Why Freaky Is The Friday The 13th Movie Fans Have Been Waiting For

Freaky is an inventive blend of the horror and comedy genres in addition to being a surprisingly satisfying for fans of the Friday the 13^thfranchise.

Freaky is the latest film from director Christopher Landon, who’s previously gotten attention for his Happy Death Day movies. Freaky turns the ludicrous nature of a body swapping comedy into a brutal slasher movie and gets a lot of mileage out of the wild premise. Freaky features big scares and vicious violence, but the movie is a success because of the committed performances by its leads, Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, who has already made her mark on the genre within the Paranormal Activity franchise.

The jokes in Freaky work just as well as the kills do, and Landon’s work with Blumhouse’s Happy Death Day movies are proof that the director is skilled with juggling many genres together with horror. However, there’s actually a lot for the Friday the 13^thcrowd to appreciate in Freaky despite some of the movie’s lighter and more empathetic moments. Freaky’s events happen to be set around the Friday the 13th calendar date—which is often celebrated by horror fans like a holiday—but the style of the movie’s serial killer, the Blissfield Butcher, is also reminiscent of Friday the 13^th’s universe and its unstoppable slasher villain, Jason Voorhees.

Freaky begins with a graphic introduction where Vaughn’s Blissfield Butcher massacres several teens in a manner that feels like it’s deliberately supposed to resemble Friday the 13^th’s Jason Voorhees. The Blissfield Butcher wears a simplistic mask and operates in a calculated way. In that regard, Vaughn’s mannerisms and silent nature when he’s in killer mode feel eerily similar to Kane Hodder’s iconic Jason performance. The Butcher isn’t interested in quips or taunting his victims, like Freddy Krueger — he’s purely focused on the kill. The Blissfield Butcher’s executions are grandiose, even when he’s within Millie’s body, and he accumulates a body count in the double digits that would make Jason proud. The Butcher also takes advantage of his environment much in the same way that Jason Voorhees does with camp supplies. The Butcher improvises with whatever items are around him, whether it’s sports equipment or tools from Millie’s woodworking class.

There is a lot of Friday the 13^th’s DNA within Freaky, but the biggest differences between the horror movies ultimately come down to tone and the type of story that it wants to tell. It can be easy to root for Jason in Friday the 13^thmovies, but the audience genuinely wants to see Newton’s Millie Kessler survive. Freaky is also interested in Millie’s empowerment, so it doesn’t resort to any nudity, gratuitous or otherwise, despite its R-rating. However, it’s not impossible for Freaky to grow into a new Friday the 13^thtype franchise. The movie has already established supernatural events and a comedic baseline that would have benefitted the later Friday the 13^thsequels.

Freaky is already so heightened that it’s exciting to think where it could go with a series of bigger sequels that follow in Friday the 13^th’s footsteps. Vaughn’s Blissfield Butcher performance has such character behind it and it’s not hard to picture him somehow being brought back to life to terrorize more teens in another Freaky installment. And, for fans who are still waiting for a proper Friday the 13th sequel to arrive, it’s a good replacement to make the wait a little easier.

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