The Body (2018)
The Body is an American horror movie length feature that is actually an episode for the anthology horror series, Into the Dark, that came out in 2018.
Interesting concept isn't it? For reasons, I'm just going to refer to this as an episode rather than movie. I'll elaborate towards the end of my post.
The scene is set after a hitman just killed his latest victim in his hotel room. He's on the phone with his boss informing him the deed is done but boss man says to deliver the body to adequately fulfill his duties. Oh, and reminded him that he's totally professional hitman dude so what problems could it possibly pose? He has 4 hours to accomplish this.
Well hey! Hey! It's Halloween fuckers so it's totally innocuous him dragging around this dead body wrapped in plastic because everyone around him are all like "Nice costume yo!" And he takes advantage of this. He comes across these college party kids on their way to a Halloween party. Hitman strategically decides to accept their invitation to go with them in order evade attention from nearby police checking out vandalized cars.
This is practically the beginning of the end. At the party a pretty young blond is eye fucking him and decides to chat him up. Much to his indifference. She offers him a ride to wherever he needed to go because she works for the trust fund baby that's hosting the party.
Things turn dark real quick when hitman is stuck in an escape room with Blondie, trust fund baby and the 3 original party peeps that originally invited him. They eventually learn that holy shit that dude is actually a hitman and that prop is actually a fresh dead body. They collectively freak out. Which hitman is like uhhhh for fucks sake and starts wrecking shit up.
3 of them escape (4 counting the dead fucking body they want to tow around for "reward money"????) The hitman is now in pursuit of these 3 people around town with the clock ticking down. However, blondie is also in pursuit of mr. sexy hitman as well. So there's that.
There is a weird running joke in this episode that the dead body is an actual celebrity but is nameless. Camera angles seemed to avoid showing his face as well once the plastic got ripped off.
Overall, I think while this is an interesting concept, but you could definitely tell the budget restraints. The Body is a movie length feature but the quality of the cameras, cinematography and the actors' experience it was definitely a b-rated production. This gave me the impression this was meant to be a 45 minute episode but somehow the director and producers did NOT want to cut any scenes which is why this is a nearly 90 minute "not-movie-episode" of an already rough draft. The main cast of actors themselves have very low entry level experience according to their IMDb filmography (average around 5 years worth at the time of filming) which I am not listing this as an insult because obviously every actor starts some somewhere. I'm just saying though, the lack of acting experience shows. It felt more like a black comedy than an actual horror production which it looks like what they were actually aiming for. Looking forward to seeing some of them in more features though. Then again, they did have to work with cheesy scripts, felt like it was written by AI at some parts. The dialogue was a bit cringe so don't fault the actors for that.
BUT I WILL SAY ALEX WINTER PLAYS THE VOICE OF THE HITMAN'S BOSS. HE'S TED FROM THE BILL AND TED MOVIES. Also Sasha Grey, the porn actress makes a cameo in here too.
If this episode had a message what would it be? Being a hermit friendless nobody can pay off.
I don't believe there are any worthwhile disclaimers for this episode.
With that being said, what is the verdict here?
Basically a Goosebumps for adults.
