Netflix’s New Horror Thriller ‘The Body’ Is Like Nothing Else on Streaming Right Now | Review
Gabrielle Moss has been writing about pop culture for over a decade, for publications including The New Yorker, GQ.com, Slate, Bustle, New York Magazine, and many more. Her book,
"Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction," was released in 2018, and she was featured in the 2023 documentary "Judy Blume Forever."
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Ask any elder millennial woman, and she'll tell you: the early 2000s were a hellish time to be a teenage girl. So the era of Cosmo sex tips, endless body-shaming, and Britney's VMA snake dance is a fitting backdrop for The Body, Netflix's new 2004-set horror thriller about a Catholic school dance team whose lives figuratively (and perhaps literally) go to hell after an occult-tinged hazing ritual goes awry.
But while that set-up might sound like a recipe for the next Ryan Murphy mess, The Body is something more subtle, moodier and far more thoughtful. Though it utilizes many of the tropes of teen horror and suspense — including ghostly visions and an evil classmate who will do anything to get ahead — it doesn't use its eight episodes to unmask a murderer or uncover a secret conspiracy. Instead, showrunner Quinn Shephard's (Under the Bridge) series examines sticky questions about faith, gender roles, internalized homophobia, good and evil, and what it means to believe in anything — from love with your best friend to actual miracles.
Viewers looking for the next Riverdale or Pretty Little Liars will be disappointed; the bleak but often darkly funny drama is more like taking an extended trip to a world that exists only inside a Lana Del Rey song than a traditional teen thriller. But viewers who can handle a show that's more atmospheric than propulsive will be rewarded by standout performances from a crackerjack ensemble of young actors, who dive deep into this examination of teenage girls whose lives are bedazzled, Juicy Couture-filled cages they can't quite break free from.
What Is 'The Body' About?
On Halloween night, 2004, the St. Marks Lions, a hard-partying Catholic school dance team, decide to initiate their newest member, the deeply devout Grace (Sofia Wylie), with a hazing ritual designed to feel like edgy, sacrilegious fun. The group takes ecstasy (that's what we used to call molly, kids!) at a party, while pretending to engage in a Satanic rite. Over the course of the night, The Body quickly develops a double meaning — while it's a Catholic theological concept the girls learn about at school, it also refers to the literal body of Grace, who falls into a coma at the party under mysterious circumstances.
When she's found by team co-captain and queen bee Anya (Kristina Bogic) and awkward outcast Lisbeth (Geena Meszaros), the two make a decision that sets up nearly every domino that falls in the rest of the series. Does Grace's coma have to do with the questionable party drugs that the girls scarfed during their ritual? Is Lisbeth's even freakier brother, Leo (Jackson Kelly), to blame? Is Grace's illness somehow caused by the chapel's black mold, or was their fake ritual more real than any of them thought? And when team members begin having religious visions of the comatose Grace, are they lying? Hallucinating out of stress? Or is something otherworldly going on?
That might make The Body sound like a typical teen suspense series, but it absolutely isn't one. The real mystery being unraveled here is how Grace's coma — and the team's decision not to tell the authorities about the drugs that Grace took with them that night — reveals the truth of the lives of the people around her. Lisbeth, who initially reads as a Carrie White type, unmasks herself as shockingly Machiavellian, leveraging the group's secrets in order to become popular. Maddie (Shirley Chen), Grace's high-strung best friend, wonders why she's the only one who doesn't seem to be getting a supernatural visit from her comatose pal. Elise (Sara Boustany), the team's charmingly surly co-captain and Anya's best friend, is suspicious of Lisbeth's role in Grace's coma, but devotes far more energy to pining over Anya.
