The following contains spoilers for Bodies Bodies BodiesGen Z often gets the short straw when it comes to representation in the media. They can often be the butt of the joke in anything made by millennials or Gen X, and it always comes across as a dig at “the kids of today.” Due to the internet and the meme culture perpetuated on sites like TikTok and Twitter, Gen Z (defined for clarity as anyone born between the years 1997 and 2012) has developed its own distinct kind of humor. In fact, they use a lot of coded phrases and jargon that are constantly evolving, and can confuse those who aren’t so affiliated with that side of pop culture.
This also leads members of older generations to joke about the ways Gen Z communicate their ideas, often leading to criticism of the “awakened” culture or adjacent conversations. This was actually the concern when the new movie Bodies Bodies Bodies released its first trailers. They were full of young people using buzzwords like “privilege” and “triggered,” and this prevented many from seeing the film. It wasn’t that clear in the trailers, but Bodies Bodies Bodies actually uses this kind of language in a satirical way and does a good job of incorporating it into the movie’s humor without feeling like an insult to an entire generation.
Bodies Bodies Bodies feels like it was written by someone who actually has a finger on the pulse of Gen Z culture, not just looking down on it from above with an air of contempt. The satire is caustic, pointing out the ways some people use buzzwords to try to avoid responsibility for their actions without demonizing the language or “awakening” the mindset itself. Above all, it’s about how privileged rich kids don’t know how to get along well or how to handle a difficult situation – like the series of murders in the movie – because they are so self-centered. And yet they think they are good people because they are on the ‘right’ side online.
There is a whole discussion in the movie about privilege, and the characters almost throw the word around as an insult, trying to claim that they are aware of their own privilege and therefore are not like the others. One character even points out to another that even though she tries to pretend her family doesn’t come from money like everyone else’s, they still make up a solid upper middle class, making them more wealthy than most and just under one percent .
This is exactly the kind of satire that hits the film perfectly. It uses those buzzwords and the way the characters use them as weapons against each other to make its point. The point of the story is that most of these characters are pretty much unbearable and terrible people, but they protect themselves from those accusations by being “good people” the way many online spaces define morality. It doesn’t matter if they are really nice. Their recognition of their privilege (no matter how they use that privilege) is enough to make them good people in their own eyes.
Characters are blamed for victimizing themselves, which is an ironic statement in two-thirds of the movie where all the other characters are really victims after witnessing the death they have. However, this is exactly why the line works. It juxtaposes a common term used as an insult in certain online or Gen Z spaces in a way that is perfectly valid in this sense (because the character often plays the victim), but it’s also an absurd statement after all. events that have just happened.
The ending of the film even has the air of Gen Z nihilistic humor. When Sophie and Bee check David’s phone and discover that the “murder” was really just an injury he inflicted on himself, and that all the fighting and murders that followed were for nothing, it feels ironic. Again, these kids are so self-centered and so quick to believe in the worst in each other that they gave in to their paranoia when it really wasn’t necessary. The ending feels absurd because it has a kind of suspense that also feels incredibly bleak. It’s a perfect blend of tones similar to how Gen Z interacts with the world online in an ironic and nihilistic way.
The film isn’t afraid to fool these things, but it does it in a way that doesn’t appeal to the entire generation. Instead, it focuses on this particular group of characters who are all pretty unbearable (in the most entertaining way possible). It’s not about the trends or the language or the sense of humor, it’s about how these privileged rich kids apply all of that in their lives. They become so obsessed with the ideal of getting “cool” that nothing else matters to them, not even among those who believe someone in the group is a murderer. The humor in the film is sharp and fits this balance perfectly, emphasizing the point while also getting a little funny about how Gen Z sees itself.
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