Bodies Bodies Bodies Review

Satire is a tricky thing in 2022. Many have claimed it’s impossible to satirize the current moment, as reality has become so ridiculous that everything is essentially a parody of itself. Others express frustration at the commonality of microaggressions or verbal attacks masquerading as  “jokes”. It’s also, obviously, a very frustrating time to be alive, which should be a perfect breeding ground for humor. Unfortunately, all of these factors combine to create a very difficult landscape to navigate in satirical terms. Sitting firmly in the middle of this murky gray area is A24’s latest film Bodies Bodies Bodies, which aims to deconstruct the Gen Z mindset through the lens of a murder mystery.  

The film follows a group of young, hard-partying 20-somethings, who meet up at their friend’s parent’s mansion to ride out a hurricane together. Late to the party are Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and her new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova), who bring with them a great deal of tension that infects the whole group. Sophie clearly has a complicated past with everyone, leading some of these “friends” to not want her around. After a few hours of passive aggression, the party settles in for a murder mystery game where anyone could be the killer. One power outage later, the actual bodies start to fall as their game becomes more real than they anticipated. 

In order for your satire to be effective in modern times, you have to be so crystal clear in terms of what your perspective is and is not. If you’re not incredibly explicit with what you’re trying to say, you risk creating art that perpetuates negative viewpoints instead of tearing them down. Unfortunately, Bodies Bodies Bodies remains rather ambiguous as to what its views actually are, leaving me to wonder if this movie is incredibly progressive, or just deeply problematic. It is not a great sign if you can walk out of a movie wondering if they were making fun of the misuse of the term “triggered”, or were actually making fun of the idea that people have triggers. I’d like to believe this movie was intended to satirize the current generation’s casual use of serious language, but by the time the credits roll, it’s simply not clear enough to prevent leaving a not so great taste in my mouth. 

That being said, the film does effectively build tension, making everyone at the party a likely suspect for being the killer. I have to applaud everyone involved in the making of this film for successfully letting everyone seem untrustworthy. Making every scene land with an air of suspicion must have been an absolute nightmare to act, direct, write, and edit, and yet everyone pulls this off to great effect. Even our audience surrogate character Bee comes off as guilty. This film genuinely keeps you guessing right up until the end, which is high praise for a murder mystery. 

Of course, a mystery story is only as good as its ending twist, and while I loved the reveals that end the movie, I can definitely see a world where the film’s target audience feels incredibly disappointed by its resolution. The whole movie is suspenseful and occasionally funny but becomes retroactively hilarious by the twists at the end. This is a very funny movie predominantly because of this ending and the way it reframes everything that came before to make what I believe to be the movie’s grand point: that the current climate has utterly ruined an entire generation’s ability to connect with each other. If you can keep in mind that this movie is less of a conventional horror movie, and ultimately more of a comedy playing a long game to get to its punchline, Bodies Bodies Bodies will pleasantly surprise you. 

Although the target of its satire is somewhat muddied by its execution, Bodies Bodies Bodies is overall a thrilling mystery with a hilarious resolution.