School principal Father Franklin (Nnamdi Asomugha), who is also Grace's uncle, attempts to uncover whether his niece truly is a candidate for sainthood, while Grace's father, Michael (Motell Foster), looks for hope that she'll eventually wake up. And in the center of it all is Anya, who's perpetually overwhelmed and frozen by the demands placed upon her by her community, her religion, and 2000s society: that she be a perfectly sexy-but-not-sexual 2000s teenage girl; that she reject her love for Elise and maintain her hollow relationship with swim team star Steven (Orlando Norman); that she keep the circumstances of Grace's coma and her role in it a secret so that she can continue living a "normal life." Over the course of the season, few plot points get clearly resolved; a cliffhanger ending leads to more, and stranger, questions, rather than a satisfying resolution. But each actor has a beautifully complete character arc, bringing the season to a different kind of close.
'The Body's Greatest Asset Is its Cast
If The Body's greatest weakness is its somewhat thin and occasionally confusing plotting, its greatest asset is without a doubt its actors, who tackle complex and sometimes unlikable characters with a depth and passion that make them thrilling to watch. Stars Bogic, Meszaros and Boustany take high school stereotypes — the popular girl, the outcast, the queer teen who's accepting less than she deserves — and imbue them with gripping pain and intensity. Anya and Elise's troubled on-and-off relationship rings especially true, becoming the series' emotional heart and a metaphor for how the show's characters are pushed to hide their true selves.
Lisbeth's transformation from unpopular nerd to a Spandex-clad Lady Macbeth isn't always fully supported on the page, though we see Lisbeth and Leo's brutal home life with their unhinged, abusive mother (Louisa Krause), it's never totally clear why Lisbeth's chosen to go Bond villain-level evil. But Meszaros fully inhabits the show's most complex character, bringing us into both her most vicious plotting and the moments when she's in painfully over her head.
In the supporting cast, Shirley Chen especially stands out as the fragile Maddie, who evolves from passive follower to bold religious seeker as the show goes on. Marcel Ruiz, whose druggy Tyler exists purely to supply much-needed comic relief, is a delight, as is the Greek chorus of dance team members, most notably the deadpan Bella Neuspiel and the perpetually tearful Sarah Abbott.
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Collider QuizWhich Horror Villain
Could You Survive?8 Questions · 5 VillainsFive villains. Five completely different ways this ends badly if you are not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.The Lineup
Jason Voorhees
Michael Myers
Freddy Krueger
Pennywise
Chucky
SP 00:02:14Tape 01 / 08
Question 01INSTINCT
01Something feels wrong. You can't explain it, you just know. What do you do?First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act exit.
Pick one, then Next
SP 00:07:41Tape 02 / 08
Question 02ENVIRONMENT
02Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong?Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
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SP 00:13:09Tape 03 / 08
Question 03STRENGTH
03What is your most reliable survival asset?Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?
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SP 00:19:52Tape 04 / 08
Question 04FEAR
04What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through?Knowing your weakness is the first step to not being undone by it.
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SP 00:26:30Tape 05 / 08
Question 05GROUP
05You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role?Horror movies are unsentimental about who survives group situations and who doesn't.
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Question 06MISTAKE
06What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make?Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
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SP 00:41:37Tape 07 / 08
Question 07ADVANTAGE
07What's your best defense against something that can't be stopped by conventional means?Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
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Question 08FINAL SCENE
08It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it?The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours?
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Survival Odds CalculatedYour Best Chance Is Against
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you have a real fighting chance against. Everyone else: good luck.
Friday the 13thJason VoorheesCamp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th, 1980Relentless, but he never once changes the plan.
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable, and that is the gap you would exploit.Why You Last Longer
- He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategize, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues.
- Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most people gives you a genuine edge.
- The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
- You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
From The Collider File
- Crystal Lake, the Peacock prequel series, dropped all eight episodes on October 15, 2026.
- It ended a 17-year gap, the longest the franchise has ever gone without a new entry.
Keeps MovingReads TerrainCrystal Lake
HalloweenMichael MyersHaddonfield, Illinois · Halloween, 1978He is already in the frame. You just have to look.
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect, until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.Why You Last Longer
- But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
- Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia, the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
- Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
- You are not a target waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong, and acts on it.
From The Collider File
- John Carpenter is producing a new Halloween film with Blumhouse and Miramax.
- The 1978 mask was a store-bought Captain Kirk mask, widened at the eyes and painted white.
