Freaky Review
I’m really tired of the latest trend to turn every movie and subject into a “woman power” thing. I don’t believe it’s absolutely wrong, but I do believe that they don’t know how to make it right. All those new movies are just the same thing. A woman protagonist or a group of women just kick mens’s asses. Yeap it’s fun and all that staff, but there is nothing fresh or new on ’em. But in this case, i think they NAILED it. The story is gory and absolutely savage. Tons of laughs, even the jump scares are on point. Although, the most important thing is, that this film does not take itself too seriously. I mean it slides like it should be. No pressure and hidden messages. It builts its characters nicely and the climax is everything. Woman power of course, but in an smooth and glorious way. Now we can all say it.. YOU GO GURL!
I really like where Vince Vaughan’s career has gone in later years. He was undoubtedly one of the funniest actors working in the business in his earlier years, but these days he’s more than happy to show his versatility. Films like ‘Hacksaw Ridge’, ‘Brawl in Cell Block 99’ and ‘Arkansas’ have benefitted so much because of his presence. Now a film like ‘Freaky’ comes along where he gets to play two characters, and does both masterfully. As a giant, menacing serial killer his is highly credible, and then playing a teenage girl in a giant’s body he is hilarious to watch. This was a fun ride.
The film starts with a truly great opening sequence. It was tense, funny, smart and creative. Not enough horror movies — or any genre of films to be fair — remember the importance of starting their films off with a bang. There are some extremely dumb characters decisions that are going to annoy some people, although at times the decisions almost seemed so dumb that the movie may have been parodying the genre. I’m not entirely sure about that one.
‘Freaky’ is ‘The Hot Chick’ meets ‘Freaky Friday’ meets… pick any slasher horror movie you like. The concept was a lot of fun and the movie itself worked pretty well due to some smart writing and good casting. There’s a lot to like here. My advice would be just sit back and enjoy the ride.
This was a fun watch. Vince Vaughn nailed the teen girl behavior and was hilarious….conversely, he also nailed the crazy killer vibe. Kathryn Newton was great as a serial killer trying to be a teen girl. This was well casted, and like I said….just a fun watch. Thumbs up!
Mashing up genres and recalling mean teen cinema’s finest moments, Freaky delivers a fun new take on the slasher, but fails to embed itself as anything more.
Millie gets attacked one night by mythical madman, “The Blissfield Butcher,” while waiting to be picked up from school. She survives the attack but wakes up the next morning in his room of horrors, and he wakes up in what looks exactly like his idea of a room of horrors (Pitch Perfect posters, cutesy pajamas and a mum that just made banana french toast). Millie finds power in being a hulking monster of a man, and the Butcher finds it much easier to lure kids to their death (though, frustratingly, with the strength of a 17 year old girl who is not an athlete). Unlike the film it apes most of its material from, not many lessons are learned and so the film has to rely on its hyper gory kill scenes and cast chemistry to do the heavy lifting.
The main attraction here is Vince Vaughan. Having disappeared from mainstream cinema for a while, he’s back in fine action as both a sadistic killer of horny teens and as a shy, nice girl. Any scene that lets him (as Millie) rediscover her new body is just hilarious. Unfortunately, for Kathryne Newton, the job is much harder. She has to play both the shy, nice girl, and the hulking masked killer, without the mask. The latter is never consistent enough despite some times being funny and menacing. This is probably because the Butcher is not at all defined before the swap, so Newton has to create a new character within a new character, and stick to it.
The film has to juggle its existence as a genre flick while also working within the confines of both a Teen coming of age/ school sucks frame. Unfortunately, it doesn’t succeed fully to find interesting angles, and, while direction is tight, there’s some inconsistencies in the delivery of so many references. Still, it is worth the watch, for Vaughn alone, and I can’t wait to see how any sequels will play out!