YNOT at the Movies

If you are interested in watching a silly and bloody chicken fight among a group of generation-Z party goers soaked in drugs and alcohol, then the Dutch director Halina Reijn's body-slasher movie "Bodies Bodies Bodies" (USA 2022 | 95 min.) fits that appetite perfectly. This film offers little else, and you probably won't even remember any of these characters' names because they are pretty interchangeable without much individuality.

Right before a forecasted hurricane, that party takes place at the remote family mansion of David (Pete Davidson), whose black eyes from a fight with a friend make him look like a panda. Freshly returning from rehab, David's best friend Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) brings her new shy girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to the party, but immediately they feel they are not welcomed by the rest of the gang that are already at the party drinking and snorting. These friends include David's insecure actress girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), the aggressive Jordan (Myha'la Herrold) holding both a type-A personality and Sophie's secret, the air-headed podcast host Alice (Rachel Sennott) and Alice's 40-year-old boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace) whom she met on Tinder.

When the hurricane storm begins to roll in, the group leaves the swimming pool and gets inside the house. They decide to play a game called Bodies Bodies Bodies, a variation of a popular party game called Mafia. In this game, an assigned victim is supposed to be murdered by a killer in the dim light. When the lights are back on, the group debate to identify the killer.

Quickly, the debate becomes a nasty reality talk show where the group of friends is backstabbing each other and all hell breaks loose. However, that is just the beginning of how the party goes wrong. When people begin to actually die, the horror turns real and the hurricane becomes a second thought for everyone.

Despite the few funny moments, the movie mostly gears at building up the tension and making it a body slasher horror flick. It is often set in the dark, except for cellphone flashlights. The screaming and yelling among these freaked out rich brats get tiring quickly. The movie just keeps us informed about how dysfunctional these people are, as if we don't already know and as if we care. None of these characters seem to deserve our attention or sympathy.

Even though the performance from the cast is strong, it doesn't make the film any better or more meaningful. These characters are not much different from those in a silly reality television program. You view them like a freak show, and you are allowed to laugh at their stupidity and misery.

"Bodies Bodies Bodies" opens on Friday, August 12, 2022, in the San Francisco Bay Area.