Bodies Bodies Bodies: Paranoia and Acting in a Dark House

Nervous about meeting the smug, wealthy friends of her rehabilitated girlfriend Sophie, timid newcomer Bee arrives late to a booze-addled, drug-fuelled hurricane party at bored David’s Georgian grey-stone manor house. As the storm rages outside, the party gets started, and the group of spoiled zoomers gathers around the host in the family mansion’s luxurious drawing room to play a compelling, find-the-killer murder mystery game with the lights off. But it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. And when one of the players ends up dead, mass hysteria takes over, and the petty, narcissistic backstabbers start to turn on each other. Now, cut off from the outside world, their lives depend on figuring out who’s behind the frantic outburst of senseless, bloody violence. However, as bitter rivalries flare up and old wounds reopen, how can David’s self-absorbed guests survive the night?

Review:

Bodies Bodies Bodies– the title had me expecting a horror comedy, and A24 as the studio, had me expecting some degree of art or at least literate execution. It’s the kind of film I would take a chance on if it had about a 90 minute runtime, a decent cast and popped up on one of my streaming services on a slow and dull night.

Well, it’s not a comedy. It’s pretty much straight horror with a twist that kept me watching- how much is the fear of a killer spurring actual killings. Will you kill your friends,if the right paranoid circumstances present themselves: alone in a dark house with recriminations, accusations and gaslighting happening swift and fast, and assorted guns, knives and other murder props all around? There would be no horror film if the answer was no.

Bodies Bodies Bodies follows this formula to a tee. It’s a bit slow to get started but the buildup adds to the paranoia and some psychologically nervy scenes that allows the full range to explode. This is a horror film that good budding actors love to be in. It allows them to let their freak flag fly and audition their acting chops. The nihilism would turn off older viewers but be catnip to the disillusioned under 25 generation. For me, it was worthwhile enough.