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[Beyond Fest 2020] Review: ‘Freaky’ Is An Unlikely But Bloody Hilarious Horror-Comedy Mash-Up
The slasher genre has existed for decades and just when it seems to exhaust itself, it manages to find new ways to revive again, like its killer stars tend to do sequel to sequel. In the case of Blumhouse, they found success in Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day films which combined the genre with the time-loop comedy trope found in movies like Groundhog Day. Now, Landon’s returned with a new slasher mash-up, and it’s a killer!
Millie (Kathryn Newton, Big Little Lies) is an ordinary teenage girl who lives in the ordinary and seemingly peaceful small town of Blissfield. Despite the Norman Rockwell decor, the citizens are under siege from a maniacal masked murderer known only as The Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn, Brawl In Cellblock 99) who’s picking off teens left and right. One night, the Blissfield Butcher stabs Millie with a mystical dagger he found in one of his previous victim’s possession but she’s saved at the last second, leaving them both wounded. The next morning however, they wake up to find their souls have switched bodies! Now Millie has just one day to get her original body back before the change is permanent and The Blissfield Butcher continues his killing spree.
Needless to say, this is a twisted twist on the old Freaky Friday flip where one person’s mind is switched with another’s, usually their polar opposite for additional comedic effect. The title of Freaky making it pretty evident. But this is the first time I think it’s been played for horror alongside comedy! Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn really shine as they switch characters and personas through a majority of the movie. The Blissfield Butcher a towering, intimidating monster, but with the mind of Millie, he becomes an awkward teenage girl in a hulking killer’s body! There are even several points where each character adjust to their new body’s newfound strengths and weaknesses. The Blissfield Butcher in Millie’s body realizing he can’t just overpower his victims anymore and utilizes cunning and speed to get the jump on his victims.
Which is another thing, Freaky does not hold back on the gore and kill scenes! Some complaints were made about the Happy Death Day series being a little ‘tame’ bound into its PG-13 rating, but Freaky has an ‘R’ rating and deservedly so. There are some excellent examples of inventive slasher deaths and over the top splatter via power tools and everyday items like bottles. Don’t want spoil any of them, but believe me when I say they’re memorable. My only complaint being that they feel a bit oddly paced toward the middle and end of the movie. The tempo breaks a little bit due to plot reasons, so it’s not exactly a rapid fire bloodfest, but there’s still plenty of bodycount to go around. But for the most part it does a decent job at the genre balancing act and following Millie in The Blissfield Butcher’s body and vice-versa.
Director Christopher Landon and writer Michael Kennedy do an excellent job of combining the tropes of the two decidedly different genres to make a bloody slasher and a fun ‘race against the clock’ movie as Millie figures out she has to get her body back fast. As well as establishing its supporting cast of Millie’s friends, family, and enemies (who tend to meet a gory demise at the hand of the Blissfield Butcher switched Millie). Even featuring a romantic sub-plot that feels organic instead of distracting.
I was fortunate enough to attend the world premiere at Beyond Fest’s drive-in variation of their annual festival at Mission Tiki in Montclair, California. In the wake of the pandemic, seeing a new movie on a big screen has been a joy that words alone cannot express. There were even promotional Freaky face masks taken from the poster. Freaky felt right at home in a drive-in cinema and made a fine double feature with the 2010 classic horror-comedy Tucker And Dale vs Evil chosen specifically by Landon and Kennedy.
Overall, Freaky is an unimaginable slasher/body swap comedy that manages to work. It’s got a lot of laughs and scenes to make you scream.
Freaky will be released in theaters on November 13th, 2020.
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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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