Freaky (film): A nice twist on the classic tale for Halloween

Every spooktober Netflix brings out the Halloween films as we would always expect them to do. For the most part these are films that everyone has seen before but in the case of Freaky not only had I not seen it, but I had never even heard of it.

The "genre" of Freaky Friday where two people switch bodies is not a new concept and we have seen this performed in mostly a comedic way. Freaky mixes things up a bit in that the body swap happens between a teenage girl and a serial killer, who is wonderfully played by Vince Vaughn.

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I think that when people think of Vaughn they fail to recognize or remember that despite his mostly comedy presence in films he is actually a really big guy and can be intimidating, especially when standing side by side with teenagers or at least actors in their 20's that are pretending to be teenagers. At 6 foot 5 inches, Vince seems more at home on a basketball court than in films and he was basically perfect for this role because it actually is quite humorous seeing the giant man need to take on the mannerisms of a teenage girl.

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Still images don't do his performance justice and I am sure that he had to be very careful to play the role in such as way to appear feminine but not in a mocking sense. The movie was released in 2020 after all and this was when I feel that at least in the United States, PC-culture was at its pinnacle. I'm certain there were some perpetually offended people that had a problem with it, but I found it to be a lot of fun.

Conversely, Kathryn Newton had to adapt the mannerisms of a mentally-ill serial killer but do it inside of a blonde teenage girl's body. I think she did an OK job but is overshadowed by Vince's performance. I think this was always going to be the case as Vaughn is definitely the star here despite having almost the same amount of screen-time as Newton.

"Millie's" body being the new home of the serial killer is no cakewalk either. Sure, she has anonymity that the killer didn't enjoy while in the old body, but she faces a lot of difficulties when attempting to kill people such as the dramatically reduced strength. When in Millie's body the killer continually tries to overpower people but finds the he is very limited in what he can do.

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Likewise, while in Vaughn's body Millie is constantly amazed at how fast and strong she is. I suppose this doesn't sound all that funny but when you are watching it, it will be. This also could have pissed off some feminists back in good ol' 2020 because there are some people out there that refuse to believe that a man is more physically capable than a woman's. I applaud them for releasing this film regardless though. I think they were able to get away with this because the screenplay was written by two openly-gay writers. Who knows? It's a fun way to spend 90 minutes and the overall consensus was that more than 80% of people enjoyed it. I count myself in this upper crust.

Although gory at parts, for the most part this movies is very tame and while I wouldn't go showing it to the children just yet, I think that for people that generally don't appreciate horror films will still enjoy this because it isn't really a horror movie so much as it is a delightful mixture of the traditional slasher trope mixed with an unlikely body-swap twist.

Should I watch it?

I think out of all of the Halloween offerings available on Netflix at the moment that this is one of the better ones. It isn't going to give you nightmares or haunt you afterwards but it is a perfectly acceptable way of spending an hour and a half. It isn't a laugh riot and some of the characters are annoying but this is easily made up for by the stellar and unusual performance of Vince Vaughn. I think most people will enjoy it.