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Hulu subscribers can currently get two Vince Vaughns for the price of one in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, an action-comedy of sorts where a time-travel element allows two Vaughns to share the screen at once. (He plays the titular Nick, and also the titular Nick.) But those two guys are ultimately the same; one is just imbued with the wisdom he’s gained in six months’ worth of guilt over contributing to the death of his friend. Makes sense; Vaughn isn’t really known for his chameleonic transformations. But if you want to see Vaughn actually tackle two characters in one film, he does that in Freaky, a relatively little-seen horror-comedy released back in 2020.
Freaky began life as a cute high concept: The screenplay (or at least the pitch for it) was fully titled Freaky Friday the 13th, and dutifully mashed up exactly what the portmanteau implied: A Friday the 13th-style slasher and a Freaky Friday-style body-switching comedy. The title couldn’t stick for obviously copyright-related reasons, but the surefire premise did, and cowriter/director Christopher Landon had plenty of experience with the slasher-meets subgenre, having made Happy Death Day (slasher meets Groundhog Day) and its sequel (slasher meets Back to the Future Part II). The film also offers a dual role to Kathryn Newton, which makes it an appropriate substitution for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, where Newton continues to burnish her scream-queen bona fides (she does indeed scream and get soaked in blood) but doesn’t have enough else to do. Vaughn has more to do in his new movie (and he’s keeping plenty busy complaining like an old git about talk shows being too woke or whatever), but he’s better in Freaky, where no one can be charged with doing the bare minimum.
Why Watch Freaky Tonight?
Honestly, if you’re not sold on Freaky Friday the 13th as a shortcut premise, I’m a little worried that you’re not in the mood for a movie at all and may never be. But fair enough that slasher movies, even funny ones, are not everyone’s cup of tea. This one has an unusual degree not just of laughs but character-based sensitivity, rooted in its game performances.
It starts like a typical teen slasher, with serial killer the Butcher (Vince Vaughn) stalking and killing teenagers. But when he stabs the bullied Millie (Kathryn Newton) with an ancient dagger (hoping to gain supernatural powers like so many later-stage slasher sequels before him), something unexpected happens: Millie and the Butcher wake up in each other’s bodies. This means that the Butcher is now played by the sweet-faced Newton, and Millie is now played by the hulking, middle-aged Vaughn. And as it turns out, both actors kill it in their new roles.
It’s not that surprising that Newton can affect a grim, dead-eyed deadpan and go about the stylish business of stalking and killing more teens. But Vaughn, faced with a premise not unlike what fellow political gadfly Rob Schneider got up to in The Hot Chick, plays Millie with both comic teen-girl inflection and a real sensitivity. He deftly plays the slapstick of a smaller teenage girl inhabiting a much taller body, but he’s just as good in scenes where Millie connects with her crush in the least enviable physical circumstances she could have imagined. It’s disarmingly sweet stuff.
To be clear, this is still an R-rated slasher movie. It’s not necessarily that scary, per se, but while Landon’s nominally slasher-centric Happy Death Day movies were solidly PG-13 affairs (honestly, a horror-forward 11-year-old shouldn’t have much trouble with either of them), this one has some gnarly gore that horror fans will enjoy and others may flinch at. But Landon loves his characters too much to make a truly nasty slasher; this is more of a peppy haunted house with some surprisingly endearing characters inside. It’s especially neat in the context of Vaughn’s career, given how many comedies he’s made where he barely seems to get up the energy to do his motormouthed shtick. He avoids that shtick here, too, but mainly out of fealty to both his endearing teen-girl protagonist and grim-looking slasher villain. Newton has more horror experience, but it’s Vaughn who can be briefly crowed a scream king based on his work here.
Freaky is from Universal Pictures, so its exile from the parent company’s streaming service Peacock probably won’t be long. But if you’re hungry for more Vaughn after Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (or just want to watch a much better movie of his), hurry up and press play on Freaky before it leaves Peacock at midnight on Tuesday, March 31.
How To Watch Peacock
Peacock currently offers two subscription types: Premium with ads and Premium Plus ad-free. Peacock Premium costs $10.99/month, while Premium Plus costs $16.99/month.
You can save a bit by subscribing to one of Peacock’s annual plans, which give you 12 months for the price of 10. These cost either $109.99 with ads or $169.99 without ads.
Peacock Premium Plus is also available to subscribe to via Prime Video with a seven-day free trial that you can’t get by subscribing directly on Peacock.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn podcasting at www.sportsalcohol.com. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Guardian, among others.
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