It seems clear to me that Christopher Landon wants to be this generation’s Wes Craven, and while I do think he’s actually not too far from being worthy of that title with his tempting parody-esc concepts, he still writes in plot and pathos like any other negligent or uncreative filmmaker. Freaky may be admired for its blend of horror, drama, and black comedy, but it’s worth mentioning that it also indulges in the textbook clichés and horrid plot conveniences that have encouraged people to want to swell outside of these genre redundancies in the first place.
It’s such a shame too, cause Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn are so convincing in their roles; Newton actually plays the stone-cold serial killer part way better than Vaughn, and weirdly enough, Vaughn plays the shy teenage girl better than her; it really works as a silver lining since they both embody those personas for the majority of the runtime. The movie is fair-looking at times, as well, and Landon is even pretty sufficient at directing some gnarly kills, but he escalates them through serendipities that simply don’t get any more fleetingly thought up of then they have here — same goes for how he baby-feeds us character arcs. For a movie that begs for me to take it seriously unlike your typical “heartless” slasher movie because woahhhhh this time it’s got sad and insecure people in it instead of “robot people” or “bodies just to be killed” so now it’s automatically poignant and smarter *eye roll*, this undoubtedly has some work to be done before I can consider it at least effective in what it sets out to achieve.
The comedy was decent though. Again, thank you Vaughn.
Verdict: C
“Freaky” is now playing in theaters and now available to rent on VOD.
Burning the Celluloid 
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