When a shy high school girl tries her best to live a normal fulfilling life with her mom and sister she just cannot escape her fate to be tormented by any means necessary. From a disorganized struggling family, being bullied at school, and the constant feeling of not being wanted, this girl has got it rough. The last thing she needed was a man trying to kill her in the midst of all this… Millie Kessler played by Kathryn Newton and her terrorizer the Blissfield Butcher played by Vince Vaughn, go head to head to see who can make it out alive.
Millie Kessler is the Blissfield Beaver mascot for her high schools band during there homecoming, and in the midst of all these festivities there have been recent killings, with the suspect being a local legend. The Blissfield Butcher, known for killing high school students during homecomings past, his legend still hangs in the air and hearts of many of the locals. After the big homecoming football game when waiting for her mother to come get her someone else arrives right on time, the Butcher. In a strange and mystical turn of events Millie and the Butcher awake the next morning in each other’s bodies completely baffled and shell shocked as they realize what has become their new reality. Now as they begin their tours of each others lives Millie and her friends struggle to find the Butcher and return everything to normal.
Disclaimer: Universal Studios sent us the free digital copy of this, our opinions are our own.
Freaky shows moments of brilliance but is mostly overshadowed by cheesy crappy acting and washed out bland story writing, but that does not mean there aren’t parts that will make you laugh without even knowing it. You realize as you continue to watch that this is really a comedy movie being disguised and portrayed to be a horror/slasher, which it still holds up with gory violence. Vince Vaughn shines playing a young high school girl in an older grown man’s body, he is laugh out loud hilarious at times and it’s extremely refreshing to see him nail a role again. Though I feel Kathryn struggles to capture the vibe of what a relentless serial killer truly should be, though this could be due to faulty writing and acting directions.
My major beef is the writing particularly pertaining to the atmosphere and world building, what I am referring to is the false interpretation on how students and teachers really act in high school these days. From dialogue that you would literally never hear spoken from a teacher to a student, to the false reality of particularly how people still get bullied in school is portrayed horribly in this movie. That is not saying that teachers are not still abusive to students, or that kids still get bullied everyday because that 100% still happens, just not at all like how it is in this film, and personally in 2021 I just thought we were passed this kind of washed out fake-ness.
This film for me was a roller coaster of moments with pure great acting, writing, comedy and gore, to then the exact opposite. The whole movie lacked consistency and also could use some major upgrades in how they filmed any fast pacing action scene as well. Those scenes in particular were hard to watch due to this awkward slowing of time and half-baked physical movements. Though it was not nearly enough to ruin anything in particular, as it’s still an enjoyable watch. To make up for it’s shortcomings Millie’s friends Josh, played by Misha Osherovich and Nyla, played by Celeste O’Connor, were excellent and helped carry any slack that this movie dragged behind.
All in all I thought this was a very interesting movie that overall was solid but leaning towards mediocre. Vince Vaughn was my favorite part and some of his scenes were great comedy, and again it’s nice to see him do something new and out of his character well. The soundtrack was nothing special and most of the editing and visual effects followed the same suit. Although seriously this movie is definitely worth a watch because it’s for sure entertaining, and there are plenty of positive things to be taken from it.
Freaky delivers a funny yet gory comedy in a world that doesn’t seem to make much sense though anyways. Give it a watch.
