FREAKY (2020)

FREAKY (2020)

Tagline: A body swap that cuts deep.

(Horror, Thriller, A Couple Funny Lines) [R]

Great. We're gonna be killed by Murder Barbie.

In this one, we have a slasher (named  “The Butcher”, because you know, originality matters*)who is just doing his thing one night when he discovers a skull-headed knife. The next night he takes his slasher ways to a nearby high school where he has a run-in with Millie Kessler. Before Millie’s sister who is a cop can chase “The Butcher” off, Millie is stabbed in the shoulder with the skull-headed knife but not killed. “The Butcher” is also wounded in the same spot. The next day both Millie and “The Butcher” are now in different bodies. They have 24 hours to break the curse or they are stuck that way forever. 

First off this movie gives nodes to just tons of horror flicks and pop culture. The most obvious is that the killer wears a mask similar to Jason’s from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III. There is also a slight nod to HALLOWEEN, SORORITY ROW and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER in here among other things. All that stuff is pretty cool. I love it when movies understand the genre and horror fans. 

Acting-wise “The Butcher” is aptly played by Vince Vaughn (best known for ANCHORMAN) who also has to play “Millie’s personality” in the movie and is quite effective overall. I would imagine this role was at least slightly difficult as was Kathryn Newton’s who plays both Millie and has to act like “The Butcher” for the majority of this movie. I will say that Kathryn was “just okay” here. I think that many young actresses could have pulled this off, but she was good in POKeMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU, so this isn’t a bash on her as an actress. Millie’s friend Nyla is played by Celeste O'Connor who does a solid job, but this entire cast is given some of the crappiest lines in a horror movie in quite some time, more on that in a bit. The rest of the cast is fine and is likable, so that really wasn’t a big issue here. 

Horror wise there are a couple scenes in this thing that are pretty gory which isn’t really my thing unless it’s done with some layers of cheese. The good news is that none of that is prolonged, so it’s not like that was a huge focus here. The atmosphere and score are pretty solid, but forgettable when you look at it from an “a bajillion horror flicks get made every year” perspective. One smart thing I thought they did in this was show how many dead animals “The Butcher” had around his place. Historically cruelty to animals (outside of hunting to eat them) is a tell-tale sign of sick things going on in that person's head that lead to even worse things. The movie seems to be saying, “if you know someone whose place looks like this, RUN!” anyway, but I thought that was a subtle nod to picking up on warning signs. Again, this movie isn’t really a comedy at its core. 

Unfortunately, this movie just isn’t that funny at all given the promising premise. In place of humor in this supposed “comedy horror”, we get an unexpected emotional level and a fairly dull script, not without some pretty cringy lines and oddly placed virtue-signaling that just made me want to vomit “how could you screw up this great of an idea” all over the writers. It’s hard to believe someone read this script and was like…yep, we are going to have them say “that”. This is probably why I can’t stand “Family Guy”. 

Because so much of this script is just off the rails bad and not in an endearing way, I have to give this thing a 3 out of 7. Normally I am pretty forgiving of bad writing, in fact, I seek it out, but there are dozens of far better comedy-horror flicks out there that are a less mind-sucking use of your time than this disappointing forgettable Blumhouse effort. 

* = sarcasm. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF BLUMHOUSE PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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