Review of Freaky (2020) by Indianaparkwars — 13 Nov 2020

Into the heart of the film with a dagger. It is about a teenage girl that is attacked by a serial killer, unbeknownst to the two, with a ritual dagger that caused their spirits/consciousnesses to be swapped into each other’s bodies. It’s like if Freaky Friday met Friday the 13th, which the film made clear with the “Wednesday the 11th, Thursday the 12th, and Friday the 13th” references and the humors of old and young swapped people flirting and carrying on their personalities in unfitting bodies.

This is a dark horror comedy, with emphasis on the teenage splatter film style. It’s purely set in a high schooler with teenagers as the leads with teenage problems like sex, sexuality, love interests, and anything else hormonally charged. The splatter aspect is extremely strong since all of the gore is shocking and absolutely brutal. For someone who spent a lot of time watching some of the goriest films, this one made my stomach turn a bit. I would say it dips into the splatstick genre but the gore is far too sadistic and repulsive. The comedy in the film occurs everywhere else and while the violence is absurd and unrealistic, it remains comically untouched with its ruthlessness.

This exegesis has gone on long enough, but if people reading this wanted more analysis, I had thoughts of delving into the psychology of the characters and how their fates are symbolic, or the underlying theme of gender identity and attraction, or the sexual symbolism and sex-driven nature of youth. Let me know by commenting, messaging, or responding to this if you’d be interested in a more in-depth critique, rather than my recapitulation. Overall, it was fun and creative, mixing the worlds of splatter and body swap comedies, possibly being the first body swap horror comedy (besides Seed of Chucky). It’s spattered with annoying story logic flaws and contained to its metaphor for camp box, but that’s only expected for this type of film. It’s fun, refreshing, brutal, and clever so if your stomach is capable, give it a watch and enjoy the ride.