Jennifer's Body

Ok, ok, so Diablo Cody’s latest, quipster, pop-culture reference laden endeavor Jennifer’s Body is not all that good. But who said it had to be?
Cody, the woman who penned 2007’s Juno, has become a hipster-icon of sorts. Juno was about a teen girl’s unexpected pregnancy, and the emotional speed bumps along the way (why am I even explaining this film to you, the media wouldn’t let you forget this film if you tried). Jason Reitman’s direction gave the movie flair but it was Cody who gave the movie its heart. The dialogue was pure, unadulterated perfection. Lines such as “I've taken like three pregnancy tests, and I'm forshizz up the spout” still circulate the vocabulary of earnest, Juno-fanatic teens.
A lot of expectation surrounded Jennifer’s Body. A teen horror flick written by Diablo Cody? Megan Fox as a man-eating succubus? It sounded too good to be true. And it is, sort of. The film is not as clever or well written as Juno and not as scary as other teen horror flicks, say Scream. But if you leave your inflated expectations at the door, you might find you like this little, silly horror-comedy romp. I certainly did.
The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (an unfortunate nickname if I’ve ever heard one), the geeky best friend to queen bee Jennifer (Megan Fox). They’ve been friends since childhood, or as Needy puts it “Sandbox love never dies.” Needy’s dating the adorably unassuming Chip (Johnny Simons), who cannot understand the bizarre relationship of Needy and Jennifer. One night Jennifer and Needy go out to a local pub to listen to the indie rock band, Low Shoulder, that Jennifer is “stalking”. Needy overhears the band members talking about Jennifer, and she mistakes them for creepy, sex-hungry predators. Not quite. Somehow a fire gets started and Needy and Jennifer narrowly escape. The leader singer of the band, who mysteriously made it out of the bar without a scratch, offers the girls a ride in the band’s creepy van, which Needy later labels “an 89 rapist.” Needy refuses but Jennifer, who appears frighteningly drugged or empty, or a combination of both, joins them.
Needless to say, things don’t get better from here on out. Jennifer shows up at Needy’s house sometime after getting into the band’s van. She’s covered in blood and proceeds to throw up some black substance in a moment so disgusting it borders on being comic. Jennifer abruptly leaves Needy, who is understandably freaked. The next day Jennifer is back at school and seemingly fine. Again, needless to say, something is weird. Well, I’ll just tell you up front: Jennifer has been turned into a succubus, who feeds on men to settle her generous appetite. How’d she turn out that way? Well, indie rock bands, it seems, sacrifice virgins to Satan when they want to get rich. Low Shoulder wasn’t counting on the fact that Jennifer “hasn’t been a virgin since junior high.” Long story short: sacrifice goes awry, and instead of dying, Jennifer is possessed by a very hungry demon.
What does that mean for the male population of their high school? Well, I think you get the picture. What proceeds is a gory, rapid-pace send up of high school, Needy spouting such lines as, “I mean, she’s actually evil. Not high school evil.” The dialogue comes quick, some of it soars and some of it falls flat. One of Cody’s inventions is the use of “jell-o” to mean jealous, something Jennifer calls Needy. It’s an interesting idea but it doesn’t actually sound too great as its being said. Very few lines were as noteworthy as the plethora of quotes found in that other Diablo Cody movie that I’ve now vowed to stop mentioning.
One problem with Jennifer’s Body is that it’s never very scary. I understand the desire to balance the horror with comedy. But that means there has to be some of both. I found myself laughing on numerous occasions. But I was never scared. Even the scene in which Jennifer shows up at Needy’s place unexpectedly failed to be frightening. Dramatic music cues only work so often. I don’t want to spoil the scene but trust me; there isn’t much to spoil. What the film does contain is gore, not abrasively so but enough to please horror aficionados. The film doesn’t shy away either, we see plenty of re-distributed organs lying all over the place. A scene in which Jennifer seduces a thickheaded jock in the forest surrounding their high school is actually very funny. It seems animals of all sorts know when someone is about to get the axe on their territory.
The plusses: Seyfried is great. She makes Needy insecure and confused, she’s sympathetic but is ultimately willing to stick up for herself. Those big eyes opened wide in fear, you also get the impression that this girl is finally able to see what her teen friend has become. It’s a terrible realization, and Seyfried perfectly captures the pain and strength in having to accept this fact. The film is also genuinely funny. One scene, in which Needy and Chip are having sex, received the biggest howls from the audience of any other scene. Needy, seeing visions of the victims of Jennifer, becomes increasingly frightened and Chip mistakes her excitement for sexual pleasure.
The not so good: well, I can’t say that Fox is particularly good. She’s necessarily bitchy and unlikable, but she’s also void of any subtlety or nuance. When Jennifer is meant to betray one moment of insecurity towards the end of the film, Fox’s delivery was flat. However, she accomplishes what the film’s advertising campaign meant to highlight in the first place: sex appeal. Jennifer the character is supposed to be nothing more than a walking, insecure, and bitchy hormone anyway.
Karyn Kusama’s direction is effective, not particularly polished, but not oppressive. What she fails to do is give the movie the necessary baggage. The film does feel slight. You begin to forget many of the scenes that weren’t especially dramatic.
Jennifer’s Body is by no means perfect. But it has moments of charm. The woman-empowerment message gets lost in the muddle of one-liners and Megan Fox body shots, but the film’s aspirations aren’t completely squandered. It’s certainly more enjoyable than spending some actual time in your high school.