Where I Watched it: FreeVee

English Audio Description?: No

The feeling I had immediately following my viewing of this film was that i had to watch this film again at some point with audio description. It was a film I knew nothing about, and honestly felt like no one really had hyped up for me, but I watched on a whim in October for Spooky season, and it surprised the hell out of me. I enjoy a good horror comedy possibly more than any other horror sub-genre. I do love me some slasher, but a good horror comedy, like Shaun Of The Dead, Cooties, Tucker and Dale Vs Evil, or The Final Girls, stick with me. Freaky totally felt like it could be that for me.

The film takes the Freaky Friday plot, and has a killer (Vince Vaughn) swap souls with a teenage girl in the middle of one of his murderous rampages. So, the teenager becomes stuck in the body of an older guy who is also a killer, and meanwhile the killer is now her. It’s a comedy of errors, as her friends take forever to believe her, and all the while it’s Vince Vaughn trying to be a teenage girl cheerleader type. I feel like he used to be better at this kind of thing, but has grown a little tired and defeated as his career hasn’t quite kept him on the A-list track. He’s one of my favorite actors, but he does seem to be in a casting rut.

I think that’s probably my only hang up with this is that I felt Vaughn could have gone further. I actually hate to say Rob Schneider did it better, but he actually did. Schneider is more convincing as a teenage girl in The Hot Chick than Vaughn in this, but throw in the slasher plot, and some great best friend characters, and this movie really does soar.

It’s almost impossible to grade a horror leaning film without audio description, because there are so many questions about who just got killed off, was it gory, and the necessity of audio description for any potential jump scares, that the truth is these films aren’t the best experience for blind people without audio description. I just caught a strong glimpse of a film that later I hope to rewatch, and fully love. if you can watch Freaky with audio description, do it. What bits and pieces I was getting were very promising.

Final Grade: Unwatchable (for now)