La Ron S. Readus
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Is FREAKY Secretly Brilliant? (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2021-10-29 20:01:00 +0000 UTCToday on Film Friday, I take a look at the 2020 film, Freaky. Let’s begin
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/Freaky is a slasher horror comedy directed by Christopher Langdon, and written by both Langdon and Michael Kennedy. It tells the story of Millie Kessler, a student at Blissfield Valley High School who’s pretty attractive according to modern-day conventional European beauty standards, but is bullied by the mean girls, the jocks and even the teachers of her school because of things like her low self-esteem and where she currently is mentally due to the loss of her father. Then one Thursday night, she’s attacked by a serial killer called the Blissfield Butcher who has gained the title of urban legend since the 1990’s. He stabs her with a Mayan tribal knife that on the following Friday causes them to switch bodies with each other. And in order for her to get things back to normal, she has to stab him again before the day is over, or she’ll be trapped in the body of the Blissfield Butcher forever./
Now you would think that because I’m a fan of Scream’s meta commentary on the slasher subgenre of horror that I would naturally flock to a horror comedy like Freaky. That’s not necessarily true.
The reason why I adore the Scream franchise as much as I do is because its a meta breakdown of the slasher genre, and there’s a huge difference between a meta narrative and a PARODY narrative. Meta narratives like Scream break down and explain the tropes that typically make up the genre its in. Parody makes fun of the tropes associated with it and pokes fun at the genre overall.
So just because I enjoy Scream -- which is a franchise that focuses on the meta of slasher horror -- doesn’t necessarily mean I actively enjoy, let’s say...Scary Movie -- which is a franchise that PARODIES horror, or suspense movies in general.
So does that mean Freaky was never on my radar? Not necessarily.
I promise you, I’m honestly not trying to be complicated here; I just saw this as a good teaching moment.
Don’t get me wrong; I definitely was interested in the movie when it was first announced.
A slasher take on the concept of Freaky Friday I felt was something I could successfully get into considering my appreciation of the genre, while at the same time being able to turn my brain off and enjoy it for what it is because it’s not meant to be taken seriously.
But, let’s be real here. This is ME we’re talking about; that last bit is damn near impossible.
So let’s spice things up a bit and start with my critique regarding the film first before I explain how this film caught me off guard.
Because I assure you, Readers; it DID catch me off guard.
What? What do you MEAN I’m only starting off with the bad stuff first because I wrote this script at 1 in the morning and I’m too tired to think up a proper transition to it after talking about the stuff I like?
Stop being weird; you’re acting weird.
Anyway, when it came to me potentially watching this movie in theaters, 2 things got in my way from doing so.
The most obvious being COVID during its theatrical release in November of 2020. The second one however was in the trailer that I saw, when THIS scene played.
(I’m gay, you’re black, we are SO dead!)
(Silently looks at screen) Yeah, it’s weird; I just don’t know why I never got around to watching it...
Alright. So, there’s a possibility that someone’s going to see my reaction to the character of Josh Detmer and say “Oh great, another ‘masc’ queer dude tired of seeing femme queer dudes in movies; how original.”
First of all, let’s just get this out the way now. Me? 100% masc? I couldn’t. Impossible. Not in the cards.
/Second of all, what I’m ACTUALLY tired of are cis-het male writers constantly using the stereotypical use of femme queer male-identifying individuals to subconsciously help PUSH the masc/femme divide within the male-identifying queer community, just because they find the sassiness and flamboyancy of the character trope as a vehicle to enhance the story’s comedy./
Whenever it's presented on screen like this, it never feels genuine. It never feels like it's part of their ACTUAL character personality.
It always feels like it’s tacked on for the sake of comedy, because the idea of a cisgendered male tapping into femininity of any kind in ANY way is still considered so unorthodox to a significant portion of straight folks that they have no way of interpreting it OTHER than comedy, and I am TIRED.
Like, the only time I have seen this happen SUCCESSFULLY is in the form of Lafayette Reynolds in True Blood, and I haven’t really seen it happen since.
However, I’m happy to report that this is pretty much the ONLY gripe with the movie that I actually have, because everything else that one could have a problem with this film is handled in ways that is either intentionally clever, or says more about the writers and director than actually deserved of them.
What do I mean by that? You’ll see in a minute.
So while I did enjoy the majority of Freaky, I’m all for admitting that I was unprepared for how much I was able to get out of its relatively simple plot.
Usually, the point of body-swap plots is so the characters affected by the ol’ switcheroo can learn to appreciate each other better, now that they’ve walked a mile in their shoes.
Whether it’s the appreciation of a mother-daughter relationship like Freaky Friday, a father-son one like Vice Versa, or the non-horror version of THIS film, The Hot Chick with Rob Schneider.
Listen, I said it’s the NON horror version of Freaky, not a BETTER version of Freaky; I think we can ALL agree that The Hot Chick was garbage
/But because the individual Millie body-swaps with is a serial killer that has shown to be incapable of any character development at all, the ensuing hijinks that the genre provides us with allows the movie to actually be kinda low-key brilliant in how it thinks outside of the box the genre usually places itself in./
On one hand, you have Millie.
