There have been plenty of body-swap movies over the years, with Freaky Friday starring a young Jodie Foster the precursor. Few have been as inventive as Freaky where Millie, a high school student, swaps places with The Butcher, a sadistic serial killer.
After cutting his teeth on the underwhelming Paranormal Activity films, director Christopher Landon has found a rich vein is the comedy horror genre with The Scouts’ Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, the Happy Death Day movies and now this.
The killings are gorily inventive and the high school movie tropes are playfully skewered. Kathryn Newton plays the so called ugly duckling really well, and takes the opportunity to vamp it up when her character changes with real relish. Vince Vaughn’s career renaissance continues with one of his funniest and scariest roles.
Rating: 8 out of 10