Bodies Bodies Bodies

Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Rachel Sennott, Chase Sui Wonders, Pete Davidson, Lee Pace

Director: Halina Reijn

Sophie (Stenberg) has brought her new girlfriend Bee (Bakalova) to her rich friend David’s (Davidson) vacation home for a weekend of debauchery with old friends including Alice (Sennott), Alice’s boyfriend Greg (Pace), Emma (Wonders), and Sophie’s ex Jordan (Herrold). As news of an impending hurricane looms, the girls decide to play Bodies Bodies Bodies, a game where one of them is secretly the “killer” and must “murder” as many people as he can without being caught. After the game is interrupted by the power going out, one of them turns up dead for real. With the hurricane knocking out their phones or any means of escape, the girls must put their friendships on the line, and as the bodies start to hit the floor, figure out who among them is the killer.

A24 has produced some notable genre films in the past (Hereditary, The Witch, Midsommar to name a few) and with a title as enticing as Bodies Bodies Bodies, excitement is high for this film. However, horror fans be warned: this is first and foremost a murder mystery and not a horror movie. While there are moments of blood and gore, that is not the type of film you are ultimately in for.

Instead, we are treated to not only a very clever and self-aware whodunnit, but an intense examination of the truth in the friendships and relationships you have or think you have in life. The history of the girls gets laid out on full display and old wounds end up opening to provide some very clever red herrings of who could be behind what is going on. The film also understands what makes these types of films successful, something a recent film like They/Them didn’t. While both films featured queer characters, one knew what kind of movie they were making while the other felt lost.

The ending and ultimate resolution are probably going to divide some people but I believe it not only provides an unexpected answer but also gives you a very interesting reason to go back and rewatch the film. It gives a lot of the interactions and reactions a dark new light to be viewed in.

The cast is excellent, with each of the girls not only feeling fleshed out. Not once did I feel like any took the spotlight more than the others. Bakalova continues to show her Oscar-nominated turn in Borat wasn’t a fluke and gives us her best character to date. Of the rest of the cast, the standout has to be Rachel Sennott, who gets a scene where she just agrees with every point other characters make with no consistency when pointing out reasons why they aren’t the killer.

While it’s not quite the movie genre fans will be expecting, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a clever and well-written mystery.

Grade: A