Freaky is an inventive blend of the horror and comedy genres in addition to being a surprisingly satisfying for fans of the Friday the 13th franchise.
Freaky is the latest film from director Christopher Landon, who’s previously gotten attention for his Happy Death Day movies. Freaky turns the ludicrous nature of a body swapping comedy into a brutal slasher movie and gets a lot of mileage out of the wild premise. Freaky features big scares and vicious violence, but the movie is a success because of the committed performances by its leads, Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, who has already made her mark on the genre within the franchise.
The jokes in Freaky work just as well as the kills do, and Landon’s work with Blumhouse's Happy Death Day movies are proof that the director is skilled with universe and its unstoppable slasher villain, Jason Voorhees.
Freaky begins with a graphic introduction where Vaughn’s Blissfield Butcher massacres several teens in a manner that feels like it’s deliberately supposed to resemble accumulates a body count in the double digits that would make Jason proud. The Butcher also takes advantage of his environment much in the same way that Jason Voorhees does with camp supplies. The Butcher improvises with whatever items are around him, whether it's sports equipment or tools from Millie’s woodworking class.
There is a lot of Friday the 13th’s DNA within Freaky, but the biggest differences between the horror movies ultimately come down to tone and the type of story that it wants to tell. It can be easy to root for Jason in Friday the 13th movies, but the audience genuinely wants to see Newton’s Millie Kessler survive. Freaky is also interested in Millie’s empowerment, so it doesn’t resort to any nudity, gratuitous or otherwise, despite its R-rating. However, it’s not impossible for Freaky to grow into a new Friday the 13th type franchise. The movie has already established supernatural events and a comedic baseline that would have benefitted the later Friday the 13th sequels.
Freaky is already so heightened that it’s exciting to think where it could go with a series of bigger sequels that follow in Friday the 13th’s footsteps. Vaughn’s Blissfield Butcher performance has such character behind it and it’s not hard to picture him somehow being brought back to life to terrorize more teens in another Freaky installment. And, for fans who are still waiting for a proper Friday the 13th sequel to arrive, it's a good replacement to make the wait a little easier.
