HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN: BODIES BODIES BODIES (dir by Halina Reijn, 98mns, USA, 2022)

It's hard to tell where the hilarious satire/dark comedy of BODIES BODIES BODIES ends and the self-conscious drive to be a movie of the moment begins.

The two herk and jerk in awkward dance movements throughout. But still, in the final analysis, the movie is mostly a fun, interesting take on the excesses of current American culture and thinking through the metaphoric lens of black comedy and horror.

A group of twenty something friends (save for one's near forty something boyfriend-a hilarious spot-on Lee Pace) meet for a weekend hang of drugs, pool time, party games. But toxic past relationships, jealousy, insecurity start a domino chain reaction that ultimately lead to a lot of deaths.

The movie takes aim, admirably, at the current mores of American society. Almost everyone in the movie is a narcissist or, at the very least, consumed with their own "issues" in a clearly non-constructive way. The characters, as panic and fear set in that there may be a killer among them, attack each other with buzzy words that populate pop culture conversation.

There's also a lot of pretty fun insight on types we all know of the last decade or so. The twenty something who brings a vaguely "chill" older boyfriend she's only known for two weeks. A friend who is an actor but wasn't even "that good as Hedda Gabler" (a line that for some reason was this writer's favorite of the movie). A friend trying to get sober who ghosted everyone when in rehab by dropping out of the group chat. A character who hysterically rants about how hard it is to put together a podcast.

Let the observations begin!!!

You get the idea.

In some ways, the "And Then There Were None" Agatha Christie framework where characters start to die in grisly ways and no one can figure out who the killer is, doesn't try to be anything other than a clever needle to thread mordant observations, character moments, funny lines of dialogue.

The movie's self-awareness is both its gift and its curse. It's self aware enough to know it better be a dark comedy because it's going to be hard getting an audience that may be struggling to make the rent to care about the hysterics of rich kids in a real way.

At the same time, it tries to eat its own cake by occasionally playing scenes straight, intense, and dramatic, especially in the psycho-sexual dynamics of the female characters who all seem to have dated, slept with, or been attracted to each other (save for the one dating the forty year old dude).

What may rub some the wrong way though is how one of the leads, Bee, the newcomer to the group, is meant to be the most empathetic as the most middle class/working class of the group and the European who looks at all the hysterics through a clearly "outsider" lens.

The smart phone. Now the ubiquitous symbol of all that is wrong with current society.

This makes sense. Reijn is Dutch (she acted in the great BLACK BOOK among other movies). And Bee feels like her alter-ego.

But for Americans that European disapproval doesn't sit super well. It's hard for a continent that has given the world everything from slavery to Nazism to ruinous colonialism and resource rape of other countries to lecture the United States on its excesses.

It's not that Bee or Reijn or writer Sarah DeLappe are wrong or even mean spirited. The US is self-evidently messed up. BODIES BODIES BODIES is extremely TAME compared to the reality of our current psychosis and war with ourselves.

But just as it would probably not go over great with the Dutch if an American made a movie about the excesses of the Dutch, it doesn't go over great for the Dutch to lecture Americans.

But what are you gonna do? You gotta go for it. And Reijn and her game cast get a lot of pretty hilarious mileage out of leaning into the satire.

The movie doesn't fully work. Its final twenty minutes strain and contort to manufacture the last scene which, to its credit, elicits a brutal laugh.

What may be most admirable about BODIES BODIES BODIES is that it tries to really take stock of our current moment. Very few movies are doing that in an effective way.

BODIES BODIES BODIES may stumble and twist an ankle and elicit a few winces but it still manages to pull off an impressive dance move.

Craig Hammill is the founder.principal.head programmer of Secret Movie Club.

Shades of LOLITA. . .and that EDM concert you went to in Vegas.