 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2020 film Freaky and yes It is the Blumhouse film that has Vince Vaughn in it I remember seeing a little snippet of a trailer when this was coming out and I was like Kind of intrigued by this probably we'll get to it at some point. So I finally did it's available on HBO Max when I'm Putting this review out. Well, actually when I'm recording this review I don't know what I'm putting it out Maybe it's still on HBO Max when this comes out. Maybe it's not but take a look This is one of those no spoiler reviews since it is a very recent film But I do try very much to walk that line of giving enough information So that people have seen the film get a good review But also not too much information that it actually spoils any of the events of the film for people who have not yet seen it So you can make a decision. Do you want to see it or not? I will say up front. I thought this was a pretty good movie I thought it was a fun movie and yeah, I had a good time This is directed by Christopher Landon who did other such films such as Burning Palms Paranormal activity the marked ones I quit on paranormal activity after the first three I probably should have quit after the first one Scouts guide to the zombie apocalypse happy death day, which I very surprisingly liked I saw that in the theater and I believe that was a PG-13 and also happy death day to you Which was the follow-up which I have not seen and I have been meaning to The script for this was written by Landon as well as Michael Kennedy who just basically wrote some scripts for a TV show called border town It's animated. I don't know that that that's all I know so Based on the 1972 novel by Mary Rogers Entitled Freaky Friday. Yes, you guessed it. So when I remember when this film was about to come out I was like is it like freaky as in like a freaky Friday type takeoff but horror? Yes, that's basically what it is. It is taking that concept of freaky Friday Which has been made and remade and remade ad nauseam over the over history But it's never really gotten the killer treatment. So much like Landon did happy death day, which is basically a horror groundhog day, which that whole thing has been used many times Here we are with a freaky Friday version and it was supposed to originally be called freaky Friday the 13th Which I'm glad they got away from that because it's too on the nose But then they used another title for a little bit was killer body Which I think is a much better title than freaky freaky is kind of I don't know. It's too childish in my opinion. I don't really like that title for this film But you know titles a minor thing and like I said overall I do recommend the film Apparently Landon himself has proposed that they do a crossover because there is potential with the death day films as well as with the freaky film To do sequels or even prequels if they want to but he has proposed a crossover between death day and freaky And he wants to call it freaky death day I don't I think maybe call it something else Like I understand that you kind of like want to have the branding rolled into the title So people you know recognize those two frame. Oh, I'll potentially franchise this in the future and put them together, but It's a bad title. It really is but I'd be interested to see what they would do with it. I'll tell you that So I found a list of what Landon cited as his films for inspiration for this film And if you watch it and you know what his list was you can see Those inspirations showing up in it especially two films in particular So Landon said uh Fright Night was one the original Fright Night the blob remake Uh scream and scream 2 which I saw the most being drawn from those screen films Urban legend cherry falls and Jennifer's body Which I believe Jennifer's body is on hulu at the moment And I definitely want to watch and review that one because that's a great underrated gem that I've been meaning to get to And do a full review on at some point. So that'll be coming but Good list to pull from for the most part. I haven't seen cherry falls. I actually I saw a portion of it It didn't look that great. Haven't seen urban legend. I heard it's actually not that great, but scream is good scream 2 Not so good, but obviously Fright Night and the blob remake. I mean come on man. That's great and Jennifer's body great So quick synopsis. It's freaky friday, you know serial killer on the loose stabs a girl with a special dagger that they happen to find at one of the Killing locations and there's some crazy freaky stuff that happens and they switch bodies That's all i'm going to say about it because then from there it just goes It stands to reason that since vince von is in it There's going to be comedic stuff to it because that's what vince von does and he does a good job with it because That's what vince von does So every part, you know with vince von is going to have the potential for humor It doesn't always land, but there is some pretty good humor in there and it is hard to kind of get Every comedic thing to land and for everyone to be into it and also kind of comedic pacing is a lot of times a problem With uh horror comedies, which i'm not going to call this a horror comedy Although there is comedy added to it. I have something to talk about it later After i'm done with everything else I kind of want to propose a new moniker for films like this because this this feels different than a horror comedy And i'll talk a bit about that So the opening dialogue has some good meta messaging about slasher films a la scream and scream too So that's where I started seeing it basically immediately. I was like, oh, this is kind of doing that Taking the genre and well subgenre of slasher and then turning it around and Showing it's showing it to itself in the mirror in essence. So the dialogue kind of does that like screamed it Uh, they don't waste much time getting to the fun and the kills happen to be very very inventive Especially early on which makes you really look forward to what they're going to be doing next Are they going to be upping the any or or whatnot? I will say that as far as the kills go you get a lot in the beginning And then it really steps back a bunch and you don't get another one for a while And then after that it kind of really feels like the kills just aren't frequent enough Especially because of the precedent that was set so early on in the film It kind of feels like for lack of a better terminology They kind of blew their load super early with the kills the kills that come after that are still good for the most part it's just They're too far spaced out and there's just not enough like you just want more You want them to go