"Freaky" Film Review (2020): VersaScares Review

Hello hello coven members and welcome to the Freaky film review! I wasn't sure what to expect when this was recommended to me. When I looked up the trailer, I realized that this was a film that I wanted to see when it had released because I thought that it was such an interesting and original concept. Just imagine Freaky Friday except that the body that our MC switches into is that of a serial killer. Instead of our childhood favorite movie getting a remake (at the time.... as I write this post, Freakier Friday is out), it gets an entire reimagining.

I would like to begin this review by saying how much I appreciated Kathryn Newton's and Vince Vaughn's acting once they had to play their opposite roles. Kathryn Vaughn had to play a brooding, psychopath throughout much of the film and she played the role well. Sometimes it felt a little forced, but I enjoyed her portrayal of a serial killer. Opposite to her, Vince Vaughn had to play a high school girl to which I absolutely enjoyed watching. I absolutely forgot a few times that his body hadn't been hijacked because he did such a wonderful job portraying Millie (or portraying a teenage girl in general).

As always if you have not seen the film, sit this week out and come back once you've watched it. If you have seen it or don't care about spoilers, let's get right into it!

The film starts out with the audience being introduced to a group of teenagers explaining the legend of the Blissfield Butcher. Unsurprisingly, they are then attacked and butchered by him during his search for a dagger called La Dola. I immediately knew that this dagger was going to be of importance because of its reveal and his desperation to get it.

The next day, the audience is introduced to the victim of the film, Millie Kessler. She is a less popular and awkward teenage girl, often suffering from the bullying of the popular kids. We meet her family very briefly before she's off to her school's football game, where she performs as the school's mascot. Millie's friends support her by attending and offer her a ride home when she realizes that her ride is probably running a bit late. Millie declines the offer and ends up being the only one left on the school's campus after waiting for a long time. She has the usual feeling of uneasiness as her phone dies and she looks up to see that there is a strange figure standing across the street.

Alright, I think that if my ride was running pretty late, I would have had my friends wait with me. Not only is Millie a loner outside of them, it's night and I wouldn't want to run the risk of being an easy target to any of my bullies. I love that she ends up asking them for help later on in the film. She seems to have this personality where she doesn't want to seem like a bother, and unfortunately the events of this film unfold because of her decision to wait alone.

The strange figure runs after her, causing her to panic and escape back onto the football field. He catches up with her and is only able to stab her once in the shoulder, which weirdly leaves him wounded in the same spot even though he was uninjured. Before Millie can figure out what's going to happen next, her sister who's a police officer, shows up and scares off the assailant. He drops the dagger which is then collected as evidence and locked up at the police station.

I appreciated the skip to the next morning, where the viewer sees the start of the weird change between the two. Millie is different, much quieter as she takes in her surroundings. Her movements are calculated as she walks around her home, seemingly unfamiliar with her environment. The audience is also put on edge as she has moments where her tunnel vision precedes her attempt to murder the people residing there. This is quite literally the effect of the dagger used on her during the previous night. She is no longer Millie, but rather the Blissfield Butcher. This can only mean that Millie's soul is trapped within the body of her attacker.

The most stressful thing about this film is the fact that Millie is unable to escape her fate until she figures out how. The Blissfield Butcher is an infamous and wanted man, someone who will face many years in prison or perhaps face something as severe as the death penalty for his crimes. He is able to run free and play innocent while inhabiting the body of a girl because Millie is the least suspecting person to commit the atrocities that he has. There were multiple moments in which I thought that the real Millie would get hurt due to the police wanting to take out the Butcher.

Millie seems unaware of who's body she's inhabiting and braves going out into public. To her horror, everyone knows the face she's wearing and they have nothing good in store for her. She finds herself back at her school in search of her friends and is astonishingly able to convince them that she is Millie. It's a truly hilarious scene that is framed by a horrifying set up. The friends rightfully do everything that they can to survive the man hunting them down, and Millie is doing everything she can to convince them that she isn't a bloodthirsty murderer. The friends take turns fighting Millie and Millie, forgetting her large stature, strongarms them both. It takes a lot for the two to be convinced that their attacker is their friend. Honestly, this is my favorite scene of the entire film.

