This review contains spoilers
A24’s new satirical slasher “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” directed by dutch actress Halina Reijn, seemed awful by the first trailer — a typical thriller told through the gimmick of influencer culture. To my pleasant surprise, the actual movie offered up a strong visual identity, intelligent humor and a passable story to tide audiences wary of hearing the same generational jokes we’ve heard thousands of times before. Though still gimmicky, and in many ways unoriginal, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” is an entertaining and aesthetic ride.
The film follows recovering upper-class party girl Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and her new lower-class girlfriend Bea (Maria Bakalova) as they hunker down for a hurricane party at her friend’s mansion. Animosities, secrets and fake friendships lead to an evening of tense confrontation and bloody fights for survival when members of the group turn up dead one by one.
The performances in this film are exactly what one would expect from watching the trailer: broadly disappointing, but showing real strength in parts. As the night gets bloodier and the ensemble gets trimmed, the performances get stronger — it helps that Pete Davidson’s phoned-in “David” is the first to go.
The four women who make it furthest in the film give by far the strongest performances, particularly Rachel Sennott as Alice, a vapid, drug-addled podcaster; Sennott shows a clear understanding of the source of the satire more than any other actor in the cast. It’s clear Sennott’s strength in “Shiva Baby” was no fluke — this is an actress and comedian to watch. Though “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” standout Bakalova also delivers a strong performance, it’s dampened by a lacking chemistry between her and Stenberg.
The satire in this film works far better than the trailers would suggest. Though the first act suffers from what is clearly the voice of a screenwriter who is not part of Gen Z (Sarah DeLappe) ringing clear in the Gen Z dialogue, the satire grows sharper and more vivid as the titular bodies begin to pile up, reaching a pitch-perfect high point in the bloody third act confrontation between four of the survivors.
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” exists in a space between slasher and whodunnit. Unlike the quintessential slasher-whodunnit “Scream,” “Bodies” finds pleasure more in the idea of a mystery than in actually setting up compelling questions. Though many have lauded the twist ending, it felt like it undercut the promises of both genres far too much. Unlike “Scream,” the solution was evident by the second or third gorey execution, and as the misdirections gathered, they felt just like that — obvious misdirections.
Though the camera work was as obfuscating as one would expect from what might be described as a chamber slasher, there were moments when the lack of contrast became almost too overbearing. It not only obscures the audience’s senses, but the script’s structure as well, especially in the middle of the second act when the characters’ movements through the house felt unmotivated — wanderings and separations designed only to provide opportunity to raise the tension.
Still, though this is only Reijn’s second feature, there are times where she shows great utilization of film’s visual language. The camera is hyper-cognizant of what light is coming from where, so through the survive-the-night section of the film, I’d recommend viewers pay close attention to the lighting, both diegetic and nondiegetic, while trying to notice the things the camera barely shows you. In classic slasher fashion, your eyes only tell part of the story.
This movie, while better than I was expecting, was still lacking in a lot of areas, but all in all, it’s worth checking out. Be prepared for an ambling-sort of film --- not frightening or funny enough to fully fall into either camp, but enough of both to justify itself to its audiences. Come in with the trailers under your belt, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised with a perfectly fine night at the movies.
Spenser Willden is the culture editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @spenserwillden
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