If you’ve seen Happy Death Day or its brilliantly-titled (and brilliantly-executed) sequel Happy Death Day 2U, you’ll know that filmmaker Christopher Landon excels when it comes to high-concept popcorn horror flicks. After giving us a Groundhog Day slasher, followed by a Back To The Future Part II slasher, he’s returning with a new Blumhouse comedy-horror titled Freaky – one that might as well be dubbed Freaky Friday The 13th. Yes, it’s a body-swap slasher flick, which sees Kathryn Newton’s introverted high-schooler trapped in the corporeal form of Vince Vaughn’s knife-wielding serial killer, the Blissfield Butcher. It’s a fun concept that Landon and co-writer Michael Kennedy seem to absolutely run with – check out the trailer below.
Doesn’t that look like a riot? There’s plenty of laughs to be had here, with Vaughn getting to tap into his inner teenage girl, and Newton (who you may recognise from Big Little Lies and Blockers) getting to tear it up as a psychopathic killing machine. And rest assured there will be blood, with the trailer teasing chainsaws, shattered frozen bodies, and plenty more violent delights to come. And while the body-swap film is nothing new (and has recently been revived to great effect in the Jumanji sequels), Landon's previous unexpected genre mash-ups have felt remarkably fresh.
Freaky doesn’t have a confirmed UK release date yet (it’s down for Friday 13th November in the US, fittingly), but is expected to hit cinemas here later in the year – though, as with all upcoming cinema releases, that’s pending the state of everything as the Coronavirus pandemic continues. Considering how fun the Happy Death Day movies proved to be with a crowd, here’s hoping there’s a safe way of enjoying this one all together.