An ingenious slasher movie spin on Freaky Friday is both fun and funny and features an unlikely, pitch perfect performance from Vince Vaughn
There’s a stinging sense of cruelty to just how much fun one can squeeze from the high-concept
comedy horror Freaky, a film that most of us won’t get to enjoy with the large, audibly reactive audience it so demands, a giddy crowd-pleaser that will only get to please the smallest of crowds. Its entertainment value is bittersweet, as thrilling to watch as it is melancholy to think on, another wistful reminder that communal experiences such as the cinema are difficult, if not impossible, in many places, to come upon at this moment. But if you do have a chance to see it, safely, and modestly, on the big screen (it’s forgoing a multi-platform premiere), then I still recommend it highly, for even an imperfect consumption will provide more pleasure than most films have this year, a November surprise that we all truly deserve.
Like the writer-director Christopher Landon’s 2017 sleeper hit Happy Death Day, Freaky is a throwback slasher spliced together with the plot of a much-loved family-friendly comedy and while his murder loop Groundhog Day homage was patchy but pacey enough (and a masterpiece in comparison with its God-awful sequel), second time proves more of a charm, creases smoothly ironed out. The classic being thrown into the blender on this occasion is Freaky Friday, explaining the otherwise off-putting title, with Landon swapping the bodies of killer and victim – a smart conceit that also yields even smarter results. And this is what is most refreshing about his work here, that he doesn’t just rely on his gimmicky elevator pitch to sell an entire movie but instead delves deeper, elevating a “what if?” punchline into something surprisingly substantial, even soulful perhaps, a rare Saturday night schlock horror with more on its mind than mere mayhem.