Delayed Reaction: Freaky

Premise: A teenage girl swaps bodies with a serial killer.

 

I imagine body swap movies are really easy to interest actors for. They are a great way to let performers play characters they never would in any other circumstance. The high-concept and even stilly premise makes it a free pass to look as stupid as they want. And, generally speaking, they get some amount of praise no matter how good or bad the performance actually is. Remember how people tried to push Jamie Lee Curtis into the Oscar conversation for a Freaky Friday performance that didn't actually resemble Lindsay Lohan very much?* Regardless, it's a clear pitch with tons of easy jokes. The biggest question is how it can be mixed with another genre.

 

*Jamie Lee Curtis played a generic high schooler trapped in her mother's body well, however there's wasn't much indication that she was trying to mimic anything Lohan was doing with the role pre-body swap.

 

On the basic fun level, Freaky works. It delivers exactly what it promises. It's a throwback slasher movie where a psychopath commits a bunch of creative murders. It has Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn gamely swapping characters for a number of jokes and sight gags. Newton has the much easier task. The Blissfield Butcher is a quiet, interior person. She rarely has to say anything as him, and when she does, it's specifically when he's trying to mimic what a teenage girl would sound like. Most of the time, she's just walking around looking like a badass. Vaughn has the tougher role, playing a teenage girl trapped in a 50-year-old man's body. Much like Jack Black in Jumanji, I think Vaughn plays a good generic high school girl, but I'm not sure how much he's playing Newton's character. That's not a huge deal, because the movie is more comedy than serious horror.
 

There were some very frustrating things about this kind of movie that I was pleased to see this one avoid. I love how quickly the friends believe Millie is in Vaughn's body now. Same with the love interest. I wasn't looking forward to a long stretch of Millie not being able to tell anyone. I also like how little interest the Blissfield Butcher has in trying to hide himself in Newton's body. It's smart to just stay quiet. And the movie does play with each of them discovering the limitations of their new bodies. Millie hasn’t adapted to being tall. The Butcher can't rely on strength anymore.

 

This is a movie that's best to not think too hard about. Even basic logistics like why they switched bodies at midnight rather than at the time of the attack don't really track. That's literally just there for script ease. I think this could've found room for a few more character moments. By the end, I still really didn't have a grasp of who Millie was as a person. Unlike a Happy Death Day, there would be no appeal to a sequel, since the character had to be generic enough for two actors to play.

 

Side Thought: Is Kathryn Newton a giant? I don't think she is. She looked normal height in most scenes. The internet says she's only 5'5. The scenes with her before she kills Melissa Collazo's character though make her look Elizabeth Debicki-sized. According to the internet, Collazo is 5'1. Was she wearing flats and Newton had some boots with heels? Or are 4 inches really that noticeable? Was this an intentional framing by the filmmakers? I'm far too interested in this one small aspect of the movie.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend