Vince Vaughn is scary good in ‘Freaky.’ Read the reviews – Los Angeles Times

Critics are raving about Vince Vaughns career-best performance as a timid high school girl trapped in the body of a towering, sociopathic serial killer.

Hey, stranger things have happened on Friday the 13th.

The veteran actor appears opposite rising star Kathryn Newton in Freaky, the buzzy body-swap slasher comedy from the creators of the hit Happy Death Day franchise.

Released in select theaters Friday, the movie features Vaughn as the Blissfield Butcher, a ruthless murderer who attempts to stab his latest young victim, Millie (Newton), to death but ends up switching souls with her instead.

The big comic gimmick here is the physical presence of the beefy Vaughn, who for long stretches of Freaky gets to pretend hes a teenage girl, writes Noel Murray for The Times.

To the actors credit, he doesnt overplay it. He mainly makes Millie into someone very aware of her feelings whether shes taking giddy delight in urinating as a man or taking advantage of being incognito to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her mother.

In a conversation with The Times, Vaughn admitted the absurd concept of the Blumhouse vehicle scared me a little at first, adding, But I felt like, Well, thats probably good. Id sort of been wanting to do stuff where I feel a little like your feet cant touch the bottom.

Heres a sampling of other Freaky reviews, which also praise Newtons portrayal of a scream queen turned murderous maniac with a determined stalk and icy death stare.

Newton, with the less showier of roles, is an effectively ferocious killer ... But its Vaughn who steals it with career-best work, a surprisingly impactful and, at times, moving turn that goes way beyond the surface silliness of the setup, writes Benjamin Lee.

Too often, male actors in a similar scenario (such as Jack Black in Jumanji) play a girl in a mans body as high camp, leaning into hoary gay affectations, mincing around while doing a high-pitched voice. But Vaughn is so much more studied than that, focusing on more specific aspects (the biting of nails, an awkward, never not funny, run, how a change in size then changes behaviour), realising that not all girls act in the same cliched way. Its a marvellous, thoughtful performance from an actor whos been doing so very little for so long.

The sheer gusto with which Vaughn throws himself into the Millie-by-proxy role is a thing to behold, writes David Fear.

His commitment to the extended bit that is this high-concept premise works, even when Freaky doesnt, and if youd told many of us that there would be a subversive story of female empowerment in a horror-comedy featuring Vaughn as one of two final girls ... wed have thought you were certifiably cuckoo. This is 2020, however, which means all bets are off. It also suggests that while there might not be a franchise in the making here, the film has stumbled across a winning formula. This could open up whole new avenues for its duo. Now lets see Vaughn do a remake of Clueless.

Kathryn Newton as Millie Kessler, left, and Vince Vaughn as the Butcher in Freaky.

(Brian Douglas / Universal Pictures)

At 65, the hulking actor certainly has the build to play a small-town serial killer, and the moment he lowers his mask is nothing if not a nod to Gus Van Sants shot-for-shot Psycho remake (of all things), writes Peter Debruge.

Turns out, Vaughns better at playing a teenage girl than he is at harnessing his inner Norman Bates.

Vaughn has the room to give an even bigger performance, and he makes the most of it, writes Karen Han.

When Millie, still inside the Butcher, must interact with her crush Booker (Uriah Shelton), the resulting scene is funny but touching, too, especially as Booker, once he gets over his initial reluctance to believe whats happening, treats Millie just as he would if she werent transformed. It really is just a scene between a high school girl and her crush, and Vaughn commits to the emotion of the scene so fully that you almost forget hes a 50-year-old man.

Vaughn shamelessly steals several scenes portraying Millies often comedic feminization of the Butchers aggro attitude with flowing body movements, shy facial expressions and gentle vocalizations, particularly in an unexpectedly tender scene with Millies all-time crush Booker (Uriah Shelton), writes Justin Lowe.

Not to be outdone, Newton dials up the belligerence that makes the Butcher so formidable with a plodding gait and glowering glances while discovering the power of her own femininity to counter toxic male hostility.

Vaughn doesnt exactly replicate Newtons performance when hes playing Millie when he holds his arms high and close to his sides when he runs, hes going for some easier idea of what girlishness looks like but hes funny with the physicality in more micro ways, writes Alison Wilmore.

Kathryn Newton as the Butcher (in Millie Kesslers body) in Freaky.

(Universal Pictures)

Newton and Vaughn are both game although Vaughn does cop out during a kissing scene with Sheltons character finding the fun in the physicality of these very different characters, writes Alonso Duralde.

The Butcher realizes that Millie doesnt have his physical strength, and Millie keeps bumping her head since shes not used to a body thats about a foot taller than her own.

The chief pleasure of the film derives from the incongruity of Vaughns performance, which the actor never pushes into caricature, writes Michael OSullivan. Still, its a giggle, not a guffaw.

As the swappers settle into their new forms, Vaughn and Newton prove remarkably effective at selling the benefits of their alternate packaging, writes Jeannette Catsoulis. Their efforts, however, are too often diluted by the films lazy plotting and Millies hackneyed emotional baggage.

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Vince Vaughn is scary good in 'Freaky.' Read the reviews - Los Angeles Times