/Constantly bullied, lacking self-esteem, doesn’t know how to talk to her mom regarding the things that she wants and feels guilty because of it due to her dad dying and feeling she needs her around as a support network. It’s a goal of hers that the movie pretty bluntly acknowledges she wants to accomplish near the beginning of it./
So by the time she’s in the body of the Blissfield Butcher, a character that we or she is in no way supposed to relate to...
We see her experience something completely different from the typical “now you know and appreciate what it feels like to be me” storybeat that the genre usually focuses on.
Instead, being in the body of the Blissfield Butcher causes her to experience what it feels like to be in a body that doesn’t highlight her insecurities, and lets her know how it feels for them to not even be part of the equation.
/She can intimidate the whack kids that’ve been giving her grief since she’s been in high school. She knows what it feels like to be strong and powerful. And my personal favorite, because she’s in a body and has a voice that’s not her own, Millie’s able to use it to her advantage in order to let her mom know what she wants without the worry of hurting her due to their shared tragedy of the loss of her father./
It’s not necessarily body dysmorphia because she DOES want her body back at the end of the day and is 100% focused on achieving that goal the moment she finds out she has until midnight to switch back.
/But because there really isn’t anything about the Blissfield Butcher to redeem, we have ample amount of time to focus on Millie and how she finds a way to not only navigate her desires through this new outlet, but also experience her learn that she’s just as capable of being strong, confident and all the other things she experiences by being in HIS body, in her own./
And then, there’s the Blissfield Butcher.
More importantly, there’s the Blissfield Butcher inside Millie’s body...
/And how quickly he learned how to weaponize whiteness./
What, you thought I WASN’T going to take it there? How could I NOT take it there? It’s such an obvious and interesting dive.
First off, let’s examine how easy it is for the Blissfield Butcher to assimilate into the school using Millie’s body.
/The clothes he wears, the attitude that attracts those that barely paid any mind originally. He immediately made the decision to utilize her sexuality the moment he discovered he -- as Millie -- could murder more students by going to school./
Then after killing Millie’s shop teacher Mr. Bernardi in a way that made him realize that there’s still a difference between his original middle-aged body and that of a high school girl, he learns just how much power he has in Millie’s body.
/And he learns it the moment he leaves the classroom, and two officers nod before continuing to walk down the hallway./
Now some might’ve seen that scene and went like, “oh yeah, he’s in Millie’s body, who is a high school student. Of course they’re not gonna pay her any mind if they think the Blissfield Butcher is a middle-aged white dude.”
But what I saw in that instance is someone learning what all they can get away with in a movie that’s already self-aware enough to know that a black student wouldn’t be offered the same luxury, now that they were in a body that could easily sway the right people to their side against the word or presence of another.
/And I got my confirmation of that, when I saw what the Butcher did when the two saw each other in their new bodies for the first time./ (It’s the Blissfield Butcher!)
This right here made me start watching this movie in a brand new light IMMEDIATELY.
And the thing about it is that as the movie went on, the Butcher continued to test the limits of the privilege that came with being in the body of a young white woman.
/Getting people to side with him. Coercing the jocks that originally were too busy making fun of Millie to wrap around his finger once he started utilizing her sexuality in order to do so. He milked Millie’s sexuality and privilege for everything it was worth the moment he realized how easy it was to use it as both a weapon and a defensive tactic./
/So much so, that despite hating being in her body because he no longer had access to his strength.../ (God, this body is so useless!)
/He was willing to do whatever it took to keep Millie from completing the ritual in time because he was now aware of how effective her privilege has been for him./
/One can even interpret the way he addressed Millie after her crush found out about the situation as his way of mocking her for being too scared and insecure to use the arsenal she had at her disposal/ (What a coward)
The moment I noticed not only THIS aspect about the film, but also the fact I originally made that it subverted the development trope usually associated with body-swap narratives, I was all like:
...Wait. Wait, is this... Is this movie actually BRILLIANT?? Is this the best accidental social commentary I’ve ever seen in a horror-comedy? Were Langdon and Kennedy AWARE that this aspect of the story could be interpreted this way when they decided to make this movie? Am I the only one who noticed this? I can’t be the only one who noticed this!
Does this make me happy? Yes.
Not only has Freaky used the opportunity it had to subvert the traditional body-swap tropes of compromise and understanding by allowing us to focus on Millie’s development and happiness first and foremost
But the statement it just so happens to make on white privilege and how quickly it can be utilized in a dangerous and deadly way if one is aware that they have it is absolutely astounding.
The only thing that was missing was Josh’s character feeling authentic in his queerness from beginning to end instead of feeling like a bundle of stereotypical male-identifying femme queer tropes for the sake of laughs.
But if I can get through that one aspect of this movie in order to enjoy what it was able to deliver, then I’m absolutely sure you can as well.
Who knows? Because queerness is not a monolith, you may actually disagree with me regarding Josh, and that’s fine.
/What I’M trying to say, is that if you feel in any way similar to me regarding the issue, don’t let it stand in the way of you seeing how good Freaky can be./
Both intentionally, and possibly unintentionally? I don’t know; the jury’s still out on that one.
Right now you can stream Freaky on HBO Max
But if you want to own it and also help financially support the channel, I’ll have an affiliate link for you in the description down below.
So with that being said Readers, YOUR homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what YOU thought of Freaky if you’ve seen it.
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But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed.