After clearing everything up, the three take it upon themselves to try and put a stop to whatever the Blissfield Murderer's plans are. They realize that they are in need of the dagger and the severity of their situation is paramount due to the fact that the Butcher has made new friends as Millie, and he's able to get close to anyone at the school. His portrayal of Millie is something that everyone seems to get behind and the girls wanna be her friend, while the boys want to be more than that. The Butcher uses this to his advantage because what's easier than being a small, non-threatening girl with a new-found confidence? He is able to lure anyone in and get them close enough to satisfy his psychopathic desires.

Millie has a lot on her plate, and I enjoyed that while there weren't many layers to the film, there was still more to it to cause the audience to squirm in their seats. I was stressed because I didn't want the actual Millie to sustain injury, get caught by, or have to deal with cops once she was able to switch back into her body. There was also the time sensitive need to switch places again or the two risk being stuck in each other's bodies for the rest of their lives. Great for the Butcher, but horrible for Millie. She also had to deal with her sister and hope that her friends didn't get hurt while trying to figure all of this out on her own. It's quite a mix of anxiety for everyone involved.

The icing on the cake of her situation is that she was finally able to talk to her crush and they admitted their feelings for one another. The gave her a little bit more motive to get back into her own body, refusing to give up when it got too hard.

There isn't much to this film besides her trying to find the dagger and find and capture her real self as the Butcher wreaks havoc. Before Millie is able to make it to a party that was planned that night (despite the curfew placed due to the Butcher's untimely appearance), the Butcher had taken it upon himself to kill a few of her bullies. On the one hand, yay for Millie? On the other, if the Butcher is caught murdering the teens, it is Millie's face he is wearing.

I've talked at length about Millie's struggles, but one thing that frustrated me about the Butcher was his inability to stay chill. He's got a new body, so wouldn't he want to lay low for a little while? Sure, killing is probably an addiction for him, but he very easily runs the risk of being caught again if he keeps at the pace he's going. He hadn't been at Millie's school for long before he felt the need to kill one of the biggest bullies (and in a horrifying way. Think Jason X's liquid nitrogen kill). I didn't believe that the Butcher would be able to drop multiple bodies without running the risk of being caught. Homecoming had been cancelled due to the town's lockdown, yet somehow the students managed to set up a party instead. Police were bound to figure out that there was a party happening, especially if the parents of the kids had called in to say their child hadn't come home. If anyone at that party had seen what the Butcher was doing, they'd easily be able to inform the police.

The Butcher is luckily able to disappear from sight right before Millie shows up to catch him, but due to her large stature in this unfamiliar body, she's able to take him down and succeed in stabbing him. The two are immediately switched back into their original bodies before the police show and catch the Butcher. He's placed into an ambulance and is seemingly captured. The End. Right?

...

While I enjoyed the stress that this film brought me, coupled with the laughs of a traditional comedy-horror, I have critiques about its ending. There was a happy ending in the sense that Millie was able to switch back into her body before she was out of time, but I thought that the film should have ended there. Sure, the two were able to switch back rather coincidentally and rather quickly in comparison to how slow their body swap happened initially. I did feel that it was strange that they didn't have to wait until the next day. This would have been interesting to watch considering it could have left the audience in suspense until the next scene, but either way this was an okay ending.

Also, the Butcher escaped during the ambulance ride due to faking his own death. This feels like a bit of a cop-out, a way to continue the film to its true ending. I was unsure how he was able to fake his death and escape, yet have enough time to get to Millie's house. Would the ambulance not have been followed by cops since the Blissfield Butcher is a high profile killer?

Millie and her family are back at home (weird considering from the police's perspective, she had been attacked yet again). The Butcher hadn't been caught and he finds his way into the home, with the goal to kill Millie's sister and mom before killing her. Millie has the disadvantage of being back in her body since she is easily overpowered by this man. She's crafty though, luckily and her and her family are able to overpower him. This ending felt like there was supposed to be another twist, but in my opinion it falls a little flat. The film lost me after the Butcher was able to escape and catch up to Millie and her family at their home, unseen. But, I am still happy that the trio is safe.

Also... it seems that the only people murdered in this film (besides the teenagers at the beginning) were Millie's bullies. This had me rooting for the Butcher? There weren't really any stakes because none of the likable characters seemed to really be in danger.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read this review! Have you seen Freaky and if so, what are your thoughts?

We're at the end of September and will be diving head first into October! I have much planned for my favorite month and I can't wait to share what I have in mind. There is now a monthly Newsletter to let you guys know what's coming up. If you're not subscribed or a member of this blog, become one so that you can be notified on all things horror!

Catch you all next week!

🔪Versa