Bodies Bodies Bodies review: ‘Queer teen slasher is a popping-candy blast’
Laughs, thrills and blood spills as teen party turns mean
By Laura McGale
Words: Guy Lodge; Image: supplied
“A Gen-Z Agatha Christie whodunnit” is a pitch that will either intrigue or make you want to head for the door. If you’re in the former camp, Dutch director Halina Reijn’s lascivious, neon-hued romp will deliver all the winking, tricked-out, TikTok-era fun you’re hoping for. If you’re in the latter tribe, don’t leave just yet: there’s a sharper, snarlier strain of satire here than you might be expecting.
A gaggle of mostly wealthy, queer, hyper-online twentysomethings are holed up in a vast McMansion during an epic overnight storm that shuts down the electricity and plays havoc with everyone’s nerves. Then the film ramps up the tension as one member of the party is found dead, followed by another. But the real fun is in the heated, sometimes horny infighting between the survivors, who are often too distracted by disagreements over identity politics, cancel culture and mental health sensitivities to play detective with any efficiency.
This is tricky comic territory, at risk of seeming try-hard or patronising. But a spry, flip script by Kristen Roupenian (she of viral ‘Cat Person’ short story fame) hits its targets with the right balance of empathy and tart mockery, while Reijn’s direction skips between genre modes — from slasher movie to farce to teen comedy — with restless ease.
Meanwhile, a dream ensemble — including Amandla Stenberg, Pete Davidson, Maria Bakalova and Shiva Baby breakout Rachel Sennott, with Lee Pace as a relative elder statesman for balance — lays into the material at a near-frenzied pitch, playing the friendship group’s assorted dramas like an episode of Euphoria on an elaborate cocktail of uppers and downers, and with a newfound sense of humour. An actress herself, Reijn came through the theatre company of star director Ivo van Hove, and Bodies Bodies Bodies benefits from the air of hothouse thespian conviction she brings.
Blending intensity and wild silliness, it’s a popping-candy blast.
Rating: 4/5
Bodies Bodies Bodies is in cinemas now. Watch the trailer below: