Bodies Bodies Bodies (15)

Sophie and her girlfriend Bee travel to a remote family mansion ahead of a hurricane to meet Sophie's coterie of rich twentysomething friends. As the alcohol and drugs flow, the group decides to play a game of Bodies Bodies Bodies. Tensions between revellers explode in the darkened house and one member of the hedonistic party plays the murder victim for real.

LondonNet Film Review

Bodies Bodies Bodies (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Death frequently becomes the depraved and the deserving in slasher films. Teenage fornicators are doomed to a grim demise along with drug takers, unwanted intruders, abusers, bullies and miscreants responsible for the beleaguered hero’s deep physical and psychological wounds. A resourceful babysitter in peril or the sole survivor of an unprovoked attack are clearly telegraphed as protagonists to root for. Vengeance is theirs, bathed in lashings of blood and gore as they turn the tables on merciless aggressors (until the inevitable sequel)…

In director Halina Reijn’s twisted satire Bodies Bodies Bodies, none of the characters are particularly likeable or sympathetic. These hedonistic twentysomething brats would be easy fodder for slaughter in another horror film so when a children’s game in the dark spirals wildly out of control with tragic consequences, screenwriter Sarah DeLappe provides no clear instructions about who we should trust. Her script brilliantly captures the vapidness of a self-absorbed generation, which lives and dies by social media and its own relentless self-promotion.

Characters are insufferable and deluded – rich pickings for a gifted ensemble cast led by Rachel Sennott and Amandla Stenberg, who ratchet up the hysteria with lip-smacking aplomb. The gnarly resolution of a central whodunnit is less satisfying, relying on coincidence and some questionable logic to deliver a final narrative gut-punch.

Sophie (Stenberg) and her new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) travel along winding hillside roads to a hurricane party at a remote mansion hosted by Sophie’s best buddy David (Pete Davidson) and her coterie of rich friends. “They’re gonna be obsessed with you,” Sophie assures Bee, who is being granted entry to this privileged inner circle for the first time. Shortly before the downpour of rain begins, Bee is introduced to David and his girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), Jordan (Myha’la Herrold), Alice (Sennott) and her older boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace) – another first-time addition to the group.

Their response to Bee isn’t particularly warm or welcoming. As alcohol and drugs flow, and Bee unknowingly devours a cannabis-spiked chocolate cake, the group elects to play a game of Bodies Bodies Bodies during a storm-related power outage. Tension between revellers explodes in the darkened house and one member of the hedonistic party plays a murder victim for real. Paranoia and suspicion run amok as hallucinating survivors grab a meat cleaver from the kitchen to hunt a real-life killer in their ranks.

Bodies Bodies Bodies gleefully pokes fun at Gen Z stereotypes as the body count steadily rises and on-screen allegiances fray. Director Reijn uses glow sticks and mobile phone torches as roaming sources of light during the power cut to focus our attention and heighten discomfort. It’s a slow, steady build of suspense – there are no traditional jump scares – in the company of cheerfully masked monsters.

– Jo Planter