Freaky is a horror movie about high school through the Blumhouse filter! There are some horror movie premises that are just too on the nose, in the case of Freaky, it’s in the title, the body switching of Freaky Friday (1976) and the reboot in 2003. Similar to Happy Death Day (2017) is Groundhog Day (1993), but with a twist, some horror, and fun that are in Blumhouse movies. The director and co-writer is Christopher Langdon who also took on the same duties with Happy Death 2 U (2019) and directed the first Happy Death Day. His co-writer is Michael Kennedy who worked on the cartoon show, Family Guy. We start with a red-soaked studio opening. It opens with the bloody title, "Wednesday the 11th", as we get a house. In the backyard is two teen couples telling stories about the Blissfield Butcher. He kills teens at Homecoming. One joker guy spills beer on a teen girl, Ginny, and follows her as she goes into her house. She shows the guy the antique collection, skulls and various artifacts, of Ginny's father.
The teens are all kinda jerks so you can see Kills written all over their faces. The joker teen goes down to the basement to find a bottle of wine, he instead discovers the Butcher (Vince Vaughn) and that his choice of wine is not healthy. Vaughn of course is known for comedies like Wedding Crashers (2005), but also he was in the drama series, True Detective. There is some cleverness here in the body switch, but we don’t really get too much of The Butcher’s reason for killing, he’s just a killer. He wears a skull-like mask. Meanwhile, we get Ginny and her boyfriend, but the Butcher hunts them down. The Butcher chases Ginny to her house and throws a spear at her. She runs to the closet and is able to hide from the serial killer. Ginny’s parents return home. Still, the Butcher is able to make his kill and then sees a dagger in the antique collection. This shifts to morning, with teen girl, Millie Kessler (Katheryn Newton), waking up. Newton was Lucy Stevens in Pokemon Detective Pikachu (2019) and plays Cassie Lang in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Millie is the bullied girl who of course changes with a serial killer’s style.
The date is seen, it is Thursday the 12th. Millie goes to breakfast, and sees her mother, Coral (Katie Finneran) and older sister and police officer, Charlene (Dana Driori). Finneran was in the Brockmire series and Driori was in the High Fidelity show. Charlene is called away. Millie walks to school and picked up by her friends, Josh (Misha Osherovich) and Nyla (Celeste O’Connor). Osherovich was in the drama, The Goldfinch (2019) and his character has some funny remarks. O’Connor was in the Wetlands (2019) film. They are all seniors and head to Blissfield High School. Josh and Nyla head to class and Millie is bullied by Ryler (Melissa Collazo). The actress starred in the Swamp Thing show in 2019. She looks over from her locker to her crush, Booker (Uriah Shelton). The actor was in the Looking for Alaska Hulu series. Millie shows up late to woodshop class, Mr. Bernardi (Alan Ruck) is not happy about Millie. Ruck was known as Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Woodshop, you know there are some deadly tools there. Millie gets a text about the murders that goes out to all of the students. The friends up at the empty drama stage.
Night, at the Homecoming football game, the beaver mascot, gets a can thrown by a football player. It is Millie, not a cheerleader, but a mascot. Afterwards, Millie sees her friends, but stays behind waiting for her mother to pick her up. Later, she calls home, but Coral has fallen asleep drunk. Officer Charlene sees that she is asleep and calls her sister. Millie then sees the shadowy form of the Butcher! She runs then hides under the bleachers. The Butcher suddenly appears and Millie has to run in her beaver mascot costume! He tackles her and then raises up the skull dagger, the jewel-like eyes of the dagger glows red. It pulls back to an Aztec pyramid and the Butcher stabs Millie in the shoulder. He sees blood from his own shoulder and runs away as Charlene checks on Millie. At the police station, Coral sees her daughter, and then she sees the dagger taken to the evidence locker. At home, Millie is troubled by visions of the serial killer, and then wakes up, but it is not Millie. The actors have fun in the role reversal parts!
Then, we move to the hanging animals and mannikins at the lair of the Butcher. He wakes up looking at the mirror, it is Friday the 13th! Coral prepares breakfast for Millie and she shoves the meal into her mouth. Millie picks up her mother’s knife, we see reflections of her face in the blade, and she sees Charlene. At the town square, there is a profile of the Butcher shown on the news, he walks the streets, but is recognized! Millie Butcher looks through her closet and finds a red leather jacket. She walks silently through a cheerleader celebration. Impressive, that the Butcher knows how to apply make-up. She finds her friends joining her, but Ryler cuts in to check on her new found celebrity. They go to the locker room and it does not go well. Millie Butcher goes to the school and tries to get the help of Nyla and Josh. They discover the name of the dagger, La Dola (Spanish for “The Pain”), has cursed Millie and the Butcher. There is some funny lines and moments with Vaughn as Millie, a little clever, and there is still some gory moments! Freaky is a fun horror movie with some nasty kills and the Blumhouse touch!
Four La Dola Daggers out of Five!
#Freaky, #ChristopherLangdon, #VinceVaughn, #KathrynNewton
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