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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Bodies Bodies Bodies. Read at your own risk!
The most terrifying scene in Bodies Bodies Bodies—which is now streaming on Netflix—isn’t the reveal of Pete Davidson’s dead body. It’s not when Maria Bakalova bludgeons Lee Pace with kettle bell. It’s not even when Myha’la Herrold shoots Rachel Sennott in the stomach.
No, the scariest scene in Bodies Bodies Bodies is when Amandla Stenberg reveals that her so-called friend Jordan (Harrold) “hate listens” to their other so-called friend, Alice (Sennott)’s, podcast. It’s when, in retaliation, Alice informs Jordan that her “rags to riches” narrative is bullshit. (Hence the much-loved, much-shared line: “You’re parents are Upper. Middle. Class.“) And it’s when Sophie (Stenberg) chews them both out for doing lines in front of their addict friend, who they were supposedly “sooo worried about.”
In the end, Bodies Bodies Bodies is not a movie about a mysterious serial killer. It’s a movie about secretly hating your friends—or, more terrifyingly, about your friends secretly hating you. And that’s what makes it so brilliant.
Directed by Halina Reijn, with a screenplay by Sarah DeLappe (based on a story by Kristen Roupenian), this 2022 horror comedy takes place over one night in a remote mansion, where five lifelong friends have gathered for a weekend of partying and fun. Even before the murders begin, the tension between the young adults is palpable. We see it all through the eyes of Bee (Bakalova), the newcomer. It’s in the reaction shots to Alice’s over-the-top antics, and the passive-aggressive digs at Sophie’s long absence.
The tension builds and builds and builds, until—after several of their group have been murdered and the remaining girls are all accusing each other of being the killer—it finally boils over. It explodes into a no-holds-barred verbal assault. Yeah, one of them does have a gun, but the real weapon in the scene is the words. Because no one can deal more psychic damage than a friend who’s known you for years… and has apparently hated you this entire time.
You probably don’t hate your friends in real life (I hope!), but you probably do feel annoyed or pissed off by their antics from time to time. They probably feel the same way about you. That’s life! In the interest of maintaining friendships, most of us agree to an unspoken rule of not lingering on (or, worse, discussing) each other’s flaws.
Bodies Bodies Bodies does the opposite, by airing all that dirty laundry in one brilliant fight scene. DeLappe’s whip-smart dialogue in this amplifies every one of those relatable, little annoyances by a thousand. All those things we usually let slide in the name of friendship—not responding in the group chat, a self-indulgent memoir project, a Google Calendar addiction, a cringe-y podcast—suddenly become life-or-death issues.
“No, you did not respond in the group chat!” Jordan spits at Sophie.
“You schedule everything in your fucking Google Calendar, including sex, because you have no soul.” Sophie fires back.
“Why did you ghost us, Sophie?” Alice accuses.
“We’re all drowning in your fucking feelings!”
“Fuck you, you’re emotionally abusive!”
“It’s pitiful, how you won’t stop making fun of her stupid little podcast.”
“You know when you’re drunk and you cry to me, ‘Oh I’m afraid nobody likes me because I’m mean and a bitch and I suck?’ Well you do, okay? You fucking suck!”
And then, finally, this devastating banger from Alice, spoken with finality to Jordan: “I only hang out with you out of pity and the suffocating weight of our shared history, and that is all.“
Woof. “The suffocating weight of our shared history.” That’s really it, isn’t it?
The scene brings to life the fantasy of finally telling the annoying people in your life what you really think. At the same time, it plays out like an insecure person’s worst nightmare. Yes, all your friends do secretly hate you. Yes, they do find you annoying. Yes, they do notice those less-than-favorable personality traits. What could be more horrific than that?
