Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022 | USA | 95 minutes | Halina Reijn)
One of Agatha Christie’s most well-known stories, And Then There Were None, centers around a group of ten people selected for a remote vacation, but it very quickly turns out to be anything but relaxing. All of the guests were selected for the way they were able to get away with massive acts of negligence (or worse) and people start dying. I couldn’t escape the parallels this story shares with Bodies Bodies Bodies, a new horror/comedy whodunit from A24.
Bodies Bodies Bodies involves a group of zoomers who plan on spending a weekend at the home of their rich friend David (Pete Davidson). A hurricane knocks out the cell signal and everything quickly goes to hell. A game where someone pretends to be a murderer in the dark (but is really a variation of tag) turns deadly when David is found with his throat slashed. The group, a collection of Gen Z friends and frenemies, and a weird older guy (Lee Pace), sees interpersonal dramas give way to a string of murders.
Taken from a script by Kristen “Cat Person” Roupenian, the movie is almost too hip and self-aware for its own good. Almost. But it’s also a well-told story with a great soundtrack (Azealia Banks’s “212” will be a jam, always and forever) and a cast of talented young actors. The tension is felt because the hurricane creates a claustrophobia that keeps everyone confined to the same space (even if it is an expansive McMansion) and knocks everyone offline and forces them to deal with long-simmering issues head-on.
The screening where I saw this was populated with critics and influencers and what drew the most laughs from the younger people in the audience were when Pete Davidson was on screen. As the one who wrote the review of The King of Staten Island around these parts, I still think this is the most Pete Davidson Pete Davidson movie yet. But Davidson is a funny guy but he wasn’t on screen all that often, so the other major source of laughs was when a character would speak in social justice lingo. There is something patently absurd (and utterly predictable) about one character mentioning her mother’s mental health struggles and a conventionally attractive woman interjecting that she suffers from body dysmorphia. But, also, the vibes: they are a-shifting.
I liked the confident direction from Halina Reijn and the actors are all quite good, but I wasn’t sold on the movie until the payoff, when we find out how the first murder occurred. I’ve been vague about details because I found it so unexpected but it retroactively set the tone for the previous 80 minutes. It made the journey worthwhile.
Bodies Bodies Bodies opens in theaters on Friday, August 5.