Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Director: Halina Reijn

Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Rachel Sennott

When a group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game turns deadly in this fresh and funny look at backstabbing, fake friends, and one party gone very, very wrong.

Bee and Sophie are a lesbian couple. They go to Sophie’s rich friends for a hurricane party. (Yes, actually a party to take place during a hurricane). Being the only outcast, Bee is initially a bit distant from the others.

After fun at the pool, and with the storm approaching, they decide to play a game called Bodies Bodies Bodies. The game revolves around one of the players ‘getting killed’, and the rest must then determine who the ‘murderer’ is. But when one of them are killed for real, they start suspecting one another, and eventually turn on each other as tensions rise.

This sounds like a cool premise, right? For most parts, it was. It’s a different kind of whodunit murder mystery. The performances were very good, but all the characters so easily jumped to conclusions, making up their minds before they had facts. And they acted accordingly. If the fact they reacted this way because of all the alcohol and drugs, then yes, it would make perfect sense. I’ll convince myself that’s what happened, then it’ll at least be more believable.

Towards the end I got bored, though. So much time was spent on girls having petty fights; it was like watching competitive high school girls. Also, most of the film is in the dark, making for an unpleasant viewing experience. To add to this, the film has a horrible soundtrack. I’ve never heard such crude music in my life.

The twist ending is going to make you go “oh, no, everything was for nothing”. Not in a waste of time sense, but in the sense of “the mind believes what it wants to believe”. So, the lesson from this film would be not to be too hasty to jump to conclusions. Get the facts first. It could save you a lot of agony – literally in this case…

Would I watch it again? I doubt it.