SXSW ’22: Punchy ‘BODIES BODIES BODIES’ Subverts Slasher Formula

Everyone’s always a suspect in any slasher movie worth its salt and that’s true up until the very last moments in Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies. The film, which stars a slew of established and rising talent in the form of Maria Bakalova, Lee Pace, Amandla Stenberg, Chase Sui Wonders, Peter Davidson, and a scene-stealing Rachel Sennott, cleverly subverts what we know of the genre trappings and what we – perhaps falsely? – assume to be true.

Sex, drugs, and a tropical storm prove the perfect cocktail for a night of murder and mayhem when a ragtag collection of one-percenter 20-somethings get together for a hurricane party at a tropical mansion. When the lights go out, their party game, “Bodies Bodies Bodies”, turns terrifying real when one of the group has their throat cut. There’s so many love triangles you’d need to map them all out with pins and yarn, a seeming endless supply of party favors, and a handful of choice murder weapons decorating the premises – making everyone seem about as viable a suspect as in any tabletop game of Clue.

Bodies Bodies Bodies effectively buries the who of it all right up to the final frame, leaving clues to its unraveling without ever overreaching and making the conclusion obvious. While Reijn’s struggles to build actual tight wire tension, she does a fine job defining these characters and making them a well of free flowing entertainment. Yes, they can be written as a bit “stocky” at times but with the talented group of performers assembled to bring them to life, they’re never anything short of textured, rich – even if they don’t have tons of complexity on the page.

Shiva Baby star Sennott in particular hauls in laugh after laugh in a film that pokes fun at the mindlessly woke and wealthy, exploring the dichotomies that exists between “speaking your truth” and actually being a genuinely decent human. Too wrapped up in identity politics to see beyond the surface level of the people that they’re allegedly closest with, this “friend group” is a coil of dysfunction. Their multitudinous betrayals began long before actual physical backstabbing began; “cut throat” being baked into the fabric of their friend circle’s communal bonds.

So much of these character’s lives have been built on buzz word-friendly exteriority and the presentation of self as social justice foot soldiers that they fail to recognize and address the actual hollowness of the infrastructure of their relationships. Hung up with their own virtue signal cycles in an attention economy that minimizes genuine connection over the social currency of viewership and likes. Turns out that hanging out with a walking, talking Twitter thread contains but the shallow multitudes of a 280 character limit.

It’s a clever and timely pivot for the tired slasher genre and one that keeps us guessing up until the moments when things finally become clear. Thankfully, the “grand reveal” ending works very well within this context and works to underscore the thorny themes that squirm within Reijn’s filmmaking.

With a title like Bodies Bodies Bodies, there’s an expectation for a certain level of blood and viscus and the A24 horror film delivers on that front without ever being objectively gross or gory without cause. But so too is Reijn’s a far cry from the “elevated horror” that has so often defined genre output from the studio. If anything, Bodies Bodies Bodies can be a bit restrained in terms of its full commitment to genre filmmaking, instead capitalizing on the comedic strengths of the ensemble whose easy chemistry and tight repartee propels the millennial-flavored humor. In effect, the film is more satirical than sinister and – built on the earnest performances of Bakalova and Stenberg – finds a way to deconstruct the sub-genre to break to a friend culture of competition, image, and – ultimately – distrust.

CONCLUSION: ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ stacks up an entertaining ensemble to deconstruct the slasher genre with witty style. Maria Bakalova and Amandla Stenberg bring the pathos while Rachel Sennott and Pete Davidson deliver the guffaws. Fun if not entirely killer.