Bodies Bodies Bodies

Bodies Bodies Bodies is a 2022 American comedy horror film directed by Halina Reijn. Its screenplay is written by Sarah DeLappe from a story by Kristen Roupenian. It stars Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha'la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, Rachel Sennott, Lee Pace, and Pete Davidson. At a house party, a friend group plays a murder in the dark-style game called Bodies Bodies Bodies, which quickly turns dark.

Bodies Bodies Bodies premiered at South by Southwest on March 14, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 5, 2022 by A24. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the humor and the cast's performances, particularly Sennott's. Bodies Bodies Bodies grossed $14 million at the box office.

Plot

Bee, a working-class young woman from Eastern Europe, travels with her wealthy girlfriend Sophie to a "hurricane party" at a mansion owned by the family of David, Sophie's best friend. Other guests include David's aspiring actress girlfriend Emma, the podcaster Alice, her much-older new boyfriend Greg and the enigmatic Jordan. Max, another guest, left after a fight with David the night before Sophie and Bee arrived.

Sophie is initially greeted with hostility by Jordan and Emma, and Jordan questions why Sophie has come as she hadn’t told them. Sophie insists she said she would come in the group chat, and were only late as Bee had to work the day before on short notice. Sophie introduces Bee to the group, who gifts David a zucchini bread for the party. Alice approaches with an expensive bottle of champagne to drink, which Greg slices open with a knife he found on David’s house wall. Sophie declines a glass and announces she is sober to the group. Shortly after, it begins to rain.

The group head inside the house, and David approaches Sophie to ask if they can talk in private. They discuss Greg, and David reveals Alice met him on Tinder and Greg “served in Afghanistan”. Sophie also asks about David’s visible black eye, and David tells her that Max had just “run up and punched him”. Sophie asks David if he has heard from her parents, which prompts David to ask Sophie why she has really come.

Meanwhile, Bee approaches Sophie’s friends whilst they’re filming a TikTok and accepts a drink from Alice. Later, Bee eats some chocolate cake in the kitchen and Emma comments that gives off the vibe that Sophie is her first relationship, even though this isn’t the case. Jordan questions how long Bee and Sophie have been together, and when Bee says it has been six weeks she comments that it’s a long time for Sophie. The group inform Bee that the cake she has been eating has weed in it and not to have too much “just in case”.

As the group continue drinking, Jordan warns Bee to be careful of Sophie, confusing her. The group start dancing in the main room, and Jordan taunts Sophie by dancing closely with Bee. Sophie calls a stop to the music and asks who wants to play "Bodies Bodies Bodies", a murder in the dark-style game. The group agree, though Emma comments the game always ends in tears, and decide the order of players by playing a game where each person has to slap who they want to go after them. That person then has to have a shot of alcohol.

At Bee’s turn, she decides to slap David, but she only does so lightly despite the group and David encouraging her to do it properly. After a couple of light slaps, David becomes frustrated and punches Greg in the face to show Bee how to play the game. The group chastise David for this, but Greg only takes his shot and gets up to leave the room. Shortly after, the group begin the game and the lights are turned off to allow the “murderer” to make their move.

When the lights come back on, Greg is found laying face-down on the floor as the first “victim” and the group crowd around him to discuss who his murderer was. David accuses Emma immediately, annoyed that she had stopped kissing him earlier in the evening as his cocaine high caused him to bite her lip. Jordan counters this by accusing David, whilst Bee shakes Greg’s body and comments that he is not moving. Alice, believing Greg to be fooling around, shakes him and becomes progressively more concerned when he doesn’t wake up.

David is able to get Greg to sit up by holding the champagne bottle to his crotch, and the group laughs. They continue discussing who the murderer is and Greg comments that “the best defence is a good offence”, which David questions the meaning of. Greg repeats the phrase each time David asks, but David continues asking Greg to elaborate as the group cringes. Eventually, Sophie laughs and calls David a dick, and Greg decides to head to bed early when he realises David was making fun of him.

David turns his attention back to Emma and accuses her again of being the murderer, telling the group that she never forms her own opinion. Emma is upset by this comment and begins to cry, which David insists are her “fake” tears, but the group side with Emma and vote David as the murderer unanimously. David breaks a glass in frustration and storms off, and the girls decide to continue the game after checking Emma is okay.

