I think there should be some sort of genre/term for films where the characters back into a horrific situation by making really poor decisions. You know, where a group of generally okay people are innocently hanging out, an accident happens, and then it all goes to shit because of infighting or deciding to zig when you *clearly* should zag. (You know what, I'm making a "Bad Choices" tag. We'll see how much use that gets.) That's what's happening in Body, and it's kind of a horror movie by default. There's not a lot of blood or gore or anything, but these three women make a bad situation terrible, solely by their own making.
This is going to be a short and vague write-up. Body is the kind of movie where the plot is the movie, so describing it would basically ruin it. And it's a pretty decent watch. The set-up gives you a little to think about, and overall the film is well executed. It's not must-see, but it's solid.
My Synopsis: Three college-aged friends are having a girls night - it starts at one of their houses, where they are just hanging out, smoking weed, and having fun. But then Cali (the "wild" one) has the idea to go *kind of* break in to her super rich uncle's house, who is gone for the holidays. But then, things go bad. And not monster/ghost/home-invasion bad. The kind of bad where there's a body there.
Overall: Pretty good, quick watch. Well made and acted. Tense, but not in the traditional way.
Body is a well acted film. While it looks fine, there really isn't a lot of action to speak of. It's more of a talky and story driven film and needs good acting to carry it. The three leads (Helen Rodgers, Alexandra Turshen, and Lauren Molina) have good chemistry, and the script lets all of them be likable. Even when they are arguing (which is quite a bit), you can kind of see the logic behind each of their arguments. Also, you get a little bit of Larry Fessenden, which is always a good thing.
Maybe it's the nature of a story where people are debating one course of action over the other. As a viewer, you pick your point of view, and it seems *obvious* that there's only one correct way to go. (Which they, of course, tend not to take.) It sort of leads to a lack of tension. You kind of know that things are going to get worse - it's a horror movie after all - so they kind of *have* to make the bad choice. But Body is smart enough to still throw some little moments in there that create some tension from scene to scene.
I guess my only issue with the Body is that there are times where the characters behave a little too unrealistically. For a film focusing on three women, there were a couple of instances where you could kind of tell that it was written and directed by men. (Written and Directed by the duo of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen.) It's not egregious - or maybe I'm just ignorant to the ways women interact with each either in private. And I guess it *needs* to happen for the sake of the story. But still, it took me out of the film in a way.
So - that whole shebang that I just wrote is pretty vague and it probably doesn't make much sense if you haven't seen Body already. But you should! If you're a fan of kind of talky horror that is low-key in some ways but kind of extreme in others, it's pretty good.
I would recommend this film.
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