Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

A long tradition of social deduction games, from Mafia to Werewolf, precedes the widespread paranoia, inducing online game Among Us. The movie Bodies Bodies Bodies presents a variation of the game among a group of privileged friends that spirals violently out of control once bad social behavior, hysteria, and backstabbing take root. The A24-produced movie is a dark comedy that offers a scathing critique of class, privilege, and modern social media behaviors.

Sophie tells Bee she loves her before they go to a party at her best friend's family mansion in the hills. They arrive an hour before a hurricane starts and gets different reactions from Sophie's friends. Her best friend David looks delighted to see her even though he still feels upset from the recent problems with his girlfriend Emma, who gave him a black eye. Jordan is unfriendly toward Bee, while party girl Alice tries to have fun and make everyone happy, including her much older boyfriend, Greg. As if the extent of social disharmony wasn't already considerable, a game of "bodies bodies bodies" murder mystery devolves into intense mistrust and suspicion when real corpses start to pile up.

Director Halina Reijn and writer Sarah DeLappe, from a story by Kristen Roupenian, present their various characters like a group of suspects from the beginning. Everyone, even the shy and inexperienced Bee, appears to have hidden secrets or ulterior motives. However, this group of friends is bound together by their shared history and circumstance. Newcomers like Bee or the much older Greg only serve to highlight the cracks in this volatile relationship. The tension between them escalates quickly, long before the corpses show up and ruin the party.

The deaths in this film are graphic and disturbing, but they pale compared to the sharp-tongued social commentary about topics like privilege and false friendships. DeLappe and Reijn use satire to hilariously yet pointedly expose some of the uglier aspects of our society. The dark humor has a biting wit and often causes as much, if not more, pain as the gruesome deaths.

The cast does a great job with this strange and exciting but dangerous social experiment. Everyone plays characters that are deeply flawed but likable to varying degrees. But Sennott's Alice, who is very straightforward, is the one who takes the whole film. Alice tries more than anyone else to keep the peace. She is also the character who is most likely to agree with the group without thinking about it first. This role is an excellent showcase for Sennott's talent, as she fearlessly tackles the complex and contradictory elements of the character. She is a performer to keep an eye on.

The powerful hurricane blowing outside is nothing compared to the complete chaos raging within the walls of the remote mansion. Drugs and alcohol flow freely, causing secrets to be revealed, suspicion to grow, and people to fight for a place in the inner social circle. The mansion is a pressure cooker, and Reijn uses the jump scare creatively but prefers to delve deep into her profoundly broken characters to raise the stakes.

In the most twisted and sordid way, it's hilarious, cutting observations on modern reactive tendencies instead of listening. The cultural commentary is on point, even if the characters are divisive. A tiny subplot eventually pays off with a clever punchline, but the buildup isn't quite as substantial. A group of friends who are all very wealthy finds themselves in a social deduction game where things quickly turn sour. The movie is full of horror and comedy, and it's clear that the goal is to make the friends implode in the most heinous way possible.