They are deciding the play order again when the lights go out, which Sophie is convinced is a prank by David. They decide to find a power source and, minutes later, Bee finds David outside with his throat slashed, a blood-stained kukri nearby. Panicked and without reception, the group try to go for help in Sophie's car but find its battery dead, which Bee admits was from her leaving the mirror light on. Left with no choice but to go back inside, the group question what has happened and eventually turn to Alice when they realise Greg has not returned despite all of the noise.

Alice defends Greg and says she knows he is a good guy, but after questioning from the group admits she has only known him for two weeks. Jordan asks what personal information Alice knows about him, but Alice cannot answer their questions. They decide to look for Greg, Jordan arming herself with a mallet knife for self-defence, which Alice disapproves of. Before they leave, they realise that Emma is missing too, and find her underneath the bed covers in one of the bedrooms. They inform Emma of the situation and then head to Alice and Greg’s room, finding that Greg has a go bag with a knife and a map of the area, with David’s house circled in red.

They find Greg in the gym, sleeping, and confront him, asking why he hadn’t come when they called. Greg points to his earphones and says he didn’t hear them, then believes they’re still playing a game and chases the girls around the room. Greg eventually notices that Jordan is wearing his backpack, and asks what is going on. They tell him David is dead, but Greg believes they are still referring to the game. It is only when Jordan asks why Greg has a map of the area that Greg realises they are serious, and he returns their hostility.

Greg knocks the knife out of Sophie’s hands and demands the girls drop their weapons. They all decide to lower their weapons at the same time as a show of trust, but Jordan tackles Greg the second their weapons touch the floor, causing a fight between them all. As Greg grabs the knife from the floor, Bee hits him over the head with a kettle bell twice out of fear, killing him instantly.

Alice is devastated, but Jordan comments that Greg was statistically most likely to be the killer as a “war vet”. Alice asks what she is talking about and reveals that Greg was a veterinarian, which causes the group to doubt that he could have been the killer. Bee vomits on her shirt after realising what she has done, and Sophie softly tells her to go upstairs and change.

The other girls return to the living room and Alice theorises that Max could have done it due to how angry he was the night before. Sophie asks what happened, and it is revealed that Max had confessed his feelings for Emma the night before and fought with David. Sophie relapses due to the stress of the situation, and snaps at Emma that it didn’t seem like she cared about David at all. She calls Emma a coward who was too scared to leave David and says that she only liked having a boyfriend. Upset, Emma tells Sophie that David was happier when Sophie disappeared that he didn’t have to deal with her anymore, and Sophie snaps that she wishes Emma’s head had been chopped off instead. Emma storms off, and Jordan calls Sophie out for her comment.

Sophie goes to find Emma afterwards as Bee changes and looks around her room, and Emma kisses Sophie after the apology. When Sophie pulls away, Emma says she thought it was what Sophie wanted, which exasperates Sophie and she takes a pill, offering one to Emma. Emma accepts and quickly leaves, and shortly after the group all hear a loud noise. Alice walks along the hall to find the source, and trips over onto Emma’s dead body. She screams for help, and everyone comes quickly from different directions to see what happened. Alice believes the group is being killed one by one by someone following the “game” they were playing and both Jordan and Alice cast suspicion on Bee. Jordan reveals that no one with her name is on record as having graduated from her college, which also makes Sophie suspicious. Bee claims she can explain, but Alice is still upset by Bee killing Greg and she and Jordan cast Bee out into the hurricane.

Bee tries to get back into the house, but the girls lock all of the doors as she reaches them. Bee runs to Sophie’s car and, whilst changing her clothes, finds underwear that matches Jordan's bra in the backseat. Bee decides to return to the house to find a way in, and sees sees Jordan holding David's father's gun through a window. She crawls back inside through a pet door and confronts the group. A vicious verbal fight ensues between the group as Bee reveals Jordan has a gun, which she denies. Bee demands Jordan empty her pockets, which she does and the token of the “killer” falls out, revealing her as the killer of the game. Jordan points out she is not the killer in real life, and brings up Bee’s own lies about college. Bee admits that she dropped out of college to take care of her mother, who has borderline personality disorder, which causes Alice to sympathise with Bee and Sophie to forgive her. Annoyed, Jordan finally reveals the gun she was hiding and points it at Bee and Sophie.

