“To hurricanes! To hurricane parties!”

Story: A bunch of twenty-something friends – and a couple of newbie romantic partners – gather at their friend David’s house (fine, his dad’s pad) to wait out a hurricane together. But when an innocent party game goes from bitchy to deadly? Time to suss out who’s playing for keeps.

Scares: lots of lights-out and old dark house suspense.
Splat Factor: the bodies (bodies bodies) are effectively goopy, but the red is…tasteful? Not in-your-face but easily seen nonetheless? Yeah. That.

Subgenre: Those Krazy Kidz Dark House Horror
Year Released: 2023
Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: Based on the party game game “Body Body”.


Trick or Treat?: This had been on my radar for quite some time now. But when it was in theaters earlier in the year? I forgot. I do that sometimes. So, now that it’s streaming, I went for a month of Paramount+ and dug in. And Bodies is an interesting blend of horror, thriller, satire, and critique. It can poke fun at Gen-Z while still making fun of the insults that are often thrown their way in various forms of media. Me? My old tuchas is Gen-X, so this slacker ain’t calling any younger generation anything but beautifully amazing. The Z’ers in Bodies are decent representatives of their generation; they show amazing depth even when they’re doing really, really stupid shit. Sound familiar? Yeah, that’d be all the rest of us doing the same kinda thing. What up, newbies? Grab your own personal shame beanie and join the circle.

Director Halia Reijn and writers Sarah DeLappe and Kristen Roupenian craft an cool 21st Century whodunit, with a mix of mystery and horror that’s a nice watch with a bunch of friends who have varied tastes. The mysterious old house, with characters who’ve known each other for almost all their lives…and ones who are new to the group. That makes for all sorts of suspects. Basically every single person standing. (Hey, it’s a small cast, so yeah.) Plus, this “house” is huge. Mansion huge. Which makes for lots of horror-centric scenes, like running down hallways, dark passages that are barely visible, and massive distances between characters as they all try to do whatever their particular great idea is at the moment. Note: never split up in a horror movie scenario, kids. Reijn balances the blend of genres well, mostly by just letting the camera angles, fast or slow editing, and sound design take us where she wants us to go.

There are moments where I felt a bit bloodthirsty; these entitled rich “kids” are so hyper-focused on themselves, and it’s tough to feel compassion when they’ve amped up their self-centeredness to 11. But I loved the moments where they let their guard down and really allowed themselves to feel what was going on. These are individuals who live and die by their phones, and the social media it connects them to. So interacting with their friends, especially in such a high-stakes situation, becomes fraught with gaffs, exasperation, and confusion, as they struggle to be authentic on the fly. (NOTE: this is not to say that Gen-Z are like this as a whole. I believe the creators of this film were poking fun at that stereotype, while leaning into the “but what if they were” of it all. Make-believe, people. It’s a thing.)

The cast play off each other with an ease that almost hides their individual talents. Being able to portray strong emotions without coming off unintentionally histrionic and/or hilarious ain’t easy. These performers make it look like it is, though. Special shout-out to Rachel Sennott as party girl Alice, whose bad decisions and huge heart ricochet all over the proceedings. Lets just say that these are characters I didn’t want to see get got. And it kinda hurt when things go from bad to really, really horrible.

The climax is crazy, shocking, and a very interesting take on the usual And Then There Were None countdown slashers/mysteries. I don’t want to talk too much about it, because you should go in as blind as possible. But as the credits rolled? I had thoughts, y’all. Like, I wanted to sit those characters down and just…oh. Spoilers, darling. Just go watch.

And have you heard about the banging soundtrack yet? Because it’s fantastic. The cherry on top of this wild child ride.

Score: 3.5 out of 5 pumpkins.