‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Filmmaker Halina Reijn On Working With Pete Davidson’s Dark Side & Creating Horror Pic About “Human Behavior And Toxic Love” – Crew Call Podcast

“I wanted to approach it as a commentary on the time we live in, and Gen Z, but also myself because I’m totally addicted to my phone,” says Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn on what drew her to the Kristen Roupenian story and Sarah DeLappe scripted feature.

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The horror comedy, which stars Pete Davidson, Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova, Amandla Stenberg, Myha-la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, and Rachel Sennott follows a group of twentysomething affluent friends who gather at a friend’s mansion for the weekend. A hurricane hits, the lights go out and they decide to play a party game which not only lives up to its name, but exposes how fractured the friends really are. OMG.

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The pic made its world premiere at SXSW where it has since racked up a 92% certified fresh critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie excited arthouses last weekend in LA and NYC with a $37,7K theater average, the second best opening weekend theater average YTD behind the $50K posted by A24’s highest grossing movie of all-time, Everything Everywhere All at Once. Bodies Bodies Bodies expands to 1,200 theaters this Friday.

Inspired by John Cassavetes improvised dramas and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Reijn tells Crew Call, “I wanted to create something about human behavior and toxic love.”

“Because of all those screens we live with now, we’re afraid of intimacy too and we’re not really in the moment and we’re not looking at what’s going on,” says the Amsterdam native.

“This film is a fable and a cautionary tale of what will happen if you don’t stop to reflect,” she adds.

We talk with Reijn about how she assembled her cast, in particular how she notched SNL alum Pete Davidson who she found “has serious acting skills, but often is used in a goofy, stoner way.”

“I wanted to work with him in a darker way.”

Listen to our conversation below:

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