harder on it. You wanted more kills and they definitely could have there's some other stuff that they actually could Cut from the film as well that I think kind of slows the film down a bit It's about an hour and 40 minute runtime It also messes with the pacing for this film because there definitely are moments where you notice The pacing gets messed up. It's like that speed bump when you're going You know going through a road that has that speed bump you really ought to slow down It just messes up your flow There's some solid humor injected in the film. Like I said They get a lot of interesting high school dynamics right in this at least from what I remember from being in high school Obviously that's been a long time So I'd be interested to hear the take from someone who is younger watching this film, which I think this film Probably and obviously I'm saying this is a 40 year old guy I think this film probably is geared pretty well towards a younger crowd It feels that way because it feels light. It feels fun, but it also has that really good horror to it It's an hour rating. So the kills are gruesome. The kills are over the top. They're grizzly. They're brutal So you definitely have that wonderful payoff. So I kind of feel like There's something for everyone. There really is something for everyone in the film as far as You know, if you're a man woman What age you are all that stuff Good use of dropping the music at key times to increase tension and uncertainty With what you think is going to go on and when this is something I always like to call out and film because It's something I really appreciate. You don't always have to have strong music grabbing the audience by the hand and telling them Which way to go and how to feel and what's about to be happening So it shows some level of respect for the audience And also just in general works to up tension because when that music drops out There's nothing more Scary than just not hearing anything. I mean silence is scary It really is especially with the with the right setup visually in film The first instance of CGI being used in this film is used to kind of change the scenery in it And if you've seen it, you know what I mean, like it's a big moment um It seemed really too over the top and I really couldn't done without that it kind of move the film into Ridiculous realm in a sense And thankfully they didn't do that a lot in the film But there really were some absurd feeling aspects to the film That having been Probably the key moment at least the first one that really hits you And that's part of the reason that I'm saying that later on I want to say Give a new moniker for a film like this because it doesn't strike me as just horror comedy because that absurd aspect The absurd aspect is definitely there Uh looks really polished and the camera work is very engaging. Um, I mean, I would expect that I mean I felt the same way watching happy death day from what I remember of it And the camera work directing cinematography all that type of stuff feels very similar Story wise feels similar dialogue feels similar The humor to it feels similar So if you like happy death day, you have definitely like freaky the end you can tell that landon did both of them There's a more serious emotional tone that they try to hit around the 55 minute mark And it feels very much out of place now. It's not just because What they're trying to do it's how long they took to try and do it That kind of a more serious emotional thing It would have been fine if they did it kind of A lot quicker in my opinion It's not something that really needed to be dwelled on as much as they did. They put like a solid five minutes or so into it Um, I may be overestimating that but it felt like about a solid five minutes or so And it's just too long and that's one of those things that really messes with the pacing of the film So I wish they kind of would have just cut that down because they They got the point through within like Between 30 and 45 seconds of where they were trying to go with that So the fact that they then just kept it going It didn't add anything and it was like I said it was messing up the flow It was really slowing the film down and it was also taking you out of That feeling of like fun and the comedy and all that stuff It shifted too hard If you will It could have been cut down a bit and there are some um Some issues here and there but otherwise pretty good, uh the pacing issues Not too terrible, but and it didn't take too much away from the film because I still enjoyed it now Let me go ahead and give you my final final thought on this film This strikes an interesting chord of not just being comedic, but also playful and absurd at the same time It's very similar feel to happy death day like I was saying So I'd like to propose that we call these types of films freaky and happy death day And I'd have to think hard to think of some other ones that would fit into this This I guess new sub genre. I want to throw out there and call it slash stick You know, it's a slasher But it's also comedic But it goes further than comedic because it adds that absurdity mixed into it that feels kind of slap sticky So I want to say let's call this a slash stick film Let me know your thoughts on that also just in the comments Let me know your thoughts on this film go ahead You can put spoilers down in the comments and let me know on your thoughts on the slash stick moniker Should we be using that? Is it too dumb? Whatever you think it's fine, but out of five stars with half stars in play I'm gonna go ahead and give this a three and a half star rating which is pretty good pretty good for this I think it's a lot of fun and I think there's like I said, there's a lot in there for a lot of people It's going to please many people I'm not sure a lot of people are gonna watch it be like man It's my favorite film But a lot of people are gonna watch it and be like, oh, I think that's definitely better than I thought it would be And that's kind of what I thought so Good work on that one. Like I said, go ahead and put some comments down there But give me a favor do me a favor hit subscribe if you can which you can it's You know cost you no money. It is painless It takes you like a second and it helps me that is your way to repay me That is the way that helps my channel grow and that's your way to keep me motivated too You know, I'm not doing any of this for any sort of monetary anything Uh, just doing it as a hobby and to reach out there to build a Nerdy horror community because I like to talk horror. So that's why I also love getting the comments on the videos But anyway, thanks for taking your time to watch this and until next time keep it brutal