Christopher Landon has built a career on humorous and self-referential horror films including Happy Death Day, its sequel Happy Death Day 2U and a personal favourite in my household The Boy Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Now he has brought that formulae to that oddly specific Hollywood Trope of body switching.
I don’t want to hate on the use of body switching in films, but too many filmmakers have gotten incredibly lazy with it. Ever since 1976’s Freaky Friday a slew of body swapping films have been produced that all follow the same plotline…Generic family turmoil, two relatives switch bodies, while figuring out how to switch back they realise “We’re not so different after all”. Two of these films have actually been remakes of Freaky Friday. Which I complain about now, but I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t love Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis pretending to be each other.
The truth is that a potentially interesting plot device is continually wasted on the most generic family drama themed comedies. These films often overshadow the far more thought provoking and interesting uses of the trope in the Fantasy and Science Fiction. “Your Name” for example is a body switching anime in which two teenagers switch bodies years apart and use this bizarre situation to save the lives of a doomed town. “Get Out” is a film not so much about body swapping but body theft and forcing the owners of said bodies to become a permanent sunken audience in their own bodies. The terrifying prospect sets up the high stakes for Daniel Kaluuya while offering a commentary on racism in America. “The Skeleton Key” while critically panned also offered a far higher stakes body switching plot in which an evil couple steal the bodies of young couples in order to achieve longer life spans, it’s not the best film, but at least its trying to do something with the body swapping trope.
But back to Freaky…
Freaky doesn’t channel the trope in an interesting way like “Get Out” or “Your Name” but it does make a more interesting choice of characters to switch characters, with a teenager being forced to switch bodies with a teenager hating serial killer. There are some high stakes as she needs to avoid a manhunt while tracking down her stolen body before she’s blamed for some horrific crimes.
There are many paths a film of this plot could follow, with the potential of an endlessly dark or twisted horror film, but Christopher Landon has a soft spot for comedy thrillers that don’t take themselves too seriously which ultimately proves to be the overwhelming charm of this film.
Its far from perfect, its full of generic tropes, convenient plot devices and the overused stereotypes of mean girls and jocks, it takes no real risks and it boasts an ending scene that didn’t really need to be there, as funny as it was.
But that said, I really liked this movie!
It’s self-referential humour is charming, the lead characters are wholly likeable and ensure your investment in them, there are hilarious sequences of Vince Vaughn playing a teenage girl and Kathryn Newton playing a serial killer. While sequences are gruesome (causing a wimp like me to close my eyes for part of the opening sequence) Landon successfully balances out the tension with enough fun that it makes “Freaky” an ideal Friday movie.
The kind of movie that we’re all looking forward to getting through our day to go and see. One that will start our weekend on a positive note. While not a perfect movie and certainly not great cinema, if you love a schlocky horror, it’s a film well worth your Friday.
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