“She’s actually evil. Not high school evil.”
Horror has always had a complicated relationship with the female body. The tropes are endless: the virgin gets to live to the end of the film; the heroine of a rape-revenge thriller must first be assaulted; and often, in films like The Evil Dead, The Exorcist, and The Conjuring, it’s the women who suffer physical side effects of whatever evil they’re grappling with. There are exceptions (Alien comes to mind), but for the most part, it’s a transactional relationship. Jennifer’s Body aims to satirize this while also embracing it. This much is obvious right from the title, or the posters, showing Megan Fox in a skimpy cheerleader outfit. It’s not a bad idea, and lord knows that the horror genre could use a good look in the mirror, but Jennifer’s Body isn’t quite up to the task, largely because of its script.
Diablo Cody won one of the least-deserved Oscars in modern history, for the screenplay to Juno, one of the worst films ever made. The dialogue in that film is sub-Tarantino in quality but easily surpasses Tarantino in terms of how self-impressed it is. Unfortunately, a lot of that makes its way to Jennifer’s Body, the opening of which is thankfully its weakest point. We meet Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried), in a flash-forward, in a mental hospital. She accrues fan mail and wears fuzzy bunny slippers, which Cody must think is hilarious. But right away, Jennifer’s Body lacks internal consistency. Needy has the freedom to fill her room with personal items, show up late to lunch, and pick her own wardrobe, but she also randomly assaults a worker so viciously that the woman spits out a tooth. To be fair, Seyfried is great in these early scenes: steely, defiant, with a fire in her eyes that plays against her waifish ingenue image.
The film has the structure of an after-school special about the dangers of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Jennifer (Fox) convinces Needy to accompany her to see the indie band Low Shoulder, and things go downhill from there. Since Body is largely a two-hander, it’s dependent on the chemistry between its two leads, but what the film doesn’t take into account is that Fox is not a likable actress (especially in light of the fact that she’s apparently pretty mean in real life), nor is Jennifer a likable character. Jennifer’s playfulness just comes off as mean and taunting. A lot of the time, it feels like Cody watched Mean Girls and thought that Regina George is the hero. The film’s script is stacked heavily in favor of Jennifer, almost as if Cody is telling us that what we should all aspire to be is a pretty, mean, smartass. The relationship between Jennifer and Needy feels forced. They greet each other with nicknames like “Monistat” and “Vagisil,” and in order to show how intimate they are, Cody’s script has a fellow student tell Needy, “You two are lesbi-gay.”
The movie picks up when Jennifer and Needy arrive at the concert (notwithstanding a baffling and pointless cameo by Chris Pratt), and so does Fox’s performance. Talking to the band’s lead singer, Nikolai (played by Adam Brody, seemingly always cast so viewers can say “Haha, that’s Seth Cohen!”), Jennifer is less cynical, and Fox more convincingly plays a high school girl. Major credit is due to director Karyn Kusama (The Invitation) for coaxing a good performance out of Fox. The band itself isn’t bad, either; they sound kind of like the Wallflowers. In short order, the bar burns down, people are trampled and immolated, and it does not seem like a big deal. It’s revealed that eight of Needy’s fellow students died in the fire, and at no point does it feel impactful. Only Needy’s boyfriend, Chip (Johnny Simmons), seems to care at all.
To be clear, there are the bones of a solid horror/satire in this film. Low Shoulder, believing that Jennifer is a virgin, sacrifices her in a Satanic ritual so they can attain massive fame. Jennifer doesn’t die, but instead becomes vicious and demonic. Jennifer’s Body could use this plot to satirize how girls like Jennifer are demonized for their confidence and sexuality; or it could focus on Low Shoulder, and poke grisly fun at the millennial fixation on fame at any cost. A lot of the time, it’s hard to tell how hard the film wants to lean into either genre. Any moment of genuine emotionality is quickly undercut, by, say, a teacher with a hook for a hand giving a tissue to a grieving student. Scenes like this aren’t funny; perhaps I’m pearl-clutching, but Jennifer’s Body aims for wry detachment but falls short and is plainly mean-spirited, like Cody wants us to laugh at the very idea of giving a shit.
There are a few bright spots here. Jennifer lures a football player into the woods and asks him if he misses his dead friend. “You’re going to see your buddy really soon,” she says, and disembowels him. The film is effective in short bursts like that, and the way Jennifer’s mouth contorts into a ghoulish rictus is nicely done. The soundtrack is solid, featuring tracks from groups like Hole, The Sword, and Screeching Weasel, which really helps propel the film when it threatens to stall out. The famous kiss between Fox and Seyfried is the best scene in the movie. It doesn’t feel exploitative or shoehorned-in; rather, it feels naturalistic and intimate, and at no point are Fox and Seyfried more believable as friends.
At least the film manages to stick the landing. The final showdown with Jennifer takes place in an abandoned pool, overgrown with moss, and it’s a nice set out of which Kusama wrings some genuinely Gothic splendor. Jennifer is slain, and the curse passed on to Needy. The film ends on a nicely ambiguous note (which the credits immediately demystify), as Needy goes to kill Low Shoulder for what they did. It solidifies the bond between Needy and Jennifer, and we sense that Needy doesn’t want to kill the band for turning her friend into a demon, but for taking her away from Needy.
Jennifer’s Body is a uniquely frustrating experience for what it could have been. As it is, we’re left with what feels like a first draft that was rushed into production in order to capitalize on Fox and Cody’s popularity. The dialogue is Juno-level atrocious, which makes the film actively hard to watch at times, as characters use phrases like “Freaktarded.” Cody also takes aim at high school dances (look at how ridiculous everyone’s outfit is, from Needy’s poofy 80s dress to Chip’s dumb Doctor Who scarf), as if it’s a scorching hot take to say that dances are superficial affairs with way too much importance placed upon them. There’s also exactly one minority character, Ahmed, whose name and appearance are used as a joke, and Cody manages to kill him twice (I keep using Cody’s name because Jennifer’s Body feels much more her product than Kusama’s). It’s also hard to tell if Jennifer is a cheerleader, or if she’s in the color guard, because cheerleaders don’t spin flags, and color guard doesn’t wear cheer uniforms. It’s small details like this that stick with the viewer, and what makes Jennifer’s Body feel so slapdash. There was potential here. But not enough care.
10/1: Hellraiser
10/2: Splice
10/3: Jennifer’s Body
10/4: Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
10/5: Kill List
10/6: Halloween II
10/7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
10/8: Ginger Snaps
10/9: Cube
10/10: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
10/11: Hell House LLC
10/12: Re-Animator
10/13: Beetlejuice
10/14: Idle Hands
10/15: The Ring
10/16: I Know What You Did Last Summer
10/17: Night of the Living Dead
10/18: The Devil’s Backbone
10/19: Event Horizon
10/20: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
10/21: Eyes Without a Face
10/22: The Strangers
10/23: In the Mouth of Madness
10/24: The Amityville Horror
10/25: Gerald’s Game
10/26: The Monster Squad
10/27: Veronica
10/28: High Tension
10/29: The Innkeepers
10/30: The People Under the Stairs
10/31: Saw
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