Freaky (2020)

The whole Freaky Friday/body swap concept is a tried-and-tested formula for light-hearted romps about mistaken identity and learning to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes", but slasher-comedy Freaky takes this to a whole new level by throwing a serial killer into the mix.

Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) is a sweet high school kid who, late one terrifying evening while waiting for a lift home from a football match, discovers that the urban myth of the Blissfield Butcher is all too real.

The night before the brutal deaths of four obnoxious teens had been attributed to this legendary 'mythical' figure in the town of Blissfield, but then he (Vince Vaughn) attacks Millie, and stabs her with an ancient knife - La Dola - that has come into his possession.

This ancient Aztec sacrificial blade has the magical power to swap the souls of the attacker and victim when a person is stabbed with it.

The next day, The Butcher wakes up as a teenage girl, and Millie wakes up in a squat, wearing the face of the most wanted man in Blissfield.

The Butcher adapts to his new form much faster than Millie, immediately realising it's the perfect disguise with which to continue his murder spree.

Meanwhile, Millie has to convince her friends that it's really her in this middle-aged man's body... and avoid being arrested on numerous homicide charges.

Millie and her friends learn that unless they can stab The Butcher again within 24 hours, with the same magical blade, the soul transference will be permanent.

And so the race against time begins. 

Directed by Christopher Landon, who brought us the two Happy Death Day time loop movies, from a script he co-wrote with Michael Kennedy, Freaky is a broad horror-comedy (Vince Vaughn playing a teenage girl in a man's body is brilliant).

But while there is a degree of gore - unsurprisingly - in this slasher flick, the most disturbing elements come from the threats of sexual violence delivered by stereotypical jocks when they think they have the "weak and feeble" Millie backed into a corner.

This is one of those slasher films where you find yourself, while never, of course, siding with the Blissfield Butcher, at least feeling satisfied with some of his victim choices.

The 102-minute film also does a fantastic job when it comes to pacing, to the extent that when you first believe the story is over, you suddenly realise there's 10 or 15 minutes of the film still to run... and there are more shocks to come!

Freaky is neither high art nor trash cinema, skating comfortably down the middle as a teen friendly horror flick that nails its colours to the mast from the get-go, trading largely in stereotypes to keep the action moving.

Ultimately it's a jaunty game of cat-and-mouse between two compelling leads (Millie morphs into a cross between Reese Witherspoon's Elle Woods and Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy Summers) that entertains and repulses when it needs to.