Katheryn Newton in Freaky
If you’re tired of doomscrolling (or its newly-minted opposite, hopescrolling), and want to look at something different for a little while, there are plenty of options at the drive-in and other movie theaters this weekend. (You can review Malco Theatres’ COVID-19 safety protocols here.)
With major studio tentpoles on hold, the biggest release is Freaky. Remember Freaky Friday, the 1976 film where teenage Jodi Foster switched bodies with her mother, played by Nashville‘s Barbara Harris? Okay, how about the 2003 remake with Lindsey Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis?
Well, I have a confession. The plot, which was meant as light comedy, freaked me out really badly when I saw it as a kid. Maybe I just saw it at an impressionable age, but having your consciousness trapped inside someone else’s body is pure horror for me. Finally, someone else sees it my way — and that person is Christopher Landon, director of the Paranormal Activity sequels and Happy Death Day.
Produced by horror powerhouse Blumhouse, Freaky takes the premise to its logically awful conclusion. What if instead of your mom, you switched bodies with a serial killer? Even more horrible, what if that serial killer was Vince Vaughn? It’s chilling stuff, and its been getting great reviews. I’ll let you know how it is as soon as I can, so here’s the trailer.
Freaky, Wolfwalkers, and Classic Holiday Comedy on Tap at Malco Theatres (2)
If you’re not up for something quite so scary (and really, at this point, who can blame you?), there’s a new animated feature that looks spectacular. Wolfwalkers was created by Irish animator Tomm Moore, who has a 100-percent Oscar nomination rate for his films, but no wins yet. My eyebrows perked up with I saw Moore’s name attached to this one, as his 2014 Song of the Sea is a criminally underrated animated film. From the trailer, this story of friendly Celtic lycanthropes looks like another winner.
Freaky, Wolfwalkers, and Classic Holiday Comedy on Tap at Malco Theatres (4)
Now that we’re in November, with the sure-to-be-strange holidays bearing down on us, you might be developing an appetite for holiday movies. Among the other classic titles on offer at Malco (like the Nolan Batman movies, for example) is a pair of favorites. 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the third Chevy Chase vehicle of the decade, added a term to the collective lexicon. If you hear someone saying “He went full Clark Griswold on his Christmas decorations,” you know what that means — excessive lights, and possible catastrophic electrical malfunction.
Freaky, Wolfwalkers, and Classic Holiday Comedy on Tap at Malco Theatres
At the drive-in, Christmas Vacation is paired with the film that is probably Will Ferrell’s finest hour. Elf is a classic fish-out-of-water holiday comedy in the tradition of Miracle on 34th Street, only much stupider. And I mean that in a good way.
Freaky, Wolfwalkers, and Classic Holiday Comedy on Tap at Malco Theatres (3)
You can buy tickets to all these films at Malco.com.
