Freaky

#Stresscited

#Nervesofsteel

#Whatisshedoing

3 hashtags that will make you remember why everyone enjoyed Vince Vaughn back before he turned into Joe Republican. 

A teenage girl is leaving for school. Her mother is in the kitchen cooking up one of those big breakfasts you only ever seen in American films, bacon, eggs and a stack of pancakes. Daughter walks by, snags a piece of bacon and walks out the door, not having time to sit down, a cliched moment we've seen in a million films and tv shows. Only she doesn't this time. She sits down and joins her family. Instantly it feels odd. Like the preceding murder scene that started the film it's a stock moment that been fiddled with just enough to catch our attention and it's only the start of the fun Freaky has in store for us.

The Blissfield butcher (Vince Vaughn) has just minced a house full of teens and stolen a ceremonial knife to continue his killing spree. The town is on edge, the highschool's homecoming dance is about to happen and everyone is terrified it will be cancelled. Everyone but Millie Kessler (Katherine Newton), a teenage girl who's withdrawn into herself since the death of her father the year before. Her quietness is considered standoffish by fellow pupils and teachers and her friends and family are worried about her. They get even more worried when the butcher attacks her and stabs her in the shoulder. She survives the attack but her blood has kicked off a mystical reaction with the ceremonial knife and the next morning she wakes up in the body of the killer and he wakes up in hers. Then the madness really starts.

This rocked. Imagine Big crossed with Friday the 13th directed by someone who both loves the horror genre and who loves to rip the piss out of the horror genre at the same time. If you've seen Christopher Landon's (son of Michael, trivia fans) duo of Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U you'll know how much fun you've in store and this time he gets to take full advantage of the R-rating with severe ocular trauma, tablesaw carnage and seriously improper wine bottle usage all being on the menu. Crunchy gore aside, he fits in a couple of genuinely effective scares and a hell of a lot of laughs too courtesy of the body swap antics. Body swap antics that see people for once doing things you'd actually do if you found yourself in the body of the opposite sex for a day. The handiness of peeing upright, the things you can do with the strength that comes from being huge (Vaughn is a big feck) and the empowerment that comes from people's sudden attitude changes to you. Freaky uses this to touch on the sexual politics of horror films in ways that never seem preachy but always add to the entertainment.

One of Freaky's biggest triumphs is it's upending of horror tropes and cliches. If you're a casual fan you'll enjoy this immensely but horror nerds will get a big kick out of the way it mixes things up, set ups that ignore the usual payoffs, characters who'd usually be slasher fodder being heroes, even down to little things like specific camera movements you've seen again and again in horror not going the way you'd think. It's as affectionate and clever a send up of the genre as there's been in an age. As with all the most effective horror it's the cast that really make it work and both Newton and Vaughn go all out, adapting to each others physicalities, her using her smarts to make up for lost brute force and him nailing her foibles but thankfully without the camp theatrics from the likes of other body swap films like Jumanji. Both have a whale of a time in their parts and their enjoyment translates brilliantly to the screen.

Freaky is streaming online now. It's a genuinely substantial horror comedy that mixes it's ingredients very successfully. Come for the laughs and stay for the sexist jocks getting their crotches chainsawed. Joyous.