The body swap comedy has proven to be fertile creative ground for decades now, with countless twists on the basic setup roping in some big names over the years including Jodie Foster, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ryan Reynolds… and Rob Schneider. Blumhouse’s latest effort, Freaky, gives the sub-genre a new twist, though, as a high school student finds herself trapped in the body of a notorious serial killer.
Stephen King already thinks that Vince Vaughn deserves an Academy Award nomination for his performance based on the first trailer alone, and while that might seem like a bit of a stretch, the movie does look like a lot of fun. Vaughn has been doing some of the best work of his career in recent years, and Freaky seems to strike the balance between the comedic efforts that first launched him to fame and the more serious and gritty turns that he’s been surprising everyone with in the likes of Dragged Across Concrete and Brawl in Cell Block 99.
When you factor in Blumhouse’s reliable track record in delivering entertaining genre pieces, the presence of The Society‘s rising star Kathryn Newton as the female lead and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon behind the camera, all of the ingredients are there to almost guarantee a great time at the movies.
Not only that, but Freaky has now been officially rated, and it doesn’t come as much surprise that the MPAA have awarded it an R for “strong bloody horror violence, sexual content, and language throughout.” The body swap slasher is currently slated to hit theaters on the second weekend of November, but based on recent developments, that’s hardly a guarantee at this stage given that many titles are still fleeing from 2020’s release calendar in order to maximize box office profits.
