BODIES BODIES BODIES
(director: Halina Reijn; screenwriters: Sarah DeLappe/short story by Kristen Roupenian; cinematographer: Jasper Wolf; editor: Taylor Levy; music:Disasterpeace; cast: Amanda Stenberg (Sophie), Maria Bakalova (Bee), Pete Davidson (David), Rachel Sennott (Alice), Lee Pace (Greg), Chase Sui Wonders (Emma), Myha’la Herrold (Jordan); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: R; producers; David Hinojosa, Ali Herting, Lara Costa Calzado, Tatiana Bears: A24; 2022)
“The film is fun. The dialogue is a hoot.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Dutch born filmmaker Halina Reijn (“Instinct”), a former actor, in her first English speaking film, helms with a predominantly female cast this delightful horror comedy that’s written by Sarah DeLappe and is based on a short story by Kristen Roupenian (known for her New Yorker short story “Cat Person”).
The self-absorbed rich girl Sophie (Amanda Stenberg) is just out of rehab. She goes with her shy, stuttering new friend Bee (Maria Bakalova), who is in love with her, to meet Sophie’s old friends at the mansion of rich boy David (Pete Davidson) for a hurricane party among fellow 20-somethings, Gen-Z’rs.
At night, at the remote mansion, located near a mountain, the seven party animals start boozing and doing drugs. They also begin playing a murder mystery game called Bodies Bodies Bodies. If you get tagged you’re dead and out of the game. When the hurricane knocks out the power and the cell reception, the mansion is dark and soon a game player shows up dead for real and there’s more murders to follow (in one murder the vic is stabbed in the neck with a rusty antique sword).
The film is fun. The dialogue is a hoot. We’re left to guess who is the killer and who survives.
One of the players is the daffy podcaster Alice (Rachel Sennott), throwing one-liners at us nonstop. She’s a riot (and steals the film). Her much older eccentric boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace), a group outsider, becomes a prime suspect. The two other players are the needy snobby actress girlfriend of David’s, Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), and the former girl friend of Sophie, Jordan (Myha’la Herrold).
The actors have great chemistry together.
It had its premiere in Austin at SXSW 2022.
REVIEWED ON 5/3/2022 GRADE: B