Bodies Bodies Bodies – Film Review

When a group of 20-somethings gets stuck at a remote mansion during a hurricane, a party game gone very, very wrong ends with a dead body on the ground and fake friends at every turn as they try to find the killer among them.

Although this year has been an absolute delight when it comes to the sheer amount of truly excellent horror films that were released, one of the few that I hadn’t seen up until this point was Halina Rejin‘s Bodies Bodies Bodies, which certainly features quite the promising cast.

And did I mention the fact that it’s an A24 film? It genuinely doesn’t matter what the film is about – if I see that A24 has a new movie out, I’m going to be watching it, no questions asked. But upon seeing this highly acclaimed mystery horror comedy, I can’t help but wonder why everyone else seemed to love this and I didn’t.

Is Bodies Bodies Bodies an awful movie? No, but it definitely isn’t a good one either. For starters, it takes way too long for the actual horror elements in the film to actually kick into gear. This movie runs for one-hour and twenty-eight minutes without credits, and yet the first time the plot actually begins isn’t until about thirty minutes in.

That wouldn’t be too big of a problem had the film utilized a breakneck pace from that moment onward, but, strangely, it doesn’t. Bodies Bodies Bodies takes its time with things, but that isn’t a good thing. The vast majority of this film is essentially just a bunch of drunk young adults screaming at each other and accusing each other of violent things for ninety-four minutes.

It’s one of those movies that will inevitably give you a headache because of just how much shouting is done in it. That’s not to say that the film isn’t smart ever because it is, but not too often. The ending, for example, is genuinely insanely brilliant, and it’s one of the most unpredictable endings of the entire year.

There are also a few good moments in the second act that impressed me greatly. It’s just the majority of the film doesn’t really have anything bold or exciting to offer. Even if you’re not too well-versed with horror, I can’t see this film being a gateway for you into horror.

Bodies Bodies Bodies is a mostly disappointing mystery horror comedy that takes way too long to get going, even if it does manage to pull some clever strings along the way.