Jordan reveals her resentment for Sophie due to her drug addiction and using David to regain access to her trust fund. She claims Sophie cheated on Bee with her, which Sophie denies. Sophie expresses why she would not date Jordan, that she avoids her friends because their behavior challenges her sobriety and reveals that Jordan only "hate-listens" to Alice's podcast. After Alice responds by insulting Jordan's insecurities, Jordan shoots Alice in the leg. A struggle for the gun follows; Alice is fatally shot in the throat. As Sophie and Jordan fight, Bee pushes Jordan over the staircase banister. With her dying breath, Jordan tells Bee to check Sophie's text messages and shoots in their direction multiple times. Bee hides from Sophie out of distrust.

When morning comes and the storm has blown over, Sophie tearfully confesses to Bee that she relapsed and witnessed Emma tripping and falling down the stairs to her death. However, Bee holds her at gunpoint, demanding to see her texts. Sophie tosses her phone away and they struggle, inadvertently picking up David's phone in the process, which shows that David accidentally slashed his own throat while trying to use the kukri to open a champagne bottle for a TikTok video—revealing there was no real murderer after all. As Bee and Sophie realize the bloodshed was all for nothing, a confused Max returns to the mansion, and the power comes back on. When Max asks what happened, Bee only says that she now has service on her phone.

Cast

• Amandla Stenberg as Sophie
• Maria Bakalova as Bee
• Myha'la Herrold as Jordan
• Chase Sui Wonders as Emma
• Rachel Sennott as Alice
• Lee Pace as Greg
• Pete Davidson as David
• Conner O'Malley as Max

Production

In March 2018, A24 acquired Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, a spec script written by Kristen Roupenian. In September 2019, it was announced Chloe Okuno would re-write the script and direct the film. In April 2021, it was reported that Amandla Stenberg and Maria Bakalova were set to star in the film, while Pete Davidson and Myha'la Herrold were in talks to join the cast, with Halina Reijn now set to direct. Bakalova said she was scared to be in a horror film, having been frightened watching them, but thought that A24 films were deeper; she said that the film was "more like an R-rated comedy." In May 2021, actors Lee Pace, Rachel Sennott, Chase Sui Wonders, and Conner O'Malley joined the film, with Davidson and Herrold's casting also being confirmed.

Principal photography began in May 2021, with filming taking place at a Georgian stone manor house in Chappaqua, New York.

Ultimately, Roupenian was given a "Story by" credit for her work on the film's screenplay, while The Wolves playwright Sarah DeLappe received sole, final "Screenplay by" credit.

Music

The film's music score was composed by Disasterpeace in March 2022. Charli XCX performed the song "Hot Girl" for the film, which was released as a single on July 26, 2022. The 9-music scores album was released on August 10, 2022, by A24 Music. Meghan Currier was credited as the music supervisor for the film, which contains 15 credited songs from a wide variety of artists including Shygirl, Kilo Kish, Princess Nokia, Azealia Banks, Slayyyter and Tommy Genesis. The music selection features a heavy prominence of female rappers and singer-songwriters.

Themes and influences

Bodies Bodies Bodies has been described as a "satire on class and privilege, all mediated by new technology, the language of progressive politics and youth culture, and Gen Z identity itself". In a piece for The New York Times, Kalia Richardson writes that the film satirizes Gen-Z's symbiotic relationship with their cellphones and the internet, using dark humor to illustrate what happens when those two things became inaccessible: "when the Wi-Fi goes out, it's like they lose oxygen", remarks director Halina Reijn . Richardson notes that despite "the physical danger each character faces, their virtual realities remain central to the plot", recalling the characters' inability to relate to each other in person without the use of the "trauma-centered" jargon of social media such as "gaslight", "trigger", and "toxic".

Several critics noted the influence of Agatha Christie or specifically her 1939 mystery novel And Then There Were None on the film. In an interview with Vice, director Halina Reijn cited the many films that influenced Bodies Bodies Bodies, such as Heathers (1988), Don's Plum (2001), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Piano Teacher (2001), Cries and Whispers (1972), and the filmography of John Cassavetes.

Release

Bodies Bodies Bodies premiered at South by Southwest on March 14, 2022. It was theatrically released on August 5, 2022, in select cities, before a nationwide expansion on August 12. Sony Pictures Releasing distributed the film internationally via the Stage 6 Films banner.

The film was released on VOD on September 27, 2022, followed by release on Blu-ray and DVD on October 18, 2022.

