Sometimes, when you’re a Catholic school dance troupe, your latest group initiation goes sideways. Maybe that means your choreographer dropped all the communion wafers on the floor, but for the girls of the coming-of-age drama The Body — starring Kristina Bogic, Sara Boustany, Geena Meszaros, and even Traitors winner Gabby Windey — the results are a little more complicated. Their ritual-gone-wrong leads to a mass frenzy that engulfs an entire community.
The upcoming eight-episode series is created by Quinn Shephard, the writer-director of Emmy-nominated mystery Under the Bridge. Shephard will direct the premiere and also serve as showrunner of the gritty drama. She tells Tudum The Body is her “most personal” project yet.
“I’ve always been interested in the idea of girlhood as a religious experience. This story is definitely my way of putting a playful spin on all the nightmares of my own teenage-dom,” Shephard says. “Tonally, I would describe the show as gritty camp. It’s a raunchy teen psychodrama with a dash of Catholic horror.”
The Body marks a creative reunion for Shephard and Emmy nominee Riley Keough, who previously starred in and executive produced Under the Bridge and will executive produce The Body.
Keep reading to uncover even more truths about The Body, including its just-announced cast.
After a dance-team initiation goes wrong, a group of badly behaved Catholic school girls begin having prophetic visions that set off mass hysteria in their town. The series will run for eight episodes.
Shephard calls The Body “a love letter to all the ’90s and Y2K teen movies and erotic thrillers” she loved growing up. “Movies like Carrie, Jennifer’s Body, Heavenly Creatures, and even Mean Girls [are all inspirations], but with a grounded lens,” she says. “I was also a teen with an embarrassingly intense fixation on The Crucible and the Salem witch trials. It’s been very interesting to revisit that with the shading of our current political climate!”
The writer-director promises cliff-hangers are ahead. “I love a spooky sense of mounting dread,” she admits. “I hope people eat popcorn while they watch this, even when The Body hits hard. Maybe light some candles and throw a slumber party.”
The series regulars of The Body cast are:
Some recurring cast members have also been announced, including:
Shephard is the creator and showrunner and will helm the first episode of The Body, along with additional select episodes. Amy Israel, Peter Chernin, and Josh Stern will executive produce for North Road, alongside Keough, Gina Gammell, and Sacha Ben Harroche for Felix Culpa.
“It’s our second show together, which speaks to how much I adore this team,” Shephard says. “The Felix Culpa team is as real as they get. Riley and Gina are visionaries and also hilarious and have killer taste, along with their whole team. I consider Gina my true creative partner on this. She’s in the trenches with me daily, and she never stops pushing this show to be the best (and wildest) version of itself.”
The drama’s release date has yet to be revealed, but keep coming back to Tudum for all of your lore about The Body.
