At first, the highly neurotic, smartphone-dependent Gen Z rich kids assembled for a mansion party in this frenzied American horror-comedy made me want the killing to start quickly. Happily that’s how director Halina Reijn wants you to feel. Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and Bee (Maria Bakalova) are a new girl couple whose arrival is begrudged by their host, David (Pete Davidson), his pretentious girlfriend, Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), Sophie’s ambitious ex, Jordan (Myha’la Herrold), and podcast queen Alice (Rachel Sennott) – but not by the one calm and quiet presence, Alice’s much older boyfriend, Greg (Lee Pace). A murder game gets real after a hurricane puts out the lights (and the wifi) and someone appears at a window with their throat cut.
Cue a Lord of the Flies-style disintegration of social mores and an amusingly nihilistic search for the killer, mostly lit by phone light and DayGlo jewellery. By the end, I was fond of every single brat, dead or alive.
