Wait, Is Bodies, Bodies, Bodies A Real Game?

A24’s new horror movie Bodies, Bodies, Bodies is centered around an intense party game wherein one person is the “murderer” and all the other players try to suss out who it is without getting killed. (Think Among Us, but IRL.) Although a game called Bodies, Bodies, Bodies doesn’t actually exist, if the movie’s antics had you intrigued, there *is* a similar game you can try with a big group of friends.

Warning: Light spoilers for Bodies, Bodies, Bodies follow. In Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, a dysfunctional friend group plays the titular fictitious game to pass the time during a hurricane party. But the game turns incredibly violent and scary when Pete Davidson’s character, David, is found dead in the backyard. Quickly, the quietly boiling tensions of passive aggressive friend fights become full-blown finger pointing as the crew tries to figure out who killed David. It’s like Lord of the Flies, but the characters are wealthy young adults trapped in a mansion in the middle of a storm.

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies turns what could be a fun party game into an actual fight for the characters’ lives, amid hilarious Gen Z phrases like “You’re gaslighting me,” when someone is accused of being the murderer, or “Why do you always make it about you?” when one character is pointing a gun at another. Although your first thought after watching all this killing might not be to play the game that started all the violence, the real version of this game can actually be pretty fun, and way less bloody.

If you want to skip all the gore and just get to the good times, here’s how you can play a version of the game from Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.

The real, non-lethal game is called Body! Body! and it’s similar to the game Mafia. Really, the only difference between the two is that in Mafia, players stay seated, and in Body! Body!, players move around in a bigger space — although you won’t need a mansion to make it work. All you need for the game is a deck of cards, at least seven players, and a room big enough to crawl around in. You start by deciding how many killers you want to have in the game. If you have a big group, you can choose to have up to three killers, but with a group of around seven to nine people, one killer is the better way to go.

Then, choose which card(s) in the deck will signify that someone is a killer, like a joker, queen, or ace. Gather as many cards as players in the room, including enough killer cards based on your group’s decision — so if you decide to have two killers, you’ll need to make sure there are two killer cards in your pile, and so forth. All the rest of the cards should be non-killer cards. Then, each player will select a card, keeping it a secret if they got a killer card or a regular card.

Now, the game can begin. The lights are turned off and everyone closes their eyes and starts crawling around the room. The killer kills people by tapping them and each victim has to lie down, pretending to be dead. Just like the movie’s version of the game, when a non-killer comes across a body, they have to shout “Body! Body!” Then, the game is paused, the lights come on, and all the players — except for those who are dead — vote on who to accuse of being the killer, meaning each killer will try to make themselves look as innocent as possible in order to not be accused.

If the person accused actually is the killer, they must admit to it. If your game just had one killer, the game restarts after they’re caught. If you have multiple killers, it can keep going until each one has been found (or until everyone but the killers are dead). Regardless, any person killed or accused of murder is out of the game. You can keep playing Body! Body! until all non-killers are dead or all the killers are found out.

One final tip: Have fun and try to keep it friendly, unlike the violent characters in Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.