When it comes to a purely entertaining, horror-comedy with a buckets of great practical gore and a wonderful ensemble of interesting and humorous characters, bolstered by two absolutely excellent performances by Katherine Newton and Vince Vaughn, further solidified by one of the finest handlings of that horror-comedy tone in a director I’ve seen in some time with Christopher Landon; frankly Freaky is f*cking fabulous. I loved damn near every minute of the thing and the only thing notching it down a few points today is a purely superfluous epilogue that I personally could have done without. Beyond that, Freaky really is one of my favourite films of the year thus far.

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At the heart of Freaky is the same concept that Landon and his writers brought to Happy Death Day, a classic movie formula subverted for horror-comedy potential, in that case the time-loop Groundhog Day type feature, here a high school body-switch movie gone array when the shy girl gets swapped by a literal serial murderer. Katherine Newton is our Millie, an introverted shy young woman whose friends Nyla and Josh (the terrific Celeste O’Connor and Misha Osherovich) are her only bearing in the world of high school, aswell as a major crush she holds for Uriah Shelton’s Booker Strode (the film is filled with such references to the horror films that it's lampooning, homaging and has clearly been deeply influenced by). The body-switch comes into play when Vince Vaughn’s Butcher stabs her using a ceremonial dagger from a previous house (where the films thrilling subversive yet wholly traditional opening quartet of great kills takes place, perfectly setting up the nature and power of the Butcher’s insane fury). First thing’s first, for as much as I will heap praise onto Landon a lot in this review, it seriously cannot be understated just how excellent both Vaughn and Newton are in this film, both perfectly embodying their original characters before then splitting that through the lens of the switch and creating a wholly new bizarre concoction of the two leads. Whereas Vaughn is of course the funnier of the two, delivering one of his best comedic performances since Dodgeball, he too perfectly brings a distinct and un-complicated bluntness to his original Butcher. A simple killer like a Michael or a Jason, not sullied by quips or creativity. But whereas Vaughn’s may be the funnier of the two performances, Newton’s certainly is the more dynamic and complex, as the Butcher takes over her and realises the potential of his new host body. The film certainly has a lot going for it, but Vaughn and Newton are indeed most certainly the films strongest assets.

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The script itself by Landon and Michael Kennedy playfully utilises and subverts tropes the whole way through, creating a web of wonderful references, whilst never losing focus on the plot mechanics at hand in this dynamic tale, nor do we ever lose focus on those imperative character moments that make the whole tale worth seeing in the first place. Along the way in these character moments we find the friendships and great humour of O’Connor and Osherovich, who are repeatedly given excellent lines and knock them out of the park when it comes to delivering them. Aswell as the very sweet and lovable Shelton as Millie’s big crush. Katie Finneran and Dana Dori as Millie’s mother and sister bring an emotional weight to the film, whilst too bringing humour and more so in the case of Dori a serious sense of dread and tension in her role as a police officer. Alan Ruck even shows up to give a great turn as an overly sadistic woodshop tutor. All in all the biggest factor to Freaky’s success is the overwhelming feeling that everybody is on the exact same page, an absolutely key factor to any film such as this that straddles multiple genres. That concoction of genre and tone must be so tightly configured that everybody whether in performance, cast or crew must know exactly what is trying to be achieved. It’s my humble opinion that Freaky does just that and is the first film in a while where I feel the urge to see it in a cinema again.

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An excellent 8/10, giving its audience exactly what it wants at every turn, whilst still delivering a fresh and exciting horror spin on a classic body-switch formula whilst never losing grasp on the horror or indeed the humour of it all. Vaughn and Newton are truly sublime and Landon really can put a firm post in the ground of modern horror directors I will watch whatever they do next. I have a rule with new directors and the like, it’s a scientific principle. Two is a coincidence. Three is a pattern. With Freaky Landon has made and will hopefully maintain one of the great horror patterns of this decade thus far.

SPOLIER P.S. Yeah, I was referring early on to the final showdown back at Millie’s house. For me I would have much preferred a cliff-hanger ending in the ambulance with the heart monitor clip being removed and his rate going down. However I can understand the need for Landon to put a firm stake through the heart of this film and these characters if he so wishes to not make a sequel to it. Afterall I am the world’s biggest advocate for the terrible Terminator 2 alternate ending, because afterall it would have made it impossible (almost anyway) for any more Terminator movies to have been made.  But in this case a cute little scary cliff-hanger would have worked well I feel and wouldn’t have hindered in any way a feeling of closure on this story and this film.

-        -  Thomas Carruthers