The one expression that could be used to describe A24 in the summer of 2022 was “terminally online.” Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022) had proven the studio’s penchant for adapting an offbeat viral video into a heartfelt and innovative animated movie. For their next film, they were returning to the well of horror to deconstruct age-old tropes for a modern generation. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) featured a cast whose preceding reputations had a lengthy paper trail of social media gossip entering a dark comedy that sought to create a clever commentary on Gen-Z’s obsession with their phones. The premise may sound niche, but it proved to be another foolproof win for a studio full of eccentric risks.
The story begins with somebody whose work may not be fully present in the final product. Writer Kristen Roupenian garnered acclaim for a story that was published in The New Yorker in 2017. As a result of the overnight success, she received a book deal along with rights to have “Cat Person” adapted into a film. Beyond her original work, one of the deals that appeared came from A24 in March 2018 to write a spec script. This would become the basis for Bodies Bodies Bodies, which centered around a conventional slasher story with clear heroes and villains.
Originally, the film was set to be directed by Chloe Okuno, who was the first to do significant rewrites to Roupenian’s script. After negotiations, the final director became Halina Reijn: an actor-turned-filmmaker from The Netherlands who was garnering acclaim for her 2020 series Red Light. Believing that A24’s reputation meant a higher caliber of quality, she took on the challenge of Bodies Bodies Bodies, including even more editing work with The Wolves playwright Sarah DeLappe. The most significant difference was Reijn’s interest in exploring a slasher film driven by animalistic tendencies of human nature and, as a result, lacks the classic murderer.
The director also claims that the titular game was influenced by her own experience playing similar improv warm-ups. She both loved and hated this tradition with her friends, given that running around in the dark started innocently before everyone broke into a fight. There was something chaotic about it, and she wanted to incorporate that into the mystery. Another influence was her obsession with social media, believing that losing Wi-Fi was equivalent to not breathing. Even so, their world was so defined by online spaces that it was difficult to escape even as they navigated the mansion without access. Given that some characters had met, rather dubiously, through Tinder, it was a comic look at how everyone is connected in every way but emotionally.
Key among collaborators was Amandla Stenberg. She was the first to sign on and was pivotal in helping Reijn shape the soundscape for the characters. This included a new Charli XCX song called “Hot Girl” along with various pop and rap songs that were predominantly sung by women, including Slayyyter, Princess Nokia, and Azealia Banks. Disasterpeace also contributed an original score meant to highlight the chaotic undertones. Because the story centered around a blackout, they also developed unique approaches to lighting for each character. For example, one character wore a headlamp to reflect their willingness to engage situations directly. The actors needed to project their devices in a way that illuminated the scene properly. Much like Reijn’s willingness to work with A24 because of their prior reputation, actress Maria Bakalova, who had an aversion to horror filmmaking in general, only signed on because of her belief that they would make the film more complex.
Another key element to filming required Reijn to find a house that fit their very specific needs, such as an indoor basketball court. Her belief was that this building symbolized the American dream run amok. They would find one in New York and filmed there over the course of 25 days. Among Reijn’s more entertaining stories was the time they had to cut everything short due to an incoming storm and pass the time in the basement. Being from The Netherlands, she was excited to experience this rare phenomenon. When they weren’t on set, they were staying at a nearby hotel due to restrictions still in place from COVID-19 protocol. It helped to build the claustrophobic nature of the story and allowed everyone to be both friendlier and more easily annoyed at small personality tics. Even then, there weren’t any significant complaints on set.
An important thing to understand about the writing process of Bodies Bodies Bodies was that, because of Reijn and DeLappe’s extensive work, Roupenian’s original concept was barely present in the final draft. Despite laying the groundwork with a story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” from a modernized lens, Reijn’s insistence on exploring the story without a murderer meant that every death was less orchestrated and also more ironic. Even the fact that the inciting “murder” results in a TikTok video punchline proves how foolhardy the characters were to begin with. This is all to say that because Roupenian’s script made up less than a third of the film, she had her credit reduced to a “Story By” credit. While the Christie influences were more pronounced, other films that Reijn mentioned being inspired by included Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Heathers (1988). A specific death was even influenced by the real-life murder of Michael Peterson as chronicled in the documentary The Staircase (2004).
