Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) Review

Wealthy twentysomething Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) takes her new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to a hurricane party which is being held at the extremely swish, rambling mansion owned by the parents of David (Pete Davidson), Sophie’s longstanding, best friend. Having been away from her usual social group for a while due to a stint in rehab, Sophie’s reappearance threatens to poop said party in a terminal way until she suggests everyone should play – you guessed – Bodies Bodies Bodies.

So, what are the rules? Well, everyone is given a slip of paper and the person whose paper is marked with an “X” is the fictional killer. The lights go out, and then the killer attempts to kill the others by touching them. When a victim is claimed, the lights go back up and it’s up to everyone to decide who is the murderer. However, in this case, someone is discovered to be genuinely dead and everyone is a suspect.

From the opening frame, director Halina Reijn is playing with the conventions of the genre – and mainstream cinema expectations – by focusing on a smooch between Sophie and Bee which isn’t played for controversy but is fun and romantic, taking the expected shock value out of a same sex kiss and establishing our two main protagonists as a potentially unbreakable team when it comes to solving the mystery.

However, you and I both know this isn’t going to go down like that. Loyalties, as always, will be tested. Revelations will be of the shocking type. Clues and red herrings will go hand in hand. It’s Agatha Christie via Gen Z and the conventions of the social media minefield, somehow featuring even fewer genuinely likeable characters than those with which Christie populated those Golden Age crime classics. For instance, is Pete Davidson’s character annoying? Oh yes, he is, and then some but that’s the point, and he’s there to wind you up.

Being somewhat less than enamoured with the bulk of the cast should present no problem to the viewer, as the assembled line-up of impressive performers strives – and mostly succeeds – in making this motley crew of entitled, self-centred, media buzzword friendly folks fun to watch precisely because they’re so wrapped up in their own sense of importance that it takes a murder to nudge them even the tiniest bit away from their issues.

The burning question of “What the hell do these wealthy people do, really?” is answered here by virtue of the type of gainful employment pursued by others gathered at David’s shindig. David’s current girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders) is an actress of sorts whose minimalistic, meaningless soundbites about her craft soon pale into insignificance at the sheer, unrelenting volley of verbal rubbish fired in every direction by overly enthusiastic podcaster Alice (Rachel Sennott).

Both are great but it’s the incredible Sennott who’s allowed to give full rein to Alice’s inability to keep her opinions to herself about anything. It’s a bravura turn, simultaneously amusing and horrifying as she consistently checks her relevance in both her circle of friends and the wider world even when there’s a bloody corpse on the floor. Effortlessly stealing the film, I’ll admit that I ended up fearing for her the most, partly because she was so bloody, yet hilariously, irritating that most people in the same room would have wanted to kill her and partly because her demise would deny the rest of the story its most potent force for chaos.

Rounding out the victim/villain list: Jordan (Myha’la Herrold), an ex of Sophie’s whose barbed comments are a cause for concern from the start; the incongruous Greg (Lee Pace), Alice’s older, possibly ex-military boyfriend who may have been seeing her for months or minutes, it’s not immediately clear; and Max, who has disappeared after a pre-party spat and may not be around at all.

Pleasingly, the first act takes its time to build crucial details about its players which will feed into the audience perception of each one and add to the central conundrum once one of Bodies Bodies Bodies’ participants no longer needs to pretend to be dead. There are accusations, confrontations and a fair amount of creeping around a dark house. Oh, did I not tell you the power went out? Of course, it did.

As unpleasant truths about the party guests are brought to light the momentum looks to be gathering towards a staggering reveal and, yes, the plot takes a bold and hilarious turn but this proves to be a double-edged sword. The immediate reaction is that it’s clever and unexpected but as the ramifications of what you’ve been shown hit home, there’s also a feeling that a fair amount of the enjoyment has been taken from the whodunit strands of the story. It fits the general mood of the piece perfectly, no doubt of that, but it also feels like something of a cop out.

That’s all I’m saying about the climax because there’s no way I’m spoiling the ending as you should see Bodies Bodies Bodies for its many positives. The comedic timing of its cast is faultless and although its targets for satire are of the softer type, there’s always a certain glee to be gleaned from seeing rich folks hating on other rich folks and loving those less financially stable until one of them is in the same room.

In addition, the horror elements are well realised without the film descending into slasher territory and although the jump scares won’t wrongfoot most genre aficionados they are creditably deployed. Stenberg and Bakalova make an initially cute, convincing couple before the tale forces you to consider everything that Sophie is saying or, indeed, has previously said. Stenberg makes Sophie an interesting, complex woman whose mysterious past must surely have a bearing on the present. Or does it? You’ll get no answers from me here.

By turns funny, furtive, fiery and frustrating, Bodies Bodies Bodies may not be a masterpiece of the thriller genre – in my view, it’s just a little too arch for that – but it’s never boring and it ought to stand the test of time as a snapshot of just how concerned we were to be labelled correctly in front of our social media audience.

BODIES BODIES BODIES IS AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD & KEEP ON MONDAY 7TH NOVEMBER, TO RENT ON DIGITAL AND OWN ON BLU-RAY™ FROM 28TH NOVEMBER

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