Freaky (2020) review

Much has been said about how the horror genre has been experiencing a major resurgence over the past few years, especially when it comes to those who have helped make it happen. Filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Mike Flanagan and Ari Aster have been responsible for some of the most critically acclaimed horror projects in recent memory, from Peele’s Get Out (which won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) to Flanagan’s TV series adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. However, if there’s one filmmaker who has largely flown under the radar when it comes to their noteworthy contributions to the genre, that would be Christopher Landon. While Landon has been involved in the film industry since the mid-’90s, he truly got his big break in the 2010s when he started working for what has arguably been the horror genre’s most prominent studio of the past decade, Blumhouse Productions. There, he penned the screenplays for the second, third, and fourth installments of the studio’s massively successful Paranormal Activity franchise, which then led to him directing the fifth film in the series, 2014’s Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. However, his biggest hit with Blumhouse would come in 2017 when he directed Happy Death Day, a horror-themed spin on ‘time loop’ stories such as Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow in which a college student is killed on her birthday and finds herself reliving the same day until she finds out who her killer is. Bolstered by its status as an online viral sensation, the film was a major commercial hit and was also generally well-received by critics. It was then followed by an equally successful sequel in 2019, Happy Death Day 2U, and a third film is currently in the works. But until then, Landon has crafted another horror film based around a non-horror concept (in this case, a body-swap comedy inspired by Mary Rogers’ 1972 novel Freaky Friday) with Freaky, in which a teenaged girl finds herself switching bodies with a notorious serial killer. And with a pair of great performances from its two leads, Freaky proves to be another smash hit from both its director and its studio.

In the town of Blissfield, Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) is your average teenager who’s just trying to deal with the daily struggles of high school. It’s also been a year since the death of her father, which has led to her having strained relationships with both her mother Paula (Katie Finneran), who’s resorted to daily bouts of drinking ever since, and her older sister Charlene (Dana Drori), a local police officer. And if that wasn’t enough, Blissfield is soon threatened by the return of a notorious serial killer known as the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn), who was long considered to be nothing more than an urban legend. Millie ends up running into the Butcher one night after her high school’s homecoming football game, and while she does manage to survive this ordeal, she quickly learns that this will not be the end of her troubles. Since the Butcher used an ancient Aztec dagger known as La Dola when he tried to kill her, it causes the two of them to switch places, with Millie ending up in the Butcher’s body and the Butcher in hers. And despite the initial struggles that he faces in adapting to his new body, the Butcher immediately sets off on a new killing spree, with Millie’s classmates at the top of his list. Thus, with only 24 hours to switch her and the Butcher back to their original bodies, Millie and her best friends Nyla (Celeste O’Connor) and Josh (Misha Osherovich) find themselves in a race against time to retrieve La Dola and use it on the Butcher before Millie’s stuck in the Butcher’s body forever, especially since his identity has now been made public.

Just like the Happy Death Day films, Freaky fully relishes in being a horror-themed spin on its traditionally non-horror premise. Despite a bit of a slow start, the film then proceeds to produce a lot of great humor which, naturally, stems from all the hi-jinx that ensues from the main protagonist trying to adjust to her new body. With that said, this film very much belongs to Vince Vaughn, who’s utterly fantastic in the role of a teenaged girl trapped in a middle-aged man’s body. But while she doesn’t get to work with the film’s comedy as much as Vaughn does since she’s primarily playing the killer in the main protagonist’s body, Kathryn Newton is just as excellent whether she’s playing the sinister antagonist or the sympathetic protagonist. On that note, another thing that director Christopher Landon has been incredibly successful at when it comes to his recent films is his ability to craft some highly effective moments of emotional poignancy. In the case of Happy Death Day, it was by way of the arc that main protagonist Tree Gelbman went through after initially starting out as an utterly shallow ‘mean girl’. Freaky takes this in a slightly different direction by having Millie be a wholly endearing heroine from the start though, like Tree, her character arc also revolves around a strained relationship with her family members. Plus, whereas the Happy Death Day films were under the limits of the wider-appealing PG-13 rating (to be clear, though, that’s not a bad thing in their case…), Freaky is very much an R-rated affair and fans of the genre will be pleased to know that it features some delightfully crazy kills. And so, because of all this, Freaky is a solidly entertaining horror flick that’s fully bolstered by Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton’s phenomenal performances in the lead roles, and while he may not necessarily be a household name yet as far as the horror genre is concerned, it’s nice to see that Christopher Landon has arguably found his niche within it.

Rating: 4/5

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (2019) review

In 1996, Nintendo released the first two installments of a franchise that would end up becoming one of its most beloved IP’s, Pokémon. It all began with Pokémon Red and Green in Japan, which would later see an international release in 1998 as Pokémon Red and Blue. Developed by Game Freak Inc., the series was inspired by creator Satoshi Tajiri’s love of insect collecting when he was a kid. And upon their release, these two RPG’s about a kid who embarks on an epic journey that sees them capturing the titular wild creatures and having them compete in battles against other Pokémon trainers quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. Thanks to its main installments and various spin-offs, the video games have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling video game series of all-time behind the Super Mario franchise. Pokémon also happens to be the highest-grossing media franchise of all-time with a revenue of over $90 billion in sales. Alongside the games, it’s also spawned the best-selling trading card game of all-time and a hit anime series that has been running for over 1,000 episodes. But when it comes to the Pokémon franchise’s first official foray into live-action films, its source material isn’t the anime or even the original games. Instead, this film is based off a 2016 spin-off titled Detective Pikachu, where players solved mysteries with a rare talking Pikachu. The film adaptation is directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) and sees Ryan Reynolds star in the titular role, resulting in an entertaining film that surprisingly manages to break the long-running curse of quality that has always befallen films based on video games.

