A serial killer left an entire town in a state of emergency after killing four teenagers. When he takes an old Aztec dagger and attacks teenage girl Millie, a strange phenomen happens and the two swap their bodies. The next morning, the killer wakes up inside Millie's body and starts killing in her high school, while Millie wakes up in the killer's body, yet manages to persuade her friends Nyla and Josh about the body swap, as well as her crush, Booker. They have 24 hours to use the dagger to change their bodies back, or the change will stay permanent. They succeed and return Millie's mind back in her body. When the killer strikes again at her house, Millie kills him, with the help of her mum and sister.
"Friday the 13th" meets "Freaky Friday"—this strange syncretism of 'hard core' slasher horror and body-switch comedy works only in the latter, but this said latter part is sadly lesser used in the story. Congruently, the two leading actors only work when they are playing their good counterpart, and not their serial killer counterpart—but Vince Vaughn is such a good comedian that he almost steals the show as the feminine Millie stuck in the body of the male killer, with a few delicious examples of humorous body language, such as when he imitates the cheerleader dance to persuade the two high school friends Nyle and Josh to identify "her", or the hilarious kiss with Booker. Unfortunately, the director Christopher Landon gets stuck in the mud of splatter violence and senseless horror clichees, such as the disgusting sequence where Millie "the killer" executes her teacher by slicing his entire body in half on a saw mill, which ruins "Freaky" right from the start. It is a pity, since more finesse and sophistication could have made a much better film out of this interesting concept. However, one stand-out sequence is such a surprising example of stylistic perfection that it has to be seen, even isolated: it is the genius slow-motion tracking shot of a "transformed" new Millie walking cool towards her high school, while the cheerleaders are doing a salto, a human pyramide or waving their flags around her, with the song "Que Sera Sera" playing until it slows down to a standstill, in a moment of sheer superiority and energy compared to the entire rest of the film.
Grade:+
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