Movie Review: ‘Freaky’ is a gory take on body-switching comedies

What if you took the movie “Freaky Friday” and had the body-switching not only happen on a Friday, but Friday the 13th? And what if the two doing the switching were a teenage girl and a serial killer? That’s the premise for “Freaky.”

Seventeen-year-old Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) becomes the newest target of The Butcher (Vince Vaughn), her town’s infamous serial killer when a mystical ancient dagger causes them to wake up in each other’s bodies.

With some help from her friends Nyla (Celeste O’Connor), Joshua (Misha Osherovich), and her crush Booker (Uriah Shelton), Millie races against the clock to reverse the curse while The Butcher discovers having a female teen body is a great cover for a killing spree.

“Freaky” is a Blumhouse production by Universal Pictures. (So it’s possible we may see it at next year’s Halloween Horror Nights.) They also made “Happy Death Day” and “Happy Death Day 2U,” which sort of started this current black comedy/horror genre. Whereas the “Happy Death Day” movies and “Freaky” are both slasher flicks, “Freaky” features a lot more gore. It’s obvious they tried to come up with creative and gory kills throughout the movie.

“Freaky” is not only similar to “Freaky Friday” and “Big” with the body-switching premise, it also seemed like it was going for the “shy teen learns to come out of her shell” premise for a while, but then never really followed through with it.

Yes, “Freaky” is fun and funny, but it never really hits its mark like “Happy Death Day” did. The actors are great, especially seeing Vince Vaughn as a teenage girl, but there’s just not a lot to the movie, and not many surprises beyond what you know going into it. If you haven’t seen the “Happy Death Day” movies yet, they’re your better bet. But you’ll have a good time seeing “Freaky” if you go in not expecting to absolutely love it.

“Freaky” is rated R for strong bloody horror violence, sexual content, and language throughout. It starts playing in theaters this Friday the 13th. It’s about an hour and 40 minutes long and there’s no end credit scenes.