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

11/12/2016 Double Feature Short Reviews

Well, this past weekend ended up resulting in something that I didn’t expect going into it; a double-feature run. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that I usually don’t go to see two new films in one day. It’s usually just one film a week for me and the only times that I do partake in a ‘double-feature’ day are my annual post-Christmas double-feature runs that I do with my best friend and fellow film critic Matt Goudreau (writer for The Young Folks and The Nerd Stash). But this past Saturday, I wound up seeing not one but two films in one day. I had gone to see one film with my mom late in the afternoon but wound up running across Matt as I leaving the theater. He was there to do his own double-feature run and I ended up joining him on his second screening. So, with that in mind and given the fact that I’m currently focusing more on some of the other projects that I’m working on right now, namely Disney Month posts, I decided to do what I usually do on a ‘Double Feature’ day; a quick pair of short reviews for the two films that I saw that day. So, without further ado, here are my quick thoughts on the two films that I saw on November 12^th, 2016. They are…

ARRIVAL

First up is Arrival, the newest film from director Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve has recently become one of the most well-regarded directors in the industry thanks to films like 2013’s Prisoners and 2015’s Sicario. Next year, he’ll be taking on his biggest project yet in the form of the long-awaited sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner; Blade Runner 2049. But before that, he has a different sci-fi story in the form of Arrival, which stars Amy Adams as a linguist who is recruited by the military to try and translate the language of an alien race that has arrived on Earth via a series of shell-like ships to determine if they’re friendly or not. What follows is a very interesting sci-fi story that does hold your interest throughout. Admittedly, it is a slow burn (though, at the same time, never overstays its welcome at a runtime of just under two hours) and it did take me a bit to figure out the big ‘reveal’ but once I did, I found myself liking it; it results in a solid conclusion. From a technical perspective, the film does showcase Villeneuve’s talents as a director. The cinematography is solid, the film is well-edited, the score by Villeneuve regular Johann Johannsson is excellent, and the cast is terrific all-around, particularly Amy Adams in the lead role. Though there are also some solid supporting performances from the likes of Jeremy Renner (who works well with Adams as the deuteragonist), Forest Whitaker, and Michael Stuhlbarg. In short, Arrival is a smart sci-fi film that does take some commitment to get into probably but will ultimately leave you satisfied for sticking with it.

Rating: 4/5

HACKSAW RIDGE

Hacksaw Ridge is Mel Gibson’s first directorial effort in a decade. Gibson, of course, is known as being one of the most prolific actors in the film industry. He was a major action star thanks to the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon franchises and then began to transition into directing in the early 90’s. His most famous directorial effort is 1995’s Best Picture winner Braveheart and he also had a commercially successful, but highly controversial, hit with 2004’s The Passion of the Christ. But then over the next few years, his career started to go downhill as the result of various embarrassing incidents, most notably the time in 2006 when he got arrested for drunk driving and spewed Anti-Semitic remarks. But like I always say, sometimes you got to separate the art from the artist. Now it seems like he’s starting to make a career comeback and it will no doubt get a major boost from his return to the director’s chair. This WWII biopic tells the true story of corporal Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a Virginia native who enlisted in the army but then proceeded to attract a considerable amount of backlash when he refused to hold a rifle because of his religious beliefs. After nearly going to jail on the charge of insubordination, he manages to be granted his request of not having to carry a firearm into battle and instead serve as a combat medic. And during a battle in which he and his platoon found themselves having to combat Japanese forces stationed near a cliff known as ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ (hence the title of the film), he managed to save 75 soldiers and would go on to be awarded the Medal of Honor. He’s the only conscientious objector to do so.

While some parts of the film come off as being a tad melodramatic, namely in the beginning when Doss is romancing his future wife Dorothy, Doss’ peaceful ways in staying true to his beliefs is an extremely admirable trait, especially from the perspective of our current times. The film takes a while before it gets into any scenes of warfare and thus gives a solid amount of time to develop Doss as a character, from the extremely traumatizing incident during his childhood that led him to truly embrace God to him not giving up after being subjected to much physical and mental abuse from his fellow soldiers. But once the film does get into the actual warfare… in one word, damn! These are easily some of the best war combat scenes ever to be put on film but bear in mind that they are very, VERY intense. That’s usually the case with Gibson’s directorial efforts, after all. In fact, this may even surpass Saving Private Ryan in terms of how violent the action sequences are. Through it all, though, this is truly an epic war film backed by the terrific action sequences, an outstanding performance by Andrew Garfield in the lead role, and a solid supporting cast that includes Sam Worthington and Vince Vaughn as Doss’ superiors in the army, Teresa Palmer as Dorothy, and Hugo Weaving as Doss’ tragically broken father who constantly deals with the demons that came from partaking in World War I. In conclusion, it's safe to say that Gibson has a major success on his hands in what will surely be a major awards contender. It’s a hard-hitting war film (though, really, what war film hasn’t been hard hitting?) that is based around the admirable courageous actions of its main character; one who never fired a single bullet. 

Rating: 4.5/5