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, Bodies Bodies Bodies made $226,653 from six theaters in Los Angeles and New York City. The $37,775 per-venue average was the second best of 2022 for a limited release, behind Everything Everywhere All at Once ($50,130 in March). The film expanded to 1,283 theaters in its second weekend, and was projected to gross $2–3 million. It made $3.1 million, finishing eighth at the box office. Expanding to 2,541 theaters in its third weekend, the film made $2.6 million, finishing tenth. It made $1.1 million the next weekend, finishing fourteenth.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 233 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Impeccably cast and smartly written, Bodies Bodies Bodies is an uncommonly well-done whodunnit." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 69 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an average 3 out of 5 stars, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Abby Olcese for RogerEbert.com praised the use of music and cinematography to enhance the single-location setting. Bloody Disgusting found the social satire of the movie, and its use of setting to highlight this, to be strong. Lovia Gyarkye for The Hollywood Reporter found the film to be a psychological study of the friendship archetypes and the digital age, while also showing an understanding of the anxieties of twenty-somethings, praising the story. IndieWire's Robert Daniels wrote that Reijn's direction was the strongest part of the film, while also praising the script for its social interrogation. Erin Brady of Little White Lies instead thought that the film fell apart towards the end because it is "a movie that claims to understand how Gen-Z treats societal topics ... [while] portraying some of those topics so stereotypically." However, she said that the film was well paced and it was hard to resist the fun of it. IGN's Rafael Motamayor wrote that "it does falter somewhat when it comes to Gen Z talk ... like someone had a bunch of placeholders they swapped in with whatever term a teenager told them kids use these days," though also felt it was good overall.

Valerie Complex at Deadline Hollywood praised the cast, saying "each actor [has] their own style that brings a varied flavor to the film, which makes the cast ... a joy to watch, even if their characters are insufferable," and Owen Gleiberman for Variety praised the directing for giving the characters and actors room to explore. Complex and Daniels said that the characters as written are weak, but the performances all elevate them. Sennott was consistently named the standout performance of the film, while Brady said this was Herrold's. Gyarkye wrote that nobody could deny the acting talent, noting Herrold as well as Stenberg. Daniels highlighted Sennott and Davidson, while Marya E. Gates of The Playlist commended the ensemble while noting Davidson and Bakalova. Paste's Aurora Amidon felt that the cast were all successful, but that Bakalova's comedic talents were wasted by playing a serious character.

Gleiberman described the film as "And Then There Were None staged by John Cassavetes for the age of Instagram." Gates felt that some scenes ran too long, but said that the film is "destined to [take] its place on the mantle with seminal horror-comedy faves like Jennifer's Body and Scream"; Gyarkye instead said that the film may not appeal to slasher genre fans. Eileen Jones of Jacobin gave a negative review of the film, summarizing: "Like so many horror films attempting to be subversive, Bodies Bodies Bodies tries to satirize the upper class. But all it delivers are tired, lazy tropes about Gen Z."

Controversy

Bodies Bodies Bodies was the subject of controversy online following a review published in The New York Times by Lena Wilson that criticized the film's sexuality. "Young, hot people get trapped in a remote locale and are picked off one by one. The hotties in question are a group of twenty-somethings embittered by lifelong friendship," Wilson wrote. She continued, "The only thing that really sets 'Bodies Bodies Bodies' apart is its place in the A24 hype machine, where it doubles as a 95-minute advertisement for cleavage and Charli XCX's latest single." Stenberg sent the critic a direct message on Instagram, saying, "Your review was great. Maybe if you had gotten your eyes off my tits you would've watched the movie!" Wilson posted a screenshot of the interaction, featuring her response to Stenberg as well, on her Twitter account. "Do you think she instagram DM'd Alison Willmore, Justin Chang, and Anthony Lane like this or," she wrote in her tweet.

The tweet generated backlash on Twitter against both Stenberg and Wilson. On her TikTok, Wilson, who identifies as a lesbian film critic, further criticized Stenberg's response, accusing her of homophobia. Stenberg said on her own TikTok account that she was only trying to be funny and ask an earnest question in private, which she did not expect to be aired in public. Stenberg also said that Wilson's comment aligned with comments Stenberg had heard about her own body: "It's quite surprising the amount of commentary I receive on my boobs. I wore this tank top in this movie because me and the costume designer felt it fit the character well. I do get tired of people talking about my chest. There seems to be a lot of unwarranted conversation about my chest." Wilson deleted her Twitter and TikTok accounts shortly after her tweet went viral.

References

External links

• Official website
• Bodies Bodies Bodies at IMDb

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