Blumhouse’s Freaky movie ending brings the horror comedy’s body-swapping storyline to a conclusion in a subversively empowering way. Conceived by Happy Death Day’s Christopher Landon as an oddball blend of Freaky Friday and Friday the 13th, Freaky combines the familiar body swap movie formula with the grisly tropes of the slasher genre. Kathryn Newton stars as Millie Kessler, an anxious high school student, opposite Vince Vaughn as the Blissfield Butcher, a notorious local serial killer. One fateful night, when the Butcher attacks Millie with an ancient dagger, they magically switch bodies. Millie and her friends have to figure out a way to reverse the switch before it becomes permanent.
Not only was Freaky a box office success, but it was also widely praised by critics, who singled out Newton and Vaughn’s hilarious performances as each other and the Freaky script’s perfect balance of horror and comedy. Every body swap movie has a different explanation for how the body swap magic works, and Freaky has its own unique take on the subgenre that involves legally complex murder charges and an uncertain future for the heroes. Whereas most horror movies have a grim fate in store for their protagonists, the Freaky movie ending uses its twists and turns to empower Millie and give her some agency as a character.
Why Didn’t Millie & Her Friends Destroy La Dola?
In the third act of Freaky, Millie uses the mystical dagger, “La Dola,” to get her own body back. The climactic twist pays off an earlier scene in which Millie was advised to set her watch a couple of minutes ahead so she would never be late. Just when she thinks she’s missed her chance, she remembers her time-saving tactic. This gives her enough time before the magical window closes to reverse the body swap and take her own body back from the Butcher. But despite how close she came to being trapped in a murderer’s body forever, Millie still doesn’t destroy the mystical dagger responsible for the body swap.
The behind-the-scenes reason for leaving La Dola intact in the Freaky movie ending might have been so the filmmakers could leave the door open for a sequel. A potential Freaky sequel could see a different teenager and killer switching bodies. There is also an in-universe reason that Millie might want to hold onto La Dola. She might have kept it as proof that the body swap happened for the inevitable series of criminal charges and lawsuits that would follow the chaotic, blood-soaked events of the film. There’s also a chance that the dagger is simply indestructible, explaining why no one destroyed it in the years before Millie encountered the Butcher.
How The Body Swap Magic Works
When the Butcher stabs Millie in the shoulder with La Dola, an identical wound appears on his own shoulder. The dagger is an Aztec artifact imbued with an ancient magical curse. That curse, paired with the full moon and the Friday the 13th attack date, caused the body swap. The following morning, Millie and the Butcher wake up in each other’s bodies. After Millie convinces her best friends Nyla and Josh that she’s in the body of a serial killer, they research Freaky‘s cursed dagger to learn its meaning and discover that Millie has to stab the Butcher with the blade before midnight or the body swap will be permanent.
Most movie body swaps don’t take place in the midst of an attempted murder – but Freaky subverts the usual body swap movie formula in another way, too. In most body swap movies, the two characters who have swapped bodies are on the same page about swapping back. In Freaky Friday and The Change-Up, both parties want their own bodies back, so they join forces to reverse the switch. But in Freaky, the Butcher wants to stay in Millie’s body because his own is recognizable as a wanted serial killer and he finds that it’s much easier to lure people to their deaths as a teenage girl.
Will Millie Get Away With The Crimes The Butcher Committed When He Possessed Her Body?
While the Butcher was in Millie’s body, he went on a killing spree. He killed Millie’s bully, Ryler, her abusive wood shop teacher, Mr. Bernardi, and a gang of jocks who tried to attack her. After Millie and the Butcher switched back and Millie returned to her own body, it would only be a matter of time before the cops found Millie’s fingerprints all over a variety of gruesome crime scenes. Although the Freaky movie ending leaves this story thread unresolved, the murders that the Butcher committed while he inhabited Millie’s body could present a conflict for a possible sequel to deal with.
When the deaths of Ryler, Mr. Bernardi, and the jocks all go to trial, Millie might struggle to clear her name. Her older sister Char, a police officer who’s respected in the community, will vouch for her. But even with Char’s testimony, it’ll be tricky to convince a jury – much less a judge – that Millie magically switched bodies with a murderer. At least she won’t get in trouble for killing the Butcher in the film’s glorious climactic sequence – impaling him with a broken table leg – because that was pretty clearly an act of self-defense against a home invader.
The Real Meaning Of Freaky’s Ending
The ending of Freaky subverts the expectations of the horror genre in a hugely satisfying way. It’s pretty standard for a horror movie to kill off its protagonist in the final reel to leave the audience feeling suitably cold and unsettled as they leave the theater. Night of the Living Dead, The Blair Witch Project, The Cabin in the Woods, and the Final Destination films are all left with no survivors by the time the end credits roll, and the characters of The Thing and The Descent are left in bleak circumstances. Freaky initially sets up this kind of ending with the Butcher’s escape from justice.
But the Freaky movie ending defies horror movie conventions to give its protagonist a triumphant moment of victory in the final scene. In the final scene of Freaky, the Butcher fakes his death in an ambulance, escapes from police custody, and follows Millie home. As he attacks her, the Butcher makes fun of Millie’s anxiety and insecurities. With the help of her mother and her sister, Millie beats the Butcher to a pulp before killing him with a broken table leg. Unlike most horror movie endings, the final scene of Freaky is all about Millie getting over her insecurities and self-doubt and feeling empowered.
