Blumhouses’s
“Freaky” Has Spirit but Suffers from a Split Personality
Jason Blum is seemingly
desperate to make a Friday the 13th movie. Having already sunk
his bloody claws into the Halloween franchise (“Halloween Kills”, the second in
the Blumhouse produced trilogy was delayed from it’s original release last
month to a 2021 release in light of the pandemic), Blum has had to make due with Friday the 13th releases of slasher centric proxies such as Happy Death Day, its sequel, and Truth or Dare.
That’s because Mrs.
Voorhees’ favorite son, Jason, still finds himself torn between his two daddies, the
original film’s producer & director Sean S. Cunningham and its writer,
Victor Miller, the two having been engaged in a legal bloodbath for the rights
to the franchise for several years that has made the creation of any new Friday
the 13th movies an impossibility.
Blumhouse’s latest
make-do, Freaky (the original title was, in fact, Freaky Friday the
13th), releasing this weekend and coming to streaming in December,
stars Vince Vaughn, more recently relegated to supporting roles in such films
as Hacksaw Ridge and Fighting with my Family as the otherwise
unnamed Blissfield Butcher who inadvertently comes upon a cursed Aztecan dagger
in a murderous home invasion that leads to him swapping bodies with teenaged Millie
Kessler (Kathryn Newton).
Millie is portrayed as an
introverted wallflower in the film who couldn’t possibly stand a chance at scoring
the man of her dreams, Booker. The problem is Hollywood’s real problem
with casting anyone who’s even a step below gorgeous and thin in these types of
roles, though the casting director took obvious care to stock the background of the high
school scenes with “average kids”, so at least they’re aware they exist?
While Newton puts her best foot forward it’s
hard to really empathize with a character who is funny, good looking, and hip
amongst her friends while brushing off the harassment of school bullies with
little more than a shrug. I’m genuinely shocked that they didn’t give the
character glasses to be tossed away once the killer takes over her body.
It’s not that Millie doesn’t have her problems: her Mom is a clinging emotionally wounded alcoholic who doesn’t want to let Millie free from her grasp after her husband died in a manner that is left to the audience to decipher. Meanwhile her stern faced older sister who still lives at home despite having a seemingly secure job as a police officer seemingly exists in the film only to serve as a means to an end, engendering a plot device that kicks off the third act.
Unfortunately,
the film gets a bit too sucked into the mire of the melodrama of Millie’s life. It's as if the filmmakers are trying to give those who were unwittingly dragged
into a slasher film something to chew on. I was hoping the interfamilial drama
would be played more ironically, but unfortunately, there’s a little too much residual
Kevin Williamson DNA in this one.
That's not to say that the
film doesn’t have it’s charms: when the kills do happen, they’re gloriously gory,
so much so that a little part of me wept inside for the post Final Chapter Friday
entries that were gutted by the MPAA in the eighties. Vince Vaughan does his best limp wrist
exasperated impression of a teenage girl and the make out scene with Millie’s
crush shows some real balls on his part.
I felt like the film could've played more with the dynamic of the killer being placed in the body of someone who would typically wind up his victim, while finding himself circumstantially in the victim's role. What if Millie was the black character in the film, instead of her best friend, and now in the driver's seat of the body of a hulking white man finds herself enticed to abuse her newfound autonomy and power before coming to her senses?
There’s no denying that there’s a lot a love for the genre here, but Freaky suffers from trying to serve too many masters. The film overstays its welcome a bit, clogged with too many supporting characters that I was waiting to meet the killer’s blade (while most of the actual victims aside from a shop teacher portrayed by Alan Ruck are barely footnotes) and a second climax that feels hastily executed. It's just not enough of the things it’s reaching for, be them funny, gory, or emotionally resonant.
However, for horror fans, especially younger ones new to
the genre, it’s worth a viewing if only just for the great kill scenes and Vaughan’s
performance. But most importantly for the higher calling of encouraging Blumhouse
to keep making more Friday the 13th-esque horror films until the day
comes that they can finally allowed to do put on the hockey mask for real.
Rating: ***
