Bodies Bodies Bodies is an American comedy-horror film directed by Halina Reijn. The film is based on a spec script of the same name and adapted for screen by Sarah DeLappe. The film was distributed by A24 in 2022.
The film revolves around a group of friends who decide to hole up in a mansion for what they call a hurricane party. Bee [Maria Bakalova] and Sophie [Amandla Stenberg] are the only characters we see before the house setting and are followed most closely throughout the film. The group decide to play a game of the eponymous Bodies Bodies Bodies, a form of what I know as the game wink murder.
Before long, the game turns more sinister, and the film adopts the genre of a quasi-whodunnit. In terms of format, this is utilised in the usual way of allowing the viewer to learn more about each character, including their personalities and backgrounds.
Amongst these characters are Alice [Rachel Sennott], Jordan [Myha’la Herrold], Emma [Chase Sui Wonders], David [Pete Davidson], and Greg [Lee Pace]. Although the characters vary in terms of personality, all of them, aside from Greg, have known Sophie for a long time. They are tied together by not only their shared history, but the affluent social class and general sense of self-absorption.
Although the film considers itself a horror-comedy, I personally found it lacking in both genres. Instead, it fits more within the realm of teen movie with elements of drama. I didn’t find anything in the film particularly horrifying, other than a general overture of sickening wealth and personalities. I appreciate this is largely the point of the film, but it doesn’t make for particularly riveting viewing. Rachel Sennott’s character, Alice, provided most of the comedy, but there weren’t any laugh out loud moments for me. That being said, I appreciate I may not be the target audience of the humour.
Much of the comedy in the film comes from dialogue containing passive aggressive virtue signalling from characters the audience sees as flawed. This is okay because most of the characters are explicitly insufferable; however it leads to formulaic jokes and doesn’t diversify its sense of humour.
Visually, I think Bodies Bodies Bodies failed to utilise the dark house setting to the best extent. The scenes of a barely lit person creeping around dark hallways waiting for something to jump out became quite monotonous, largely because very little happened during all those lurking scenes.
When I think of a film like Ready or Not (2019), the “deadly game” feels depraved and morally devoid. In Bodies Bodies Bodies, the game doesn’t really mean anything because we don’t know enough about Bee to be invested in what happens to her character. Since she is the most relatable character – most of us aren’t familiar with mansions – the relationship between character and audience could have been underpinned by better character development in order to make the film more engaging overall. Horror-comedy is an excellent genre in which to poke fun at an issue, or several, in a tongue-in-cheek, blood-spattering way and this film just isn’t comparable to other releases in its class considering films like Gillian Wallace Horvat’s I Blame Society (2020).
I think Bodies Bodies Bodies would be very entertaining to the right audience – most noticeably, a younger audience. I’m a huge fan of horror-comedies, and what makes a good horror-comedy in my opinion is the balance between the two genres – that’s maybe the factor that has influenced my review most of all. I did think the hurricane visual effects looked very good but that’s not really enough to make up for all the other areas.
Rating: 5 out of 10.
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