***SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses the twists and turns of Bodies Bodies Bodies.***
A24’s horror comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies won approval from critics and audiences alike, and it’s easy to see why. Halina Reijn’s Gen Z satire takes aim at everything from cancel culture to faux allyship to the young, wealthy, and supposedly woke. The film also features a charismatic and talented cast and a wickedly good soundtrack. Bodies Bodies Bodies modernizes the house-bound murder mystery by focusing on a group of over-privileged friends who gather for a drug-fueled hurricane party at rich boy David’s (Pete Davidson) parents’ mansion in upstate New York.
A newly sober Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) brings her kind, working-class girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to meet her friends for their party weekend. But the relationships she encounters are more frenemy than friend, as she is met with condescension and passive aggressiveness from Sophie’s toxic circle of friends. There’s David’s actress girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), vapid podcast host Alice (Rachel Sennott), her much older boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace), and the combative Jordan (Myha’la Herrold) who clearly has feelings for Sophie.
The gang plays a round of “Bodies Bodies Bodies”, an Assassin-style game where someone is designated the killer and starts murdering people by tapping them on the shoulder. But the game soon dissolves among fighting and disagreement and the group disbands. Later that night, they discover David by the pool. his throat slashed by a decorative sword that Greg previously used to open a bottle of champagne. The gang quickly descends into panic and paranoia, accusing one another of being the murderer. And thanks to the hurricane, they’re trapped without power, Wi-Fi, or any way to call for help. What follows is a night of mayhem as the remaining party guests are picked off one by one by the mysterious killer.
Who killed David, and the rest of the victims?
Bodies Bodies Bodies keeps you guessing until the very end, when morning comes and the storm breaks. Sophie and Bee, the only survivors, are wrestling by the pool when they find David’s phone. They find a video of David trying to open a champagne bottle with the sword, and accidently slashing himself in the neck. There was no murderer at all, just a dumb rich kid who accidently killed himself. The rest of the murders were a direct result of the paranoia and scrambling by the gang, and everyone is culpable.
Bee killed Greg using a kettlebell because she thought she was defending the girls from the killer. Sophie relapsed and saw Emma fall down the stairs to her death. Jordan and the remaining girls fight until Jordan accidently shoots Alice twice, killing her. And Bee pushes Jordan over the bannister, causing her to fall to her death. Bee and Sophie, the two survivors, might have killed one another, had it not been for the timely arrival of Max (Connor O’Malley) and the power coming back on.
The ending perfectly sums up the party crew: people seething with contempt for one another yet stuck in a co-dependent and toxic relationship they are unable to escape from. All it took for these tensions to boil to the surface was David getting too high and accidentally cutting his own throat.
(featured image: A24 and Stage 6 Films)
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