Bodies Bodies Bodies: Gen Z Murder Mystery a Knock-out Addition to the Canon

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B+

Generally speaking, the murder mystery is formulaic, with a group of people called to a single location, often with no chance of escape.

All are well-drawn characters, most wealthy, their conversation moving from casual fun to mild insults to deep suspicion when the situation becomes lethal, as when someone goes missing or someone’s dead body is discovered.

And of course, as the tension ramps up, the social backstabbing begins. Secrets and questions about each of the characters are revealed and each seems to have a motivation for murder. When well done, they are a pleasure to watch.

Bodies Bodies Bodies, boosted by an excellent mostly Gen Z cast, cleverly employs all the usual tropes in a way that feels fresh and fun.

Amandla Stenberg is Sophie. She and new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) are heading to a friend’s parents’ big country place to join a group of friends hanging out together to ride out a bad rain storm-slash-tornado together.

The friend, David (Pete Davidson) is with his nervous girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders) plus Alice (Rachel Sennott) and her new boyfriend, the much older Greg (Lee Pace), as well as Jordan (Myha’la Herrold) who is there solo.

Bee is all frayed nerves, even though Sophie seems completely into her, and is more watchful than revealing. Her anxiety isn’t eased when she arrives and finds that this gang, save her and Greg, are rich kids who know each other well, and who seem both surprised and not completely happy to see them.

But then, what’s a little tension between friends?

There’s a lot of history with this gang: relationships intertwined, some turned toxic, and so words of friendship are sometimes laced with cutting barbs. We mostly see it through the eyes of Bee, who is trying to follow the connections and figure out who’s who, but even Bee isn’t straightforward. She’s clearly hiding something about her identity.

The storm moves in, the lights go off, and the group decides to play some party games, leading up to Bodies Bodies Bodies, a kind murder-mystery game that riffs on hide and seek and tag. In the dark the beautiful mansion starts to feel more like a haunted mansion. The storm knocks the power out, one of the group is suddenly dead for real, and now it’s a real-life murder mystery as the group tries to figure out who the murderer is.

We, of course, are also trying to figure out who is who. Who is telling the truth? Who might not be who they say they are? And as the bodies mount, the questions become more pointed, and the mood becomes hysterical.

The characters are a mix of types and clichés. The exceptions are Bee and Glen, who are both working-class and newcomers to the group. When things go south, they are the first to become objects of suspicion. But no one is safe from the scrutiny.

Under pressure everyone has reasons to be suspicious of everyone else. Some of the characters are grating. But making fun of types isn’t the point here. The clichés are part of the genre, and the fun. And why shouldn’t this generation have its own murder mystery film?

Added into the stew are subtexts about class, bad relationships, addictions, and the way we judge people, and how, under certain circumstances, our perception starts to shift.

The cast is uniformly terrific. Dutch actress-turned-director Halina Reijn, working from a script by Sarah DeLappe (itself based on a story by Kristen Roupenian) keeps things moving along while constantly knocking us off guard.

It’s a tangy whodunnit. We know that someone had to. But like all good murder mysteries, as bodies pile up, and the plot twists, everyone still standing seems like they could be the murderer. It’s a lot of fun.

Bodies Bodies Bodies. Directed by Halina Reijn. Screenplay by Sarah DeLappe, based on a story by Kristen Roupenian. Starring Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Pete Davidson, Chase Sui Wonders, Rachel Sennott, Myha’la Herrold, and Lee Pace. In theatres August 12.