Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022) Film Review and Summary

SOLID 7/10

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022) is basically an incredibly boujee and sexually-charged game of Clue. The first shot of the film is an intimate close-up between Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and Bee (Maria Bakalova) sharing an extended kiss that is so tender that it presents itself as an act of desperation for physical intimacy between the two. This real world where technology and other vices can’t dominate is the same place that Sophie has been trying to occupy post-rehab. Although, where Sophie lives in her mind and what role she occupies in society are clearly different, which is made abundantly clear when she arrives at David’s (Pete Davidson) mansion for a slumber party to escape the incoming hurricane. Sophie warns Bee on their way to the venue that her friends are “not as nihilistic as they look on the internet”; this is certainly true in a way, as each character is so nuanced with insecurities that I don’t think it would be possible for them to occupy this philosophy. 

The film’s cast is quite literally a cast of characters. Alice (Rachel Sennot) is a social media savant that has just started her own podcast; David is a spoiled son of wealth with no real priorities in life besides having fun; Emma (Chase Sui Wonders) is an actress who is constantly consumed by emotion; Greg (Lee Pace) is an enigmatic vet that Alice has brought along; and Jordan (Myha’la Herrold) is the calculated puppeteer of all of their social gatherings. Everybody here feels as though they know what they want with their lives; Sophie claims she knew that she was a lesbian after her first heterosexual relationship in preschool. Everybody speaks without regard to others, as people naturally interrupt each other and provide fitting background dialogue that is reminiscent of Rachel Sennot’s other Gen-Z performance in Shiva Baby (2020). Occasionally though, the irreverent topics that come up in conversation presents itself as an awkward interruption or build-up for a subsequently serious scene. All of the performances feel at home with their characters (even Pete Davidson comes off as a tolerably intolerant goofball), which sets a solid foundation for the following hour of mayhem that completely breaks down these introspective delusions of grandeur. 

Every horror trope is deliberately walked into by director Halina Reijn. There are a bunch of young people, excluding Greg, that are hiding out in a remote location with a confusing geography, all while the elements act against them. In this case though, the group chose to undergo all of these circumstantial details. The absurdity of a simple party game that transitions into reality further fuels the insanity that is this film. 

There’s something so depressing about this film as well. Seeing a middle-aged-man making dance TikToks with women in their early twenties is incredibly comically unsetting. This generational divide is constantly emphasized throughout references to “ableism”, “triggering” and “ally”, where characters constantly feel the need to reinforce their own moral and social standing in the process of diverting attention from the literal murder mystery at hand. There is also an essence of instant gratification that is concerning, as Alice brought the mysterious Greg to a close friend’s house after knowing him for 2 weeks from a dating app. What Bodies, Bodies, Bodies depicts is simply a friend group that realizes the ingenuity of their relationships, causing them to be incredibly fragile and liable to shatter during a moment of conflict. There is nothing that truly bands this group together besides what Alice calls a “suffocating shared history”. 

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies could have easily demoted the horror component of its film to a lower significance, which it occasionally does, but the film does a solid job at constantly presenting obvious solutions with little information to contextualize the situations. All of the aforementioned social dynamics fill in the blank spots of this savage fatal backdrop that coats the film.

Can the social media slang that recurs every so often become a little grating? Yes, but Bodies, Bodies, Bodies does a great job at executing dialogue to build the world that counters the lack of gradual progression that aspects of modern life, like social media, encourage. The film is backed by a hyperpop soundtrack that ranges from appropriate to tacky, but either way, it certainly fits the atmosphere of sensationalized drama that contributes to Bodies, Bodies, Bodies’ entertainment value. The nonchalant writing that gives each character their voice makes conversations feel like an emotional investment, rather than a burden of character development. All-in-all, A24 clearly wants to capitalize on their newfound niche of modern thriller/horror films, and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies is definitely an engaging addition to that repertoire.