The Body Review: Sapphic Religious Horror Show Is a Dark, Campy Delight
The eight-episode Netflix series follows a Catholic school girls’ dance team that spirals into chaos
by Alex Kaan 11 November 2026
Netflix
As Diablo Cody proved 17 years ago, hell is a teenage girl, and there’s no way to capture that experience like a witty blend of horror, comedy, and repressed queer longing. While Jennifer’s Body flopped upon its release in 2009, its brand of sapphic, female-centred horror has accrued a significant cult following and only grown more popular over the years, laying the groundwork for Netflix to greenlight a series that is already spawning petitions from conservative parents. Reviving the sardonic, morbid humour which made that film a cult classic, The Body is a moody psychological horror mystery dressed in a Juicy Couture tracksuit, blending Catholic guilt and queer desire to thrilling effect.
The Body follows the Saint Marks Lions, a Catholic school girls’ dance squad who party as much as they pray. Their team captain, Anya (Kristina Bogic), has a lot on her plate: college applications, a boyfriend that can’t make her orgasm (Orlando Norman), and choosing a new team member ahead of regionals. When she does select the talented Grace (Sofia Wylie) to be the latest Lion, she invites her to a Halloween party at the famously haunted “Devil’s House”. But Grace’s initiation, which involves jokingly offering her to Satan as a virgin sacrifice in order to place at regionals, goes horribly, horribly wrong.
Netflix
When the Lions suddenly have a sizeable secret to bury, Anya can’t handle the pressure, leaving new-in-town oddball Lisbeth (Geena Meszaros) to pick up the pieces and keep Anya from spiralling. As religious panic begins to spread throughout their school and beyond, Lisbeth sets her sights on securing Grace’s now-empty spot on the team and becoming indispensable to Anya, much to the chagrin of the latter Lion’s co-captain and best friend, Elise (Sara Boustany).
With an irresistibly eerie autumnal atmosphere, The Body meshes a Mean Girls-esque satire of teenage girlhood with the retro-tinged visual language of modern horror movies like Longlegs. Creator and showrunner Quinn Shephard, known for the black comedy Not Okay and true crime drama series Under the Bridge, orchestrates a delicate balance of competing tones. The spooky framework and supernatural themes gel easily with the acerbic humour, and they don’t diminish the tender exploration of queer sexuality that underpins the series. There is a slow-burn, thick erotic tension to a central sapphic relationship, and it’s treated with a level of care and attention that makes for meaningful, refreshing representation.
Netflix
While Kristina Bogic and Sara Boustany impress as the sexually repressed lead and her fiery co-captain, respectively, a magnetic Geena Meszaros steals the show as Lisbeth, an alluring gremlin of a character that turns an archetypal ‘weird girl’ into a cult leader.
Where it earns points for its engaging premise and pitch-perfect tonal blend, The Body does suffer from a loss of momentum as the series goes on. Multiple plot threads are dragged out too long, and the mystery element isn’t as gripping as it should be. Admittedly, these flaws have been put into relief because of its superb first episode, an all-timer of a pilot dripping in style and masterful tension that introduces the characters, the stakes, and the horror in a tight 60 minutes.
Skilfully balancing humour, horror, and eroticism, The Body is a stylishly crafted teen psychodrama and a winning addition to the queer horror canon.
All episodes of The Body are now streaming on Netflix.