The involvement of Pete Davidson brought another piece of irony with the rollout. Years prior, the comedian received complaints for asking audiences to not bring their phones to his workshop shows. Because of his high profile, he feared unfinished material leaking online and creating unwanted criticism. Similarly, Reijn decided to forgo a planned premiere at Sundance when it was revealed that the event would be hybrid. Given the anticipation around the central cast, she feared somebody would leak footage online and create problems. As a result, it waited until South By Southwest, where it was met with favorable reviews and was set to become one of A24’s bigger hits of the summer. With a gradual rollout eventually landing on over 2,500 screens, it would earn $14 million on a $3 million budget, making it one of the more profitable films by the studio of that year alongside Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).
Despite any animosity one could assume a film satirizing Gen-Z would have, Bodies Bodies Bodies ended up becoming another critical darling. There was especially praise for Rachel Sennott, who was seen as the funniest actress of the group. According to critics' aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film had a hefty 86% approval rating. Joseph Tomastik of Loud and Clear Reviews leads the positivity when suggesting, “Not only does director Halina Reijn get in a ton of laughs as well as a ton of drama and thrills, but her film takes the murder-mystery premise and turns it on its head in a way a lot of people might not see coming.” Anton Bitel of Sight & Sound shared in the sentiment when concluding, “Stripped of the group chats and podcasts, the Twitter and TikTok that define them, these young people are confronted with their unmediated selves, and no one will come out looking pretty.” Hannah Strong of Little White Lies was one of the few dissenting opinions who argued, “A little over-eager in hitting all of its slightly banal cultural touchstones.” With everything said, the film found an audience and became yet another hit for a studio known for subverting genre tropes and finding something new.
Unlike most A24 films, the reviews wasn’t where the feedback ended. In keeping with the spirit of the film, Bodies Bodies Bodies acquired its own controversy thanks to a review by The New York Times, where Lena Wilson noted, "The only thing that really sets Bodies Bodies Bodies apart is its place in the A24 hype machine, where it doubles as a 95-minute advertisement for cleavage and Charli XCX's latest single.” Stenberg especially took umbrage with the criticism about cleavage to the point that she responded to Wilson on Instagram with the private message, “Your review was great. Maybe if you had gotten your eyes off my tits you would've watched the movie!” Wilson, who identified as a lesbian, in return shared this information publicly on social media and started a feud over whether Stenberg was being too aggressive. This resulted in the actress lamenting how her body had long been used for criticism and hated seeing it done once again. There was also a suggestion from Wilson that she had used the line in a more joking manner and that the situation had gotten out of control.
Despite any setbacks, everything worked out nicely for the cast and crew. It was another celebrated release for A24 and marked the start of a new partnership with Reijn. She would go on to direct the Nicole Kidman erotic drama Babygirl (2024), released on Christmas Day. For anyone concerned with the original author, Roupenian did well enough for herself. Despite initial conflicts of authenticity, “Cat Person” would eventually be adapted into a 2023 film starring Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun. While the film was a commercial failure, earning roughly $410,000 on a $12 million budget, she is also currently working on future projects, including a script currently called Biter. From there, it’s difficult to encapsulate what the entire cast has been up to since, though Sennott would return to A24 with a small role in the HBO music TV series The Idol, which remains one of the studio’s most notorious releases to date.
Even if it wasn’t going to win a ton of awards, Bodies Bodies Bodies was yet another example of a studio using its goodwill to fund projects that seemed irrational until taking their final form. By taking a chance on Reijn, the film created a dark comedy that reflected one of the few authentic movies about Gen-Z that didn’t overly pander. As a result, it remains one of their most enjoyable films and sets Reijn up for a promising future with the company. Much like Reijn’s career, the next film would feature an actor-turned-director turning to his own sense of teenage nostalgia with help from two of A24’s biggest names in the producer's chairs. What it lacked in big names in front of the camera, it more than made up for with general charm and wit.
Coming Up Next: Funny Pages (2022)
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