It comes from the producer of Get Out, The Invisible Man and The Purge.
During the worst of the Covid pandemic, plenty of great movies went under the radar - either due to cinemas being closed or people not feeling like getting into a potentially packed room for a significant amount of time with strangers.
An example of such a film was the 2020 comedy slasher Freaky, which stars Vince Vaughn and was directed by Christopher Landon (the Happy Death Day and Paranormal Activity franchises) and produced by Jason Blum (Get Out, The Invisible Man, The Purge). However, while audiences may have missed the movie when it was in theatres, they now have the chance to check it out from the comfort of their homes as it has just been added to Netflix.
Basically a horror twist on Freaky Friday, the film revolves around Millie (Kathryn Newton, Big Little Lies), a bullied teenage girl who finds herself the latest target of The Butcher (Vaughn), her town's infamous serial killer. After being stabbed by the murderer's mystical dagger, to her shock, Millie discovers that she has swapped bodies with her terroriser.
Even worse is that The Butcher is continuing his crime spree in the teenage girl's body and that Millie has just 24 hours to reverse the swap or be stuck in the killer's body forever.
Freaky
Upon release, Freaky was acclaimed by critics, earning an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score. In particular, Vaughn's performance as a teenage girl trapped in a middle-aged man's body, the movie's fresh spin on old tropes and the screenplay's exploration of certain contemporary issues were singled out for praise.
You can read snippets of some of the horror comedy's glowing reviews below:
ABC News: "Not every joke or jolt hits the mark. But thanks to a go-for-broke Vince Vaughn as a serial killer who body swaps with a teen girl, you won't find a better way to laugh out loud while being scared senseless than with this 'Freaky' Friday the 13th."
The Atlantic: "Freaky knows it's a farce and winks at the silliest of slasher tropes, but that satirical edge doesn't keep it from being one of the most purely enjoyable horror works I've seen in a long time."
The Guardian: "It's just a rare joy to see a filmmaker scrambling together overused tropes and making something so vibrant and vital as a result, an exciting and unexpected studio movie with a brain, some guts and a heart."
RogerEbert.com: "A fun, frisky, and nostalgic ride that delivers laughs, various inventively bloody kills, and on occasion, even some 21st-century-appropriate observations on gender norms and sexuality."
Slate: "As strange as it may sound, Freaky is one of the 2020 movies that comes closest to being truly feel-good."
Vanity Fair: "A riotously funny, odd, and curiously sweet burst of cinematic verve... Freaky is a charming testament to how a basic good idea can be smartly developed."
Freaky is streaming on Netflix in Ireland and UK now. You can check out its trailer right here:
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