Teenage girls, Catholic guilt, forbidden romance, questionable decisions and a possible brush with the devil. Netflix's The Body has quite the guest list.
Set in 2004, this eight-episode series brings together high-school politics, religious hysteria and supernatural mystery, with a generous sprinkling of teenage angst. And while it may not reinvent the horror genre, it certainly knows how to keep things interesting.
After all, what could possibly go wrong when a bunch of teenage girls decide to offer their friend as a sacrifice to the devil? Well, quite a lot, as it turns out.Created by Quinn Shephard, The Body opens on Halloween night at St.
Barth's Catholic School. The Lions, an all-girls dance troupe, are looking for new members.
Their co-captains, Anya Butler (Kristina Bogic) and Elise Zakaria (Sara Boustany), are popular, intimidating and clearly accustomed to getting their way. Among the hopefuls are Grace Franklin (Sofia Wylie), a talented student with a rather interesting family connection, and Lisbeth Anderson (Geena Meszaros), an awkward newcomer desperate to find her place.Grace makes the cut, but her initiation into the Lions takes an unexpected turn.
At a Halloween party, the girls perform a supposedly playful ritual involving the devil and pressure Grace into taking ecstasy. The next morning, she is found unresponsive in her bedroom.
What follows is a series of increasingly bizarre events, as the girls begin experiencing visions of Grace and the community starts wondering whether she is possessed, blessed or capable of performing miracles. Enter Lisbeth, who seems to have found the perfect opportunity to turn her outsider status into an advantage.
Having grown up in an extremely religious household, she understands how easily faith can be manipulated. And she is not above using that knowledge to get what she wants: acceptance from the Lions.
From planting suggestions to exploiting people's fears, Lisbeth slowly becomes the one pulling the strings. Her methods are questionable, her intentions even more so, but watching her navigate this increasingly chaotic situation is oddly fascinating.The show's most interesting trick is how it plays with the thin line between faith and mass hysteria.
As rumours about Grace's supposed healing powers spread, people begin seeing what they desperately want to believe. Even Father Franklin (Nnamdi Asomugha), Grace's priest uncle, finds himself questioning what is happening.
Is his niece possessed? Does she have some divine power?
Or is everyone simply caught up in a collective delusion? The series enjoys keeping viewers in this uncomfortable middle ground.Shephard also uses the religious setting to explore some uncomfortable questions about control, identity and belonging.
For all its supernatural theatrics, The Body is equally interested in the pressures of growing up in an environment where being different comes with consequences. This is particularly evident in the relationship between Anya and Elise.
Their chemistry is impossible to miss, but Anya's inability to acknowledge her sexuality keeps getting in the way. Her boyfriend Steven (Orlando Norman) is caught in the middle of a love triangle he barely seems to understand.
Their complicated dynamic brings an emotional layer to the show, even as Anya's constant denial becomes increasingly frustrating.The performances hold the series together. Meszaros is particularly effective as Lisbeth, giving the character just the right amount of awkwardness, menace and desperation.
Wylie brings vulnerability to Grace, while Bogic makes Anya's internal conflict believable. As Elise, Boustany adds warmth and emotional depth to a character who is clearly tired of being kept at arm's length.Another big win is the show's early-2000s setting.
From instant messaging and ringtone culture to the fashion and music, the nostalgia is delightfully specific. The period details give the series an identity beyond its supernatural premise, transporting viewers to a time when teenage social hierarchies could feel like matters of life and death.
In this case, they might actually be.However, The Body does occasionally get carried away with its own mystery. Some subplots take longer than necessary to develop, and the pacing could certainly have been tighter.
There are moments when the show seems more interested in making viewers suspicious of everyone than in moving the story forward. Its supernatural ambiguity is intriguing, but those expecting proper horror, relentless scares or a neatly packaged explanation may walk away disappointed.
The show also leaves enough questions hanging to make a second season feel like a rather convenient necessity.Ultimately, The Body is less about the devil than about the demons teenagers carry around while trying to fit in. It is about the need for acceptance, the fear of being different and the dangerous things people can be persuaded to believe.
A little uneven, occasionally overdramatic but wickedly entertaining, the series has enough intrigue to keep you clicking on the next episode.- Ends