Freaky – Film Review

Cast: Kathryn Newton, Vince Vaughn, Celeste O’Connor, Misha Osherovich, Katie Finneran, Alan Ruck, Uriah Shelton, Dana Drori

Director: Christopher Landon

Synopsis: After a fateful encounter with a notorious serial killer, one high school student finds that she and the killer have switched bodies…

Review: When it comes to the horror genre, the possibilities that writers and directors have to provide chills and scares to audiences are endless. There is the the unique route of having extremely terrifying things happening in broad daylight. Or indeed, stick to the classic slasher sub genre that has worked so successfully for many decades. Additionally, the premise of a film that centres on two people swapping bodies is one that feels like it’s the perfect, almost tailor made for a slasher horror film. Sprinkle a bit of comedy in there for a good measure, and you have an extremely entertaining film that delivers gory moments and hilarity in equal measure.

Millie Kessler (Newton) is a high school student at Blissfield High, battling with cruel classmates and teachers alike. On one fateful evening after a high school football match, Millie comes face to face with the town’s serial killer: the Blissfield Butcher (Vaughn). After she’s attacked by the Butcher with a dagger (that may or may not have some mysterious qualities to it), the two wake up the following morning to find that they are in each other’s bodies. Now in the body of the killer, and with a limited time window before the switch becomes permanent, Millie must do all she can to ensure that the reign of terror that the Blissfield Butcher has inflicted on the town comes to an end.

Christopher Landon has previously found success with films that mesh horror and comedy with his Happy Death Day franchise. Hence, Freaky film feels like a perfect continuation for him. His script, co-written by Michael Kennedy, is a delightful twist on the 1972 novel Freaky Friday. While the script is unquestionably filled with some cheesy dialogue, there’s plenty comedic one liners that are expertly delivered by the cast. Meshing comedy with horror is a very fine line to walk, but Langdon walks it perfectly. Within the first ten minutes of the film, he quickly establishes the brutality of the Butcher, by dispatching of his first view victims in gruesome manner. The film presents itself initially as your standard slasher flick. This is until the Butcher meets Millie, and then the ol’ body switcheroo happens, and the two are in a race against time to get back in their bodies, or else the switch will become permanent.

As well as expertly combining the horror of the situation with the comedy, what really makes the film the bloody, and riotous blast of fun that it is, is the performances of Kathryn Newton, and especially Vince Vaughn. Vaughn in particular is clearly having a lot of fun pretending to have the mannerisms of a teenage girl who suddenly finds herself in the body of a six foot four ominous serial killer. Likewise for Newton, to go from being this timid, shy teenage girl, who’s being routinely picked on, to being this serial killer who exudes confidence and who kills teenagers for fun. It is a real change of direction and Newton goes all out in her performance. The complete shift in both their characters is pivotal to making the film work, and it’s to the credit of both actors that they are able to make the contrast in their personas so believable.

There’s no one in the rest of the cast who matches the quality of the performances from Newton and Vaughn. However, Celeste O’Connor and Misha Osherovich come very close to doing so. As Millie’s best friends who must work with her to bring the Butcher’s rampage to its end, they have some of the best lines. While the film is perhaps a little bit predictable with how events play out, to take a body swap film and turn into a horror/comedy, is extremely ingenious. Furthermore, thanks to the committed performances of its cast, the end product is an absolute bloody delight from start to finish.

Horror and comedy spliced together can often end badly. However with excellent performances by Newton and Vaughn, Freaky is an enthralling, bloody soaked blast of fun.

The Suicide Squad – Film Review

Cast: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior

Director: James Gunn

Synopsis: A team of high-powered supervillains are recruited into Task Force X, for a mission that takes them to a South American island to learn more details about a top secret scientific programme…

Review: It would be fair to say that the excitement for 2016’s Suicide Squad was palpable. An assortment of bad guys on a bonkers mission, from a director with proven experience under his belt, several excellent casting choices and some excellently cut trailers. It all looked so promising, and well, to say that the film didn’t work out as planned would be a massive understatement. Hence, anyone could have been forgiven for keeping their excitement in check when it was revealed that DC’s collection of B list supervillains/douchebags were getting a new big screen adaptation, courtesy of James Gunn. Would the man who successfully brought Marvel’s ragtag collection of loveable arseholes to life, be able to do justice to the DC equivalent on the big screen? Thankfully this time around, the answer is an emphatic YES.

Task Force X, led by the absolutely ruthless Amanda Waller (Davis), is once again recruiting high powered supervillains to to complete seemingly impossible missions, in order to get time off their prison sentences. Missions that will almost certainly lead to their deaths. This time around, the Task Force are sent to the South American island of Corto Maltese, where it’s believed that the Government is developing some kind of weapon that is known only as “Project Starfish.” Familiar faces Harley Quinn, Colonel Rick Flagg and Captain Boomerang are joined by an extremely eclectic range of bad guys on this dangerous mission. A mission where bloody and absolutely glorious mayhem ensues.

While this new version barely references the 2016 version, returning faces Margot Robbie and Viola Davis once again excel as Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller respectively. Robbie especially has arguably never been better in the role than she is here, and in both cases, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else portraying those characters. Of all the new recruits, and there are a fair few of them, in Will Smith’s place as the team’s commander/sharpshooter, comes Idris Elba’s Bloodsport. His deadliness with firearms puts him at odds with John Cena’s Peacemaker, think Captain America but with an enormous ego and absolutely no morals whatsoever. As Peacemaker is also quite handy when it comes to guns, the testosterone-fuelled banter that constantly zips back and forth between these two is the source for much of the film’s uproarious comedy. Once you see David Dastmalchian’s Polka Dot Man, you won’t have to connect too many dots to figure out what his powers are. Meanwhile fan favourite King Shark, thanks to the voicework of Sylvester Stallone, is so wonderfully brought to life. However, the heart of the film very much lies in Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2, who has the ability to control rats.

As one might suspect from the film’s title, it’s safe to assume that there are going to be casualties, and they would be wise to have that assumption. Gunn really makes it feel like no one is safe, and that anyone could very easily meet their demise at any moment. As his early films as a director were very much rooted in the horror genre, he is clearly having lots of fun with the manner in choosing how to pick off certain characters. Though as he probably was restrained from turning up the dial on the violence factor for the Guardians films, he completely turbocharges the violence, with blood and guts galore. This is probably just as well given that there’s a humanoid shark present who has a craving for human flesh and has no qualms about tearing people apart limb from limb.

It is not news that audiences have in recent years become inundated with the plethora of superhero films. While so many have been undeniably extremely entertaining, there are plenty that have, in some cases through no fault of their own, failed to make themselves stand out from the crowd. This is something that this version of DC’s collection of supervillains avoids, in no small part, thanks to the R rating, the action sequences and the performances of all the cast. The absurdity of the mission, along with the humour and bickering that ensues between the characters, and the gravity of the situation is a tough balancing act for Gunn, but it’s one that they get (apart from one or two minor pacing issues) damn near perfectly right. What you’re left with after all that is, to put it simply: best DC Extended Universe film so far.