You know, Gen Z cops a lot of flack. Born between 1997-2012, this generation is often accused of being image obsessed, narcissistic, superficial, addicted to their phones, performatively progressive, vapid, inauthentic and poorly read. Certainly, some of these sweeping generalisations apply to some individuals, but that’s true of every generation and surely this lot aren’t significantly worse than any other, right? Well, if black comedy/horror whodunnit Bodies Bodies Bodies is to be believed, Gen Z are literally the worst people on the planet.

Bodies Bodies Bodies is the tale of a group of friends (although we use the term loosely) who are getting together for a hurricane party. That is, a gathering where everyone gets pleasantly munted and rides out a hurricane in the relative comfort of the family home of wealthy douche David (Pete Davidson). There is clear tension between former addict Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and the rest of her friends, and Sophie’s new girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) is deeply uncomfortable with the situation. Things get even more awkward when one of their number turns up dead, and everyone tries to solve the mystery of the killer’s identity, all while hoovering up lines of blow and popping Xanax like Tic Tacs.

First, let’s get the good stuff out of the way. Bodies Bodies Bodies is exceptionally well acted, featuring superb turns from pretty much everyone but especially Amandla Stenberg, (Borat’s daughter) Maria Bakalova and Rachel Sennott. The direction from Halina Reijn is engaging, particularly in the first act, and cleverly uses the single location to mostly positive effect. And hell, even the script from Sarah DeLappe has wry and knowing dialogue that effectively skewers the more hypocritical aspects of our main characters. The problem? Every single person in this film, with the possible exception of Lee Pace, is completely fucking insufferable. Don’t get us wrong, that’s by satirical design, but you’re stuck with this fecund crop of bell ends for 94 endless minutes, praying for their quick death or, failing that, your own.

These are people you’d never want to be stuck at a party with, or even run into briefly at the bus stop. And while the ‘these are terrible people being horrible to one another’ conceit is pretty funny for 40 minutes or so, by the middle of the second act the schtick has worn thin and even a clever ending can’t save you from the feeling you’ve spent too much of the day at an arsehole convention.

Bodies Bodies Bodies will possibly appeal to irony-suffused Gen Z members, or those who wish to see that generation die horribly, but for everyone else, this is a film that would have probably worked better as a series of TikToks.

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