Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) review

What happens when a group of friends who all backstab and shit-talk each other behind their backs constantly gets put into a nightmare scenario in the middle of a hurricane lit only by glow sticks and cell phone flashlights? The end result is a bloody, paranoia-fueled farce that is bound to make anyone who has ever had internet access giddy. Bodies Bodies Bodies joins an elite club of horror movies where the characters being idiots doesn’t come across as lazy or sloppy as an excuse for kills to happen, but a completely necessary and natural component in the plot and character writing; they’re a group of backstabbing, vapid, entitled, coked-up 20 somethings who are living out the natural conclusion of their petty, terminally online, superficial lives.

Contrary to what the trailer would have you believe, Bodies Bodies Bodies is probably the least annoying movie about Gen-Z culture ever made. Unlike go-to culprits like this year’s Not Okay, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation, which I recently had the displeasure of watching, the Gen Z-isms poked fun at in Bodies Bodies Bodies feel totally authentic. All of the trademark colloquialisms from “gaslighting” and “toxic,” to astrology signs, ("he was a libra moon!") to being on phones and vaping, to the music that plays that often come across as try-hard and obnoxious in lesser movies feel perfectly at home in Bodies Bodies Bodies because of how well integrated into each scene and how believable the situations are. The dialogue and character interactions are so well done that it comes across like the movie wasn't even attempting to make that a part of the point of the story. Perfectly natural.

Every aspect of the film comes together perfectly well, proving that expectations should not be low for horror movies, even silly ones like this. The writing, directing and acting all compliment each other and no aspects of it drags the movie down, unlike something like You’re Next, which was a fun twist on a similarly played-out setup but was handicapped by the fact that it’s shot atrociously. Bodies Bodies Bodies is shot with laser precision, with fantastic direction from Halina Reijn and cinematography by Jasper Wolf. Horror movies don’t have to be artsy and abstract like Suspiria or Men in order for us to expect them to still be technically well-put-together, folks. If you demand more from horror movies, we can get more like Bodies Bodies Bodies and less terrible, lazy horror movies like Terrifier, Smile or this years Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scream reboots in the future.

To put it simply, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a delightful horror-comedy. It’s a much more clever, funnier and overall better Scream sequel than any of the actual Scream sequels, maybe the entire franchise. The cast is hilarious and charismatic, each actor bringing a unique quality to their own character, the standout for me being Rachel Sennot, but all blending into an amorphous blob of social media obsessed losers once together. It’s a great subversion of a tried and true horror movie set up, giving quick but memorable red herring motivations for each person at the house to be the killer, keeping you guessing until the final punchline of the film.