film fatales #212: bodies bodies bodies (halina reijn, 2022)

Pauline Kael once told of an intelligent young man who proclaimed that The Beast with Five Fingers was the greatest horror film he had ever seen, because "it's completely irrational. It doesn't make any sense, and that's the true terror."

I felt a bit like Kael in that anecdote as I watched Bodies Bodies Bodies. It's a pretty stupid movie, but I sensed that the problem was I was too old to appreciate it. The film combines the locked-room feel of a classic Agatha Christie with the moronic behavior of the kinds of young people who always make dumb decisions in slasher films. None of it makes much sense, but maybe I'm missing the true terror amidst the very knowing depiction of Gen Z characters. Perhaps if you were Gen Z, you would enjoy the familiar satirical depiction of your cohorts.

Me, I found it tiresome. I'm always glad to see Rachel Sennott, and Lee Pace is always welcome. At least you only have to wait 94 minutes to get to the trick/ironic/explanatory ending.