Everyone loves a body swap caper and Blumhouse is set to make their blood-soaked entry into the genre with the awesome-looking Freaky. But there’s a neat twist to the usual fish out of water shenanigans as this one sees a bullied 17-year-old girl changing places with a slasher movie serial killer.
From then on it appears that the high school girl (now in the form of Vince Vaughn) teams up with her terrified friends to stop the murderer from inhabiting her body, who’s doing a worryingly good job of continuing his killing rampage in her petite, pretty and unassuming form.
We can get a decent taste of what’s coming in this new trailer, which seems to take us through the major story beats (perhaps arguably giving away a little too much). My favorite thing is how genre-conscious it seems to be, especially when Milly’s friends are fleeing in terror and one yells: “You’re black and I’m gay! We’re so dead!”
Freaky premiered at the Beyond Fest in early October and critics seem to have loved it. Ryan Larson of Consequence of Sound described the pic as an “out and out blast” and Heather Wixson of the Daily Dead said it’s “one of the best supernatural slashers to come along in this era of modern horror.” Even Stephen King is hyped, saying that Vaughn deserves an Oscar for his work in the trailer alone. That this looks so great isn’t a huge surprise, either, as Freaky boasts an impressive horror pedigree, with director Christopher Landon responsible for most of the Paranormal Activity series and the two Happy Death Day movies.
We’ll get to judge Freaky for ourselves soon, as it’s getting a domestic theatrical release on November 13th (or at least, what passes for one in these COVID-19 hit times) and will debut on VOD a month later on December 4th. Personally, I can’t wait to check it out.