Freaky, 2020

 

Freaky is a body-swapping horror film. It is fun, not especially scary (which is a bonus, imo; I, like many horror fans, don't actually want to be scared--I want the delight of an un-self-serious genre mixed with the catharsis of seeing "horrific but clearly fake" things within those conventions), and it doesn't reinvent the wheel. The stabby stuff itself is creative and mildly-but-not-overly gory, the pacing is fun if not particularly interested in hitting any unexpected or fresh beats, the quips are cute and sometimes quite refreshingly poignant. It's clever enough and pays homage to the horror genre (and, too, the body-swap trope) in perfectly pleasing ways, like a good number of teen horror films that aim for that Scream bullseye.

What makes this "good shit" is Vince Vaughn: he's playing a teenage girl trapped in a middle-aged male serial killer's body, and he's...shockingly believable. He's more than that--he's affecting and delightful. It's unexpected from someone who made a long career playing the droll semi-slapstick clever-guy in Will Ferrell films. It makes me wonder both why Vaughn isn't getting better roles and why there aren't (even) more body-swap films-- isn't that a trope with endless, elemental possibilities and appeal? Why are we endlessly pilfering bloated franchise corpses for prequel material when we could just be making a million more takes on Freaky Friday?  That'd be good shit!