It’s difficult to know where to start with Bodies Bodies Bodies. It was on my watchlist because it was distributed by A24. I’ve come to trust them for smart horror, and then I saw that the movie was soon leaving one of the streaming services to which I have access. Nothing like “leaving soon” to make a decision for you. An ensemble cast of twenty-somethings (or so they play) gather for a hurricane party at the mansion of one of the group. They do a lot of drugs and drinking and then decide to play Bodies Bodies Bodies—one of those games where one player is the killer and everyone else has to figure out who the “murderer” is. They’re about ready to start the next round, but the power goes out in the hurricane. The accused “killer” in the first game is found, dying for real, outside. The only car on the property has a dead battery and the friends turn on each other, unsure who the murderer might be. (No bodies are actually cubed.)
All of this is interlaced with internet culture and the panic that ensues when the wifi goes out. Now, this is categorized as a horror comedy, but the comedy is pretty subdued until the remaining four begin to accuse each other, using trendy jargon to describe relationships and psychological conditions. The film opens with a couple of girlfriends, Sophie and Bee, who are the last to arrive for the party. As the morning dawns the two of them are the only survivors, but they have become distrustful of each other because of things said during the hurricane night. There is a twist ending but the house is full of bodies, bodies, bodies.
Written and directed by women, this horror film again demonstrates how intelligent the genre can be. As for me personally, I found it pretty good. I wouldn’t say it’s great. That’s because of some of my own triggers—one of the trendy words they throw around. Mainly, in my case, because of the drug scene that makes up the reality of the friends (I’ve never been part of that) and that the game resembles too much my all-time-most-feared childhood game, hide-and-seek. The friends, convinced that one of them is a murderer, creep around the mansion in the dark, fearful of being found. This leaves open the potential for jump startles, of course, and I’m not a great fan of surprises. That having been written, this is a smart movie and the ending does make you think. And perhaps wonder how well we really know anyone after all.
