Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) brings her new girlfriend, Bee (Maria Bakalova) to a hurricane party at her best friend David’s (Pete Davidson) mansion. At the party, Sophie reunites with Jordan (Myha’la), Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), and Alice (Rachel Sennott). 

Before the storm hits, the group agrees to play Bodies Bodies Bodies, a murder mystery party game. But the game takes a dark turn, when a real death happens. Alice’s new boyfriend, Greg (Lee Pace) is the primary suspect. And Max (Conner O’Malley), another friend in the group, is nowhere to be found after a heated altercation with David. Mistrust and nasty finger-pointing slowly tears the group apart, as they struggle to answer one crucial question: Who is the killer?

My Thoughts- Bee is struggling to fit in, but at least she’s trying? If I had to go with a pick for the best performance, Maria Bakalova easily takes the top spot. It’s easy to believe and buy into Bee’s personality. The shyness, Bee being afraid to speak up, Bee nervously voicing her opinions, and the awkwardness Bee feels, as she tries to loosen up. 

Sophie and her friends? They’re vultures ready to pick any bones clean, after the first dead body pops up. Bee? You can see she’s scared and nervous, carefully choosing her words, because Bee knows someone is waiting to snap on her during all the mud slinging. Bakalova does a good job of building sympathy for Bee. She’s a genuinely good person, who just wants to make friends, and she doesn’t want to disappoint Sophie. But she’s stuck in a mansion with a bunch of overly dramatic and whiny narcissists and cry babies, who are actively looking for a reason to shit on each other.

The overall cast features a number of good performances. Pete Davidson plays a goof, but David is also a jealous, deeply insecure, and thin-skinned young man. Lee Pace is hilarious as Greg. On the surface, Greg comes off as a laid back guy, with a hippie/surfer dude personality. But if you push Greg’s buttons too much, he flips the switch to activate a more mean and serious personality. 

Myha’la, playing an angry and agitated character, really nails Jordan. Taking Jordan’s side during the arguments works as the logical choice. She’s not afraid to speak unfiltered truths, but on the other side of that, it’s hard to not roll your eyes, because she’s clearly a bitter and mean-spirited person.

Rachel Sennott delivers a lot of laughs as Alice, complete with some genuinely funny hysterics. Alice is perky, and she’s kind of an airhead, and Sennott’s comedic timing is excellent. Also, Chase Sui Wonders delivers a solid performance as Emma, the actress, who makes herself an easy target in shark infested waters, because she’s too emotional.

Who is the killer? Well, David accidentally slit his own throat with a sword. That’s right. No mystery, no killer, David offed himself, because he was trying to prove he could pop a cork on a champagne bottle. Greg effortlessly did it earlier in the movie, and of course, David couldn’t handle another man upstaging him, or watching all the attention and praise go to someone else.  So David’s solution was to show he’s also capable of doing the sword trick, but it cost him his life.

Truly a surprising ending. I didn’t see it coming at all, but David doing something stupid is believable. Imagine that. Four friends said hurtful and unforgivable things to each other. Pointed fingers with serious accusations, and destroyed their friendships, because they believed one of them was a killer running around in the dark. David and Emma’s deaths were freak accidents, Bee murdered Greg, and Jordan accidentally shot and killed Alice. The stupefied looks on Sophie and Bee’s faces during the end, when Bee realizes she has reception on her phone, after watching David’s video with the champagne bottle and the sword is just perfect.

Bodies Bodies Bodies does a good job of balancing the comedy and serious moments for the appropriate reactions, whether it’s laughs or a jaw-dropping moments, cleverly interweaving the tonal shifts, when it’s necessary. It’s almost impossible to not laugh at the cast of characters here. There’s a chance a killer is on the loose, you’re stuck in a mansion with no power during a hurricane, but you’re wasting time arguing over petty bullshit? Please, take one second and look at the big picture!

You can feel sympathy for the victims here, but it’s also hilarious once you realize the bloodshed (excluding one death) could’ve been avoided, if everyone just came together as friends, one unit working TOGETHER to figure out what’s going on. What happened instead? A bunch of spoiled and rich youngsters wasted too much time trying to belittle and one-up each other for their manufactured “struggles.” 

One of my favorite scenes in the movie happens towards the end during the big group argument. Alice coldly reminds Jordan that she comes from an “upper middle-class” background…and Jordan gets upset? So someone else reminds you that your journey in life hasn’t been difficult, and that’s enough to piss you off? Seriously?

They threw in the car won’t start cliche for this one. There’s a good reason for it, and you can see it coming from a mile away. Personally, I’m just not a big fan of car trouble mishaps in horror movies. Still, Bodies Bodies Bodies really works as a funny and entertaining whodunit black comedy slasher-esque horror film, complete with a genuinely shocking finale for the big reveal. 

Screenwriter Sarah DeLappe does a phenomenal job of convincing you that anyone is capable of being the killer, leading to a conclusion that’ll either make you laugh, or at least crack a smile at how a seemingly normal party descended into chaos. The casting is great. Everyone is a perfect fit for their characters, and you can easily pick one highlight reel worthy moment from each member of the cast throughout the movie. 

Bodies Bodies Bodies hits all the right checkpoints as a riff on people (usually the younger crowd), who will go to great lengths to convince themselves that their alleged hardships in life are too much to deal with. They’re stuck in a loop of always complaining and feeling sorry for themselves, because they can’t break out of their victim complexes. Also, I’m always a big fan of horror films with isolated settings. The big quiet mansion out in the middle of nowhere. A hurricane is roaring outside. No power, it’s dark indoors, and the remaining survivors are slowly turning on each other? Truly a good recipe for a chaotic, nutty, and hilarious film.

Rating 8/10