Bodies Bodies Bodies: It’s All Fun and Games

A group of wealthy friends in their early twenties gather for a night of partying during a hurricane at a secluded mansion.  Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) is a recovering addict who has been estranged from her friends while she tries to remain clean.  With her is her girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) a shy girl from Eastern Europe.  Jordan (Myha’la herrold) is Sophie’s ex and David (Pete Davidson) is Sophie’s best friend.  Also at the party are Emma (Chase Sui Wonders) David’s actress girlfriend, Alice (Rachel Sennott) a blogger, and Greg (Lee Pace) Alice’s older new boyfriend that she met online. Not at the party but often referred to, is Max (Conner O’Malley) who professed his love for Emma and then punched David the night before and the disappeared. As the hurricane picks up strength and after much alcohol and some drugs, the group decides to play the game “Bodies Bodies Bodies”.  Who ever picks the slip of paper with an “X”, is the murderer and the rest of them, scurry around trying not to get “tagged”, while the lights are turned off.  Once they are “tagged” they fall to the ground and act dead.  When someone finds the “corpse” they yell “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and the lights come back on and the remaining “living” members of the game try to figure out who the murderer is. The game leads to tension between the party goers, and later David is found with his throat cut on the back patio.  The storm has knocked out all avenues to get help and their only vehicle won’t start.  The remaining guests begin to turn on each other and more people begin to die. It is alluded that the killer is using the game they played earlier in the night to choose their targert. Everyone is suspect and the inner true feelings of these so-called friends begin to surface, and the situation becomes ugly, as everyone begins to turn on each other. Will any of them survive? And who is the killer? Watch and find out!

The film is part slasher flick and part “who dun it” and bills itself as a dark comedy, but I didn’t really see that much humor in the film.  There is quite a bit of irony and satire, but not a lot to laugh at. The reception of the film is mainly positive, with most critics praising the acting and the social commentary on friendship in the age of Instagram. This isn’t really a classic murder mystery either though, as no one was following the clues or investigating anything, instead the audience gets a bunch of snotty spoiled rich kids who react solely on emotion, possibly fueled by the amount of drugs and alcohol they consumed, and not a single one of them has the common sense to just “Stop”! Instead, they let their petty jealousies and insecurities get the better of them leading to disaster.

I didn’t really care for the movie, but I will admit that the plot is interesting, and the acting is well done with a top-notch cast, the production value is high with great direction and interesting use of light and shadow.  The music will appeal to a younger audience, but mainly used existing pop songs and very little originally composed music.  But what made me particularly dislike the film, is that there are no characters that were actually likable, making it hard to be empathetic or sympathetic to any of them.  Maria and Greg came the closest, but we don’t get nearly enough of them to really connect. And in the end, without a connection, I just didn’t really care about any of them.  The twist ending just solidifies the absurdity of the situation and does give us a little bit of the dark comedy the movie is billed under.