Freaky parents guide

Freaky Parent Guide

A clever idea, executed with lots of blood.

Overall D

Digital on Demand: A serial killer stabs a young woman with an ancient knife. The next morning she wakes up in his body, desperate to get her own body back.

Release date December 4, 2020

Violence D
Sexual Content D
Profanity D+
Substance Use C

Why is Freaky rated R? The MPAA rated Freaky R for strong bloody horror violence, sexual content, and language throughout

Run Time: 102 minutes

Parent Movie Review

Millie (Kathryn Newton) is an unassuming and unpopular teen, navigating high school with her friends Nyla (Celeste O’Connor) and Josh (Misha Osherovich). But her troubles are only beginning: an escaped maniac, known only as The Butcher (Vince Vaughn), is on the loose and has just killed four of her classmates. So when Millie finds herself alone at school after dark, waiting for her alcoholic mother (Katie Finneran) to pick her up after a football game, she has reason to be concerned. The Butcher appears and chases her down, stabbing her in the shoulder with an ancient Aztec dagger before disappearing into the night. That should be the end of it, right? But when Millie wakes up the next morning in The Butcher’s body, she realizes she’s in more trouble than she expected. And time is running before she’s stuck that way…forever.

How successful do you think Freaky Friday meets Halloween would be? Surprisingly, it works pretty well, and that’s due in equal measure to brilliant casting and lighthearted writing. Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn spend most of the movie playing…each other, and they both do it remarkably successfully. Vaughn does steal the show a little, but I think that’s intentional.

The second factor I mentioned is the script which, while not exactly groundbreaking, strikes a pretty light tone for the majority of the film, thereby keeping things on the rails. There are a few exceptions, though, mostly in the more murder-y parts of the movie. For example, some rape threats in the third act serve to darken the film significantly. On the plus side though, we get to see all of the would-be rapists messily killed, which is certainly satisfying if bloody vengeance is your style. My personal favorite (!) was the kid who got chainsaw-ed in the crotch for his part in an attempted gang-rape. Nothing quite like instant justice…

As you might have guessed from that little description, this is definitely a hard R-rating. Teen sex, drinking, and most frequently, gory murder make this completely unsuitable for a family audience or adult viewers who don’t want to watch bloody slaughter. There’s also the issue of the 40-odd f-bombs, which averages out to around 1 every 3 and a half minutes. Freaky will appeal to adult horror-comedy fans, and it’s certainly a better entry in that genre than anything in the Scary Movie franchise. That doesn’t mean you’re going to want to spool it up for family movie night.

Directed by Christopher Landon. Starring Vince Vaugh, Kathryn Newton, Celeste O'Connor, Misha Osherovich. Running time: 102 minutes. Theatrical release December 4, 2020. Updated

Freaky
Rating & Content Info

Why is Freaky rated R? Freaky is rated R by the MPAA for strong bloody horror violence, sexual content, and language throughout

Violence:   Several individuals are stabbed, slashed, impaled, and shot. A teenager is killed by having a wine bottle shoved down their throat and then shattered. A character is beaten to death with a toilet seat. An individual is killed by having a badminton racket shoved through their head. A character is frozen solid and then shattered. An individual is vertically bisected on a table saw. A teenager is killed with a chainsaw, and another with a large sharp hook being driven through the eye.
Sexual Content: Teenagers are shown having sex, but with no nudity. There are repeated graphic sexual references and jokes. There are several crude drawings seen on bathroom walls.
Profanity:   There are 40 uses of extreme profanity, 15 scatological profanities, and frequent use of mild profanities and terms of deity.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Teens are shown drinking, and one adult character is depicted as an alcoholic. There are references to drugs but none are seen.

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Home Video

The most recent home video release of Freaky movie is December 4, 2020. Here are some details…

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Obvious influences include Freaky Friday, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and pretty much any classic slasher movie you’d care to name. Vince Vaughn is bizarrely miscast as Norman Bates in a 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 film Psycho.