What a fun little thrill ride this turned out to be! I had a feeling this might in the vein of Happy Death Day (same director), Ready or Not etc. and I'm very thankful it was! From the opening kills to the credits, it was a really fun time with very little let up. I had a few small things to quibble with, but really, I just had a blast watching this.

Starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn as this movies body swap actors, Freaky presents a tired and true plot in a vibrant, propulsive way that somehow both feels at home and fresh. Both give strong performances, especially Vaughn, and help the movie going with no slow down and they do a great job balancing the horror and comedy aspects.

I've long been a fan of body swap movies, Vice Versa and Big were 2 of my favorite movies as a kid, so I'm probably a little biased towards a film like this. But it also meant I had higher expectations than most people probably did for a movie like this. And I gotta say, they met and exceeded them.

The movie also somehow felt modern and retro at the same time. So many scenes, especially early on, reminded me of 80s horror movies, and Newton especially gave off some strong Lisa Wilcox vibes. Seeing as I love that era of horror the most, I took it as a nice homage and it really increased my appreciation for what they did.

Some thoughts...

- Some great kills here. Especially the opening scene, the majority of the kills here are fun and inventive, with only a few being true boiler plate horror kills.
- Not sure how much was practical effects vs CGI, but most of the kills looked practical, which I love. Really only the Wine Bottle swallow and the Table Saw looked especially CGI.
- Not sure who thought that it would be believable that Kathryn Newton was an unpopular and somehow unattractive person, but I'm gunna guess it was the same person who worked on She's All That?
- "Death of Me" is the jam.
- I did not love the ending ending. It's a horror movie with mystical stuff in it, so I shouldn't think too deep about this, but The Butcher came back from multiple gun shot wounds to the chest, with full strength and almost fought off 3 humans at once? And like if the multiple gun shot wounds didn't kill him, would that stake kill him? Add all that to the fact that this section kinda felt tacked on, I wished it had ended just before it. It didn't ruin the movie or anything, but felt very unnecessary. Makes me wonder what the original ending was.

If you enjoyed the Happy Death Day series, Landon hasn't missed a beat and this is well worth a watch. I'd also recommend it to fans of Cabin In The Woods/Ready or Not etc. style horror fans, and anyone who enjoys body swap films. It's not perfect but its paced very well, has some great kills and is most of all smile inducing for the vast majority of the film. Glad I finally watched it.

Movie Stats...

Rotten Tomatoes - 84%
Metacritic - 67

Box Office - $9M Domestic & $15.9M Total Worldwide Gross