In the bustling metropolis that is Ryme City, the relationship between humans and Pokémon has evolved significantly to the point where traditional Pokémon battles are outlawed. It is there that Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), a once-aspiring Pokémon trainer who transitioned into an insurance job after his mother’s death, is informed of his estranged father Harry’s reported death in a car crash whilst involved with a case as a Ryme City police detective. But when Tim arrives at his father’s apartment, he ends up coming across a peculiar sight in the form of a Pikachu that can talk. This Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) is revealed to be Harry’s partner Pokémon and was stricken with a case of amnesia following Harry’s ‘disappearance’. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s quickly made clear that Tim is the only one who can hear him whereas others can only hear his traditional Pokémon cry (provided, as always, by Pikachu’s voice actress from the anime, Ikue Ōtani). Thus, as Pikachu surmises the possibility that Harry may still be alive, he and Tim embark on a journey, aided by aspiring reporter Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) and Ryme City founder Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy), to figure out what happened to Tim’s father. In the process, the two uncover a sinister conspiracy that threatens to undermine everything that Ryme City has managed to accomplish in the evolution of human/Pokémon relationships.

One of the biggest selling points of Detective Pikachu is getting to see the first official instance of Pokémon being presented in a live-action context, and overall, the film does a nice job when it comes to bringing the various Pokémon that it features to life. Granted, not every single live-action design works as well as others (e.g. while a lot of people have been pointing out Mr. Mime’s live-action design as unsettling, a certain transforming Pokémon is arguably creepier in its presentation), but for the most part, they’re effectively handled. And as you might have guessed, this film is full of nods to the franchise’s extensive lore, with references that cover everything from the games to the anime. However, this surprisingly doesn’t result in the film being a case where it’s geared solely towards fans of the franchise, even though it’s still clear that Pokémon fans will get a lot more out of this compared to those who aren’t. While it doesn’t focus on what the series is mainly known for (i.e. Pokémon battles), the plot is based around a solid emotional hook courtesy of Tim and Pikachu’s quest to learn about what happened to the former’s father, and the film maintains a solid pace and lighthearted atmosphere throughout. This makes up for the fact that the overarching mystery plot that the two gradually uncover is arguably the weakest aspect of the film. While not outright terrible, it’s very predictable when it comes to its twists.

As crazy as it may seem, finding a voice for Pikachu in this film proved to be quite a big deal for fans of the franchise. When the Detective Pikachu game was being prepped for a U.S. release, many fans petitioned to have the character voiced by Danny DeVito, who ultimately declined to audition for the role due to him being unfamiliar with the franchise. Thus, when Ryan Reynolds was cast for the film adaptation, some found this to be an odd choice by comparison. However, based on my admittedly limited experience with the game, where Pikachu is voiced by Kaiji Tang, I found that Tang’s take on the character felt reminiscent of voice actor Nolan North, who notably portrayed Deadpool in the character’s titular 2013 video game. As such, I’d argue that the idea of casting the man behind live-action Deadpool in the role isn’t as preposterous as it may seem to others, and sure enough, Reynolds kills it as Detective Pikachu. His comedic timing is just as on-point as it’s been in the Deadpool films, proving that he isn’t just limited to the Merc with a Mouth’s extremely raunchy R-rated style of humor. He also has excellent camaraderie with Justice Smith, who does a very nice job when it comes to handling the bulk of the plot’s emotional content as main protagonist Tim Goodman. In other words, these two are very much the heart of the film, even if they admittedly overshadow everyone else in the process. Granted, the rest of the cast is still solid in their respective roles, including Kathryn Newton as Tim’s reporter ally Lucy, who seeks to do more than just dull fluff pieces, and Bill Nighy as Ryme City founder Howard Clifford, but the film ultimately focuses more on its lead duo.     

I’m genuinely impressed by everything that Pokémon: Detective Pikachu has managed to accomplish. Most specifically, despite being a part of what is easily the unluckiest film genre of all-time as a film based on a video game, it currently stands as the first ever live-action film of the genre to receive generally positive reviews from critics. It manages to pull off this seemingly impossible feat by avoiding many of the usual shortcomings that often plague other films based on video games. For one thing, it maintains a generally accurate representation of the Pokémon franchise even though it’s based more on a spin-off whose gameplay differed vastly from the series’ primary installments. And while its main plot is a bit predictable, the film makes up for this with some solid emotional depth that primarily stems from its main characters, Tim and Detective Pikachu, who are played excellently by Justice Smith and Ryan Reynolds, respectively. Because of this, Detective Pikachu is a pleasantly light-hearted family flick that manages to appeal to more than just the franchise’s sizable fanbase, and thanks to this film’s success, it’s clear that this is only the beginning when it comes to seeing Pokémon on the big screen. A few months back, plans were set into motion for two more live-action Pokémon films; one based around the character Mewtwo (who, of course, plays a pivotal role in this film’s plot) and another that’s set to be a direct adaptation of the original Red and Blue games. And if they’re anything like Detective Pikachu, a promising new film franchise is on the horizon.

Rating: 4/5