as a comedic Disney action film.
The only person whose name I knew in the cast was Vince Vaughn, which I knew for his work in comedy films (right now I can't think of a film that I've seen with him in it but I'm not a film nerd). I can't say that I could have come up with his name to star in a film in which he plays a serial killer whose body is inhabited by a teenage girl. However, if someone had mentioned his name I'm sure that I would gone along with it as an appropriate choice. It's hard to say what names that I would have come up with for this role. Steve Carrell, perhaps, though he is terminally short and one scene would have been weakened with a short man doing it (the scene with Vince and a teenage boy in a shower room at high school).
Whilst you get scenes of bloody horror, you do get meta humour and sociological satire. Millie is not a stereotypical teenage girl like you see in Hollywood films. She's attractive but bland, like her female best friend, Nyla (played by Celeste O'Connor). Her male best friend, Josh (played by Misher Osherovich) is gay and sassy and is the most interesting of the three of them. He comes up with some of the meta humour and sociological observations in the film.
"Freaky" is not a film that takes itself seriously but that being said, it does its mocking with a straight face. Vince Vaughn perhaps best exemplifies that. Playing a teenage girl, he is almost subtle with it. He doesn't over-egg the pudding of his performance. In fact, there is a really 'interesting' scene with his character in the back seat of a car with a teenage boy who Millie has a crush on. The two actors in this scene must know how absurd the film is at this point but they bravely push on. Vince could quite possibly earn an Academy Award for Best Actor just for this scene!
I don't know if there are plans for any sequels to this film, turning it into a franchise. That being said, if they do plan sequels, I'd be surprised if they surprised me with what direction they wanted to take things. I've seen the first few "Friday the 13th" films and I've casually read about some of the further sequels its spawned. It's hard to imagine any sequels to "Freaky" breaking new ground, whatever direction they wanted to take things. On the topic of being predictable and I don't mean this in a negative sense, I could tell what was going to happen at the climax of a scene where Millie is trying to regain her body from the serial killer. I feel pleased with myself for having being able to recall the scene which presaged that moment. Maybe I should rewatch that scene though to make sure that it makes sense and there are no plot holes in it.
Before I forget, there must be some dark wish-fulfilment occurring in this film. I don't have a degree in English Literature, so I can't posit in detailed terms Freudian notions of transference or whatever but I do have to observe that the choice of murder victims is well set up and you could theorise notions of dark desires, displacement, transference or schizophrenia in these choices. To be more transparent about what I'm saying, I'm suggesting that these are the kind of everyday choices that ordinary people might fantasise about after a bad experience with someone.
Lastly, I do have to mention some plot holes...or just self-aware absurdities created for the film. Firstly, the first murder committed by the serial killer in their new guise...and what, exactly, was that device doing in a high school changing room? Secondly, how, exactly, was the serial killer able to continue on, after the 'resolution' to the body swap issue after they'd been...
...with regards to that second plot hole, that pretty much seems a bog standard scenario for those slasher films where the killer is like the ones in "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween".
Oh, the score for the end credits reminded me of the theme from the film "Jaws".