When A24 releases a horror film, it usually involves some incredibly nightmarish visuals or eerie animal/human hybrids. Yet, with the promotion of their latest “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” they are seemingly presenting more of a predictable slasher flick. Though, this movie isn’t quite what it’s marketed to be.
In Bodies Bodies Bodies, a group of mostly Gen-Z friends have chosen to throw a personal party at a remote family mansion during a hurricane. While there, they decide to play their version of Werewolf/Mafia/Among Us and call it Bodies Bodies Bodies. However, their quick game turns a bit more deadly as the storm descends upon them.
To set expectations now, this is not a horror movie. This is hardly even what you know as a slasher flick. Instead, this is a mystery satire. Yes, there’s a fair amount of blunt force and blood, but it is rare and deliberate for what the story and tension requires. This movie seems like what would happen if Agatha Christie was able to look at a Twitter or TikTok feed for a few hours and think to herself, “How can I kill off all of these horrible, self-serving people?”
Think of the worst traits of Gen-Z. If you paint a broad brush, you’d see that they were all aggressively annoying about their own image, social causes, and “their own truth.” Bodies Bodies Bodies has a cast full of these types. It’s almost hard to watch such selfish people on screen, except that the movie is in on the joke. It knows you wouldn’t mind if any, and all, of these characters were the next to go.
The cast actually does a great job of taking characters without nuance or depth and making them fully realized. They all have their own motives for hating everyone in the house. They all have their “tells” when they’re lying or trying to hide something. They each get their moment to shine as the most guilty and most unlikable, and the movie is better for it.
Director Halina Reijn crafts a setting that works surprisingly well. Most of this movie takes place in a house without power. And while that may be frustrating in the hands of filmmakers without experience, she and her crew capture a very coherent experience that’s largely done by flashlights, phone lights, glow sticks.
This is a hard movie to recommend to most people. Yes, Gen-Z may be able to fully watch and enjoy the ribbing that is directed and marketed at them. Though, many older (Get off my lawn) audiences will be so put off by almost every line of dialogue. It’s the kind of satirical experience that presents a paranoid situation where characters in the room have been killed, but the survivors still choose to talk about being silenced or their safe spaces or the value of talking about their mental health. There were several times I couldn’t help but give an exasperated laugh as these characters couldn’t help but make this horrific situation about themselves.
It was fairly easy to piece together what was going to happen next and that made things feel tedious, especially as the script just calls for the characters to constantly yell at each other and throw each other under the bus. Though, seeing the way it played out, while ludicrous, made the experience worth it.
Bodies Bodies Bodies is for Gen-Z audiences that want a twist on a slasher/mystery formula. It’s full of characters that are the actual worst. You can’t help but want the killer to hurry up and cut the runtime. It’s an incredibly annoying situation full of lies and people that couldn’t be more selfish and are hard to watch. Yet, that the joke. The end of the movie is somehow satisfying and I’m happy I saw it, even if I will purposely never watch it again. I can just log into Twitter if I want to feel that kind of anxiety. C+
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