Checks ExitsNotices FirstHaddonfield
A Nightmare on Elm StreetFreddy KruegerElm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984He needs you rattled. You are hard to rattle.
Freddy wins by getting inside your head, using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilized.Why You Last Longer
- You are harder to destabilize than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away.
- The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
- Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
- Your psychological resilience, the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable, is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
From The Collider File
- Paramount set a new A Nightmare on Elm Street in motion in July 2026, with the Wes Craven estate involved.
- Craven built the original on newspaper reports of people so afraid of their own nightmares that they refused to fall asleep.
Stays LucidFaces ItElm Street
ItPennywiseDerry, Maine · It, 1990It eats fear. You are not serving any.
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on fear, but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who truly stops being afraid of it.Why You Last Longer
- The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
- You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
- That directness, the refusal to let fear fester in the dark, is Pennywise's worst nightmare.
- It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
From The Collider File
- HBO renewed It: Welcome to Derry for a second season, with Bill Skarsgard back under the makeup.
- The showrunners have said season two reaches further back, to younger versions of the first season's characters.
Asks Out LoudUnrattledDerry
Child's PlayChuckyChicago · Child's Play, 1988Everybody laughs. You are not laughing.
Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it really is.Why You Last Longer
- You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present, and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
- Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
- Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate skepticism, rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd, is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
- Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
From The Collider File
- Don Mancini is writing the next Chucky film and plans to direct it himself, aimed back at the scarier end.
- Brad Dourif has voiced the doll since 1988 and has said he has no plans to stop.
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'The Body' Pays More of an Homage to the 2000s' Darker Coming-of-Age Stories
The show's oppressive, moody vibes are fed further by its dark, sinister cinematography, which at its best evokes Bring It On as shot by David Fincher, and at its worst had me repeatedly adjusting the brightness of my TV. The show's production design also manages the neat trick of using Y2K cultural detritus — a pair of rhinestone-covered short-shorts, a flip phone, a Kelly Clarkson needle drop — to evoke the era's cultural claustrophobia and lack of options for young women, rather than any throwback warm fuzzies.
Though the show has moments of fun with its 2000s setting (including a blink-and-you'll-miss-it homage to Mean Girls and a running gag about Clarisonic skin brushes that will bring a smile to the face of anyone who was a teen girl during the G.W. Bush years), it mostly uses its retro setting to make a point about how that era, now celebrated as our last moment of freedom before Big Tech, actually wasn't so free for a lot of people. In a time of seemingly endless nostalgic cash grabs, it's effective and refreshing to see a show engage with the fact that while the recent past was different, it wasn't always better.
The Body's deepest connection to the 2000s might actually be that it feels like part of that era's run of dark coming-of-age cinema. While it may take visual cues from campy classics like Legally Blonde or Jennifer's Body, it feels more of a piece with 2000s indie films like Thirteen, Mysterious Skin, or The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, which were unafraid to treat adolescent misery with gravity and respect.
The Body is like nothing else on television, in both good and frustrating ways. With tighter plotting, it could have been the year's best new show; as it is, it's more like Buffy on psychedelic drugs or a CW adaptation of The Virgin Suicides (complimentary). But its riskiness and rawness will appeal to anyone who's sick of formulaic TV thrillers — or anyone who just remembers the glory and horror of being a teenage girl.
The Body is now streaming on Netflix.
The Body
Netflix's new supernatural horror series will appeal to anyone who's sick of formulaic teen psychothrillers.
7 10
- Release Date
- November 11, 2026
- Network
- Netflix
- Showrunner
- Gina Gammell, Quinn Shephard
Cast
-
Kristina Bogic
Anya Butler
-
Geena Carling Meszaros
Lisbeth Anderson
Pros & Cons
- Phenomenal acting across the entire cast.
- A unique and thoughtful take on Y2K-era nostalgia unlike anything else you've seen.
- The show's atmospheric, character-first approach is largely a joy to watch.
- The plotting can be underwhelming, with some payoffs hitting less effectively than they should.
- The ending doesn't necessarily feel earned.
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