Bodies Bodies Bodies gets its first trailer, sped up and soaked in blood

Many horror-movie lovers are quite accustomed to the sight of blood. After watching so many directors go down extreme paths with the most elemental of bodily fluids — Stanley Kubrick unleashing a tidal wave of blood from an elevator in ShiningCoralie Fargeat, for example, sending her characters to Revenge on a murderous chase that turns a fancy glass house into a blood-based Slip ’N Slide — it can be hard to get emotional about one more open vein.

The first trailer for A24’s Bodies Bodies Bodies offers a shift back from that perspective, not by trying to drown viewers in more blood than they’ve ever seen, but by turning it into one of the more startling escalations in a teaser that’s already all about escalation. Bodies Bodies BodiesThis film premiered at the 2022 SXSW multimedia expo and received a positive initial response. It follows seven friends, who then move to an isolated house, where they intend to have a good time. Soon, the friends start a deduce-the killer social game. Mafia, WerewolfYou can also call it: The Us. It is obvious that things don’t go according to plan. Trailer shows how the party escalates from screaming to crying to eventually losing their power and cell service. The murder plot becomes real.

“Familiar game but with with deadly stakes” is a fairly familiar mode for modern horror films, from Escape RoomTo Ready to go or notTo There are werewolves within. However, Bodies Bodies BodiesTrailer stands out due to the speed at which players cease being young, eclectically-styled people. Spring Breakers-style drug-and-booze-addled vacation vibe, and become blood-smeared, tear-streaked victims-to-be creeping around a darkened house and attacking each other with Gen-Z buzzwords. Lee Pace (the only 40-something of a cast that includes 20-somethings Pete Davidson, Amandla Strenberg and Maria Bakalova) underlines this. Spring Breakers feel.) The blood starts showing up, unremarked on but smeared on people’s faces and arms, surprisingly early in the trailer. Then it’s on stairs and saturating clothes. Then it’s on weapons, and spraying through the air, and taking over the screen.

Even for horror fans, the ramp-up in this trailer is a lot — the tone, pace, level of violence, and especially the quantities of blood all accelerate at intense speeds. It’s a promise that actor-turned director Halina Reijn is taking this film to extreme places, and in fast, messy ways.

Bodies Bodies BodiesOn August 5, 2022, the film premieres in cinemas.