Bodies Bodies Bodies is a viciously funny new horror comedy from A24 and director Halina Reijn. It hits theaters on Friday, August 5.
Bodies Bodies Bodies, the new film from Dutch director Halina Reijn, may offer more than its fair share of mangled and bloody corpses, but its gnarliest moments have nothing to do with death or murder. Instead, the new A24 horror comedy ultimately cares less about the deaths of the characters it traps in its suitably spooky mansion and more about burning the images they have of themselves to the ground. Thanks to its ensemble of social media-obsessed Gen Z narcissists, Bodies Bodies Bodies’ decision to prioritize social death over literal death proves to be well-founded.
Over the course of its tight 95-minute runtime, the film sends its characters spiraling down their own rabbit holes of paranoia and desperation until there’s nothing left for them to do but blame each other for the difficult situations they’ve found themselves in. For that reason, Bodies Bodies Bodies tends to be at its best and most biting when it isn’t operating as a standard slasher movie, but rather as a kind of nightmarish new take on Clue for the TikTok generation.
The film’s inability to always find the right balance between satire and horror ultimately ends up dulling the impact of its bloodier moments. Fortunately, the performances given by Bodies Bodies Bodies’ energetic cast members not only help ratchet up its all-consuming sense of paranoia but also make its scathing critiques of their characters land with maximum impact.
Bodies Bodies Bodies opens as Sophie (Amandla Stenberg), a recovering addict from a rich family, is in the midst of making her way to a gathering between some of her closest friends with her doe-eyed, middle-class girlfriend, Bee (Maria Bakalova). When they arrive, Bee is introduced to all of Sophie’s closest friends, including Jordan (Myha’la Herrold), Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), Alice (Rachel Sennott), and David (Pete Davidson). In the same sequence, Bee and Sophie are also introduced to Alice’s relatively new, airheaded older boyfriend, Greg (a perfectly cast Lee Pace).
It doesn’t take long for conflicts to begin breaking out between Sophie and her friends, many of whom are quick to express their frustration over her failure to alert them about her forthcoming arrival in their shared group chat.
