Spoilers don’t get Tik Tok.

Before you ok-boomer-me, I’m gen-x over here. It’s not that I don’t get it, I just think that this gen-z focused film does it a disservice and misses the mark. The film is painted as a horror film, it has the trappings of one and it resembles one as it begins. It’s not one, and it’s not a murder mystery either. Perhaps I am a jaded self-proclaimed critic, but if I haven’t made it clear enough I don’t think this movie works. Social commentaries, it says what it needs to say with the first act and doesn’t add anything new then. Once it starts for real… We’ll talk.

(Credit: A24)

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) was directed by Halina Reijn and written by Sarah DeLappe. Young and in love, Bee (Maria Bakalova) joins Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) to a party with her rich friends at a big mansion. With plenty of skeletons in the closet, this group of frenemies harbor not-so-secret animosities against each other. When a game of hide-and-seek with a murder-mystery flavour starts, everyone seems way into the game. I got my hopes up for a minute that we were going to get some subversion… Nope. It’s a social commentary on vapid people all the way through. Actually, the fact that they’re any generation doesn’t really seem to factor in. Yes, there’s influencer and online culture peppered in, but other than adding phones and some slang that will become dated yesterday, there’s really nothing intrinsically related to gen-z.

Yes, there’s a big twist at the end. It’s not so hard to see it coming very early. I’m not giving you that spoiler, but I fail to see how this is a critique on the culture itself and not simply just a jab at these specific people. Not to mention the fact that this group should have self-imploded on toxicity alone. It’s not the phones, it’s not the empowerment, it’s not even the fact that they are spoiled or entitled. Yes, they are but it takes so much forced circumstance and blind reactions to cause this mayhem that you wonder how these people became friends to being with. Even the people who have chemistry with each other are so quick to deceive, cheat and doubt their relationships you’d think everyone actually wanted to kill each other from the start.

On the other side, I can’t blame you if from the very start you have zero rapport with any of the characters. None of these characters works in a likeable or even anti-hero sort of way. Everyone seems to exhibit some level of toxicity to the point that this feels like a low blow to the entire generation, but it also puts every character into this sort of too-stupid-to-live cube. I get it that it is a dark comedy. But I also can’t see why anybody would be interested. Rooting for the killer is out because of reasons that will become obvious long before the ending creeps in.

Not recommended. It’s a dark comedy under the trappings of horror, a thriller and a murder mystery. It doesn’t ever get smart, actually it’s progressively dumb most of the way through. You’re supposed to find it all funny once the game is up but it’s a more of a deception you’ll either see coming a mile away or you’ll try to convince yourself there’s some sort of clever twist instead of a dumb one. Either way, I think most audiences will be more disappointed than fooled. Not worth a watch.

That will do for now.