Freaky
After 5 trips to the cinema to see Freaky, I think it’s time I review this hoe.
After Happy Death Day, Blumhouse stole my heart by recreating a classic and iconic movie plot and switching the genre to my favourite, horror. And when the trailer for Freaky dropped I could not be more excited! The 2003 Freaky Friday movie, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, was one of my favourite Disney flicks growing up, despite me not enjoying the movie as much now, the concept of body swapping was always a fun plot, so seeing that Freaky would be adapting the body swap concept into a horror-comedy I was buzzing!
COVID put a huge halt on the release in the UK, so I kind of forgot it existed but then I got the notification that it was playing at my local cinema from 2nd July, so I just had to go see it! Now let me clarify, Freaky is a rather cheesy flick, and uses obvious stereotypes from the genre, but personally I don’t care. I don’t think Freaky is trying to be an out of the box “horror” movie, that’s one of the reasons why I love it. The main reason I love it is because of how progressive it is without even trying. As a transgender woman, for my life I’ve been a girl in a boy’s body, so feeling uncomfortable in your body and identifying differently is a common thing for us trans people, and surprise surprise, that’s the plot of Freaky! Being trapped inside a different body and experiencing the hardships of being in that body is exactly what our lead Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) is experiencing! A scene that really moved me was towards the climax where Booker (Uriah Shelton) and Millie (inside the Butcher’s body) were together in the back of a car, and the conversation about the love they had for each other. Towards the end of the conversation, Booker wants to kiss Millie, not caring about the fact that it’s the Butcher’s lips. “You’re still Millie to me” he says, which warmed my heart so much as trans people often hold back from loving those they love because their body doesn’t match who they are, so I love Landon for writing Booker’s character like this, not caring about a different body, loving the person for who they actually are. That’s why I love this film as much as I do. Without that, Freaky would just be great instead of amazing.