Body (2015) Reviews

• Tough call for the ladies

  ferguson-62015-06-13

  Greetings again from the darkness. Positioned as a "thriller", this Oak Cliff Film Festival entry is more psychological study than fright-fest or whodunit. Co-written and co-directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, the film takes the rare and welcome approach of placing twenty-something females in the role of accidental trouble-makers who must make morally-clouded decisions under stress. Home for the holidays, three long-time friends are hanging out together on Christmas Eve – just drinking wine, playing Scrabble, smoking pot, and teasing each other. After a "dark" opening featuring a frantic 911 call, the film is allowed to breathe for the next 15- 20 minutes as we get to know the personalities of Holly (Helen Rogers), Cali (Alexandra Turshen), and Mel (Lauren Molina). Their banter … and the fallout from triple word "satin" … provide us with the insight to connect with each of the ladies. Seeking a chance to cut loose and enjoy their "girl time", they head over to a mansion supposedly belonging to an uncle of one of the girls. Booze, video games, laughing and dancing seem innocent enough until Arthur the groundskeeper (Larry Fessenden) enters the house and confronts the girls. While it sounds like the set-up to this week's horror film, it has more in common with Very Bad Things (1998). A tragic accident forces the girls into discussions and decision-making that's not usually associated with Christmas Eve. What keeps our interest isn't so much the situation, it's the fact that we are rarely exposed to on screen women in such a mess. The varying female personalities negotiate the next best steps and the alpha in the group may or may not be the smartest (remember Scrabble!). With their own morals pushing and pulling their thoughts, it's fascinating that a trumped up attempted-rape accusation (and groan inducing evidence tampering) may be their best defense. After a couple of twists, it's interesting to see how far one's moral compass can be adjusted for the sake of self-preservation, and to see how the bond's of friendship can be either a life preserver or cement boots. Don't look to this for your Friday night fright … though there is one jump-inducing moment … but rather view it as a chance to ask yourself how you would react in such an accidentally tragic turn of events.

• Dull boring and amateurish

  MattyGibbs2016-11-29

  Three fairly unlikeable young women break into a house and are left in a difficult situation following an accident. This is all about moral quandaries but not particularly interesting ones due to the boring characters involved. There is little tension built up and due to the unsympathetic characters you really couldn't care less what happens to them. Although the bland dialogue doesn't help the acting is uniformly wooden from all concerned. This film is only just over an hour long but it seems longer. It's rare to find films with hardly any redeeming features but this is one of them. There is literally no excitement at all as it limps to a dull climax. A very poor film.

• Let's twist again

  Seth_Rogue_One2016-08-18

  For a movie that starts out with having refreshingly realistic portrayals of young women (for a movie of this genre) it's almost painful to bear witness to the very conclusion of the film as it goes against those very portrayals. Put under pressure humans can be driven to go against their nature of course but the very end there simply was no need for it, just add a last minute twist for the sake of adding a last minute twist is just poor writing. But the road there is still enjoyable so I'll still give it a 6, even though the ending truly was pushing it. No complaints regarding the acting or script etc otherwise though.

• Garbage.

  MUFCOK2016-09-12

  Now, I'm not naïve, I didn't go into this movie expecting a masterpiece. In fact, I didn't really expect it to be very good at all. I did however; expect it to have at least one or two positive aspects and to not insult my intelligence for the duration of the entire 'movie'. It was late, I was tired and I saw the runtime was 75 minutes. That was enough for me to put it on. I didn't look into it before viewing and was going into this movie blind, not really knowing what to expect, other than it was a low budget horror/thriller movie about 3 girls. When films are that bad I usually do spoiler reviews so I can rant and rave about the movie in full, taking digs at the plot holes and ending. This movie doesn't even deserve that. There is practically no plot to ruin. The 'story' revolves around 3 girls who I imagine are supposed to be teenagers yet look about 30 years old.. They are having fun on Christmas Eve, Eve, smoking and drinking when they decide they want to do something wild. They drive to one of the girls Uncles mansions as he is on holiday and the house is empty. Before long things go wrong and the girls find themselves in a situation which is insultingly easy to resolve yet they don't seem to have a brain cell between them and drag out their indecisiveness and stupidity for the rest of the movie. You have all the cliché characters here: The leader of the pack who simply has to raise her voice to get the other girls to do what she wants. She's not intimidating or scary, just purely annoying. Then you have the wimp of the group who is easily lead and scared of everything, she spends the entirety shivering and having anxiety attacks. Then you have the middle girl, the Plain Jane, no real character traits and is seemingly only there to make up the numbers. The acting is abysmal, its wooden, predictable and simply laughable. The harder they try to be scared or serious the funnier it is. The script they are given to work with is even worse with its awful run of the mill conversations and clichéd punchlines. It's described as a 'psychological thriller' which is a complete lie. That implies that it's thought provoking and intelligent, that it requires the viewer to get immersed into the characters minds. I have no problem with low budget movies; I can see past poor acting and to some extents a poor script. But when they are all put together, with a weak plot with humungous plot holes, I really cannot pick out any positives. Actually, I do have one: The runtime of 75 minutes, or maybe even that's too long. 2/10

• Willing

  kosmasp2016-06-27

  I get it, that some character decisions can break a movie for people. I've had the same thing happen to me, even with movies that are considered classics (and this will not be in that category). But if you are willing to jump that flaw/hurdle and see past it, you will have "fun" with this. It's actually a tight little movie with twists upon twists and a level of "how far would you go" and "what would you do" sort of scenario. Of course if you say you're rational, than you might have avoided a couple of things, but it's not always depending on one person what the outcome is going to be like. So sit tight and enjoy this thrill ride - if you can