TIL the Teenage Attemped Rapists in ‘Freaky’ Were Named After a Certain Supreme Court Justice & His Friends

**Spoilers for one schadenfreudic scene from Freaky**

2020’s delightful body-swap horror-comedy Freaky includes a scene where Millie—or rather, Kathryn Newton’s body as currently inhabited by Vince Vaughn’s character “Butcher”—is cornered by three aggressive teen boys threatening to rape her. Given that it’s not really Millie they’re circling but a psychotic serial killer wearing her body, they all end up dying gruesome deaths at her hand. It was already a satisfying bit of schadenfreude before co-writer Michael Kennedy revealed a fantastic bit of trivia on Twitter this weekend.

The characters aren’t ever addressed by name in the movie itself but it turns out did have names. Especially perceptive viewers might already have caught that from the credits or the film’s IMDB page. But for the rest of us, Kennedy revealed that the characters do have names: Brett, Tobin, and Squi. He also confirmed that yes, those names are references to a certain Supreme Court justice and beer-loving friends.

During his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Brett Kavanaugh was asked to address the accusations of sexual assault brought by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Kavanaugh produced his high school calendars as evidence of his purported innocence (as if a person would just write “attempted rape” in their day planner) but one calendar entry actually seemed to possibly support Ford’s account of Kavanaugh trying to force himself on her. That entry listed plans for “skies” (AKA “brewskies”) with friends, including two named Tobin and Squi.

Kavanaugh appeared to cry actual tears of rage during the hearing while yelling about how much he and his teenage (alleged) dirtbag friends liked beer, as if it was some sort of absolution from bigger offenses.

via GIPHY

Of course, these protestations absolved Kavanaugh of absolutely nothing, and last week’s decision overturning Roe v Wade has only brought reinvigorated attention to the sham that was his confirmation hearing. He yelled about beer, he lied about his opinion on Roe v Wade, and the best evidence he could give to convince us he hadn’t committed a sexual offense was a calendar that ultimately seemed to show him present at the event where that alleged offense took place.

I rewatched Freaky this weekend and I have to say, this Easter egg, subtly but unequivocally dragging Kavanaugh and his beer-guzzling friends, makes this already great scene even more satisfying.

(image: Brian Douglas/Universal Pictures)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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