A horror/comedy that blends the two elements to great success
So, when I say my girlfriend “made” us watch Bodies Bodies Bodies, in this instance, there was very little ‘making’ involved. After her first choice of movie for us to watch wasn’t available on any of our half-dozen streaming platforms (God, I love living in the future), we were reduced to doomscrolling Netflix until something stood out.
When she suggested Bodies Bodies Bodies after less than a minute of searching, I said yes immediately. Frankly, the choice paralysis and anxiety that comes with having multiple thousands of films ready to view at the click of a button is real, and I’ll generally agree with my girlfriend’s first choice for the sake of ending the nightmare of the infinite.
I actually wanted to see Bodies Bodies Bodies, though! I missed it when it came out in 2022. Rachel Sennott is never not funny, and after seeing Amandla Stenberg in The Acolyte earlier this year, I was intrigued to see something else she was in. Pete Davidson is also in this movie—not as a cameo, or a voice, or a background gag—he plays, like, an actual character! I didn’t think he was allowed to do that…
Beeltejuice Beetlejuice B—Wait, I Mean—
When Bee (Maria Bakalova) accompanies her rich girlfriend Sophie (Stenberg) to a ‘hurricane party’ at a mansion owned by Sophie’s best friend David (Davidson), she’s put in the uncomfortable position of being an outsider among a group of close-knit “friends” who seem hostile and prone to bickering. To ease the tension, they decide to play a party game called ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’, wherein one person plays the ‘murderer’ and has to ‘kill’ everyone else. Maybe you can see where this is going.
Bodies Bodies Bodies really worked for me specifically because it resonated with a kind of thought experiment that I sometimes pose to myself: What if I were still “friends” with the random assortment of individuals I hung out with during my First Year of college?
The thought really does make me shudder. One-on-one, they weren’t bad people, but as a collective, it was a mess of confused eighteen-year-olds (plus that one guy who was five years older than us, of course), and the resulting drama makes me incredibly grateful for the many stable relationships in my life today.
Bodies Bodies Bodies is about a group of people who all should have moved from each other long ago, but remain intertwined by the burden of their shared history. Judging from the film's general success, I know I'm not the only one to relate to the horror of co-dependent friendships.
Comedy Comes in Threes Comedy Comes in Threes Comedy Comes in Threes
When Bodies Bodies Bodies isn’t giving me flashbacks, it’s being incredibly funny. Every single one of the characters gets multiple moments to shine. Maria Bakalova as the shy and awkward Bee really earns your sympathy. Both the actress and character she’s playing are Eastern European, and the movie does a great job at putting her discomfort among this group of loud, extraverted Americans at the forefront.
Rachel Sennott as Alice is the kind of supporting character that I bet every comedy writer wishes they could put in their movie. Her lines and deliveries, even during the most stressful moments of the story, consistently cracked me up. Pete Davidson was also really funny as a jealous, antagonistic boyfriend. There are maybe a couple of moments with him that don’t fully land, but in general, I’ll never question his presence in a comedy movie again.
Amandla Stenberg doesn’t have a huge comedic presence, but the fact that her character is sober and is able to maintain somewhat rational in the face of the film’s bloody story beats adds a nice counterpoint to hysteria of some of the more outlandish characters.
There isn’t much of a plot to Bodies Bodies Bodies, which is fine. The story is just an excuse to put all of these neurotic, self-obsessed, internet-brained, twenty-somethings (and Lee Pace) into high-stress environments so they can start throwing outrageous insults at each other, reveal scandalous secrets, and threaten each other with a variety of dangerous instruments.
Conclusion (x3)
Bodies Bodies Bodies is fun. Pretty much every single character is a spoiled, easily dislikeable brat, and the movie takes great pleasure in knocking them down multiple pegs. Maria Bakalova’s presence adds to the deeper themes of classism present in the narrative, which turns this from a farcical slasher into a movie that both delivers on entertaining deaths and has something to say.
I’m having trouble to think of any reasons why someone wouldn’t like this movie. It’s possible that some might find the characters to be so insufferable and cringeworthy—especially in the first act—that they’d struggle to make it through the film, but I’m grasping at straws.
It’s not likely to change your life, but if you’re in the mood for a quick, ninety-minute thriller, for the duration of which I can’t imagine anyone keeping straight-faced, Bodies Bodies Bodies is the movie for you.
***
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