'The Body' Review: Can a Dance Troupe Summon the Devil and Still Stick the Landing?

Netflix has released ‘The Body‘, an eight episode teen horror drama from ‘Under the Bridge’ creator Quinn Shephard, and it arrives with a premise that sounds like a dare. A Catholic school dance troupe, a Halloween party, and an initiation ritual that goes badly wrong. For anyone who still misses the glitter and menace of 2000s teen cinema, this first season of ‘The Body’ feels built to order.

The story unfolds in 2004 at Saint Mark’s, where the Lions dance team rules the hallways under captains Anya, played by Kristina Bogic, and Elise, played by Sara Boustany. Two newcomers, Lisbeth, played by Geena Meszaros, and Grace, played by Sofia Wylie, audition to join the squad. Grace gets in, and the party that follows leaves her in a coma while the whole school starts whispering about the devil.

Here is where I landed after the first few episodes. ‘The Body’ is strongest when it refuses to say whether the haunting is real or whether a frightened community is simply talking itself into one. That ambiguity turns what could have been a cheap spooky setup into something with genuine nerves, and it lifts the show well above the usual teen drama.

The look does a lot of the heavy lifting. Shadows pool in the school corridors, the lighting feels cold and faintly holy, and a soundtrack packed with 2000s hits gives every scene a pulse. Like ‘Jennifer’s Body’ and ‘Mean Girls’ before it, the series understands that teenage cruelty and teenage longing are often the same feeling wearing different outfits.

The cast sells all of it. Most of these actors are fresh faces, yet none of them play their characters as cardboard cutouts, and Wylie leaves a strong impression even while Grace lies unconscious. Nnamdi Asomugha brings quiet gravity to Father Franklin, a priest whose certainty begins to wobble as the visions spread, and the queer romance running through the story gets room to breathe instead of feeling like decoration.

Not everything lands, though. Eight episodes is a long runway for this story, and the pacing loosens in places where the tension should be tightening. Heavier subjects like eating disorders and substance abuse also get touched on without much depth, which sits oddly beside the show’s otherwise confident swagger.

Even with those flaws, I never wanted to stop watching. ‘The Body’ is messy, funny, and properly unsettling, and it loves its characters enough to let them be monstrous and human in the same breath. I give it 8 out of 10.