While Hollywood has churned out plenty of body-swapping movies, they tend to be comedy, not horror. Freaky, released Friday the 13th by Blumhouse Productions, is correcting that omission.

With that title, viewers will notice allusions to both the classic body-swapping family film Freaky Friday and the slasher series Friday the 13th and should expect a film that attempts a mash-up of the two, though it is not quite successful at either.

In the story, which kicks off on Wednesday the 11th (and glosses over a lot of details – more on those later) a serial killer called the Blissfield Butcher goes from urban legend to very real threat during the course of the cold open.

As the killer (Vince Vaughn) is wrapping up the massacre of the movie’s first unlucky group of teenagers, he finds a new weapon: a mysterious knife with weird writing on it. When he uses it on his next victim, the unlucky Millie (Kathryn Newton), a mystical force causes the two to swap bodies.

It’s all a lot of supernatural hoo-ha, of course, but the results are sometimes very enjoyable. Vince Vaughn, known more for his roles as a big dope in films like Wedding Crashers and Couples Retreat, here earns a lot of laughs playing a serial killer who wakes up in the body of a teenage girl.

Vaughn’s plays the girl-trapped-in-a-man’s-body much better than expected; instead of going for exaggerated affectations of girliness, he dons the character of Millie, a girl bullied at school and neglected at home, but with enough fight in her to get through both. Vaughn is very charming and handles some very silly situations with skill.

Meanwhile, the body of high-schooler Millie now is possessed by the Butcher, who proceeds to do what killers do by preying upon everyone in the school who gives Millie a hard time. Somehow the Butcher knows Millie’s class schedule, locker combination and enemies list, which makes no sense but keeps the plot moving.

Of course the two must switch back, and Vaughn-as-Millie must convince his (or her) besties to help her, even though she’s ostensibly a grown man with the well-known face of a killer. Murderous hijinks ensue as Millie-as-Butcher tries to keep that from happening.

Director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Viral) wastes too much time on lazily-written bits like showing the two exploring their new bodies and setting up some rather uncomfortable romantic situations while letting a lot of more important questions go unanswered. Why did the knife have mystical powers? Why didn’t Millie try to convince her cop sister to help her? Why is Alan Ruck utterly wasted in the role of a savage shop teacher? And why does a high school have a cryogenic chamber in the girls’ locker room?

The kills were a bit on the gory side, but the film doesn’t dwell on them. Newton is good playing a killer who loses physical strength only to discover how to manipulate people who naturally side with a teenage girl over a scary man. But the real draw is Vaughn, having fun playing way against type.

Freaky is in theaters now but will be available for streaming on Vudu, iTunes, YouTube and other PVOD platforms on November 30th.

Was Freaky good for you? Let us know in the comments.