Though a surprising box office disappointment presumably due to a schizophrenic marketing campaign (a common trend amongst comic horror flicks), screenwriter Diablo Cody’s follow-up to her Oscar winning JUNO turns out to be an unpretentious, stylish retro-teen horror flick with several pleasures to be had.
Megan Fox effortlessly pulls off her eponymous role as the hottest girl in school : she’s drop-dead gorgeous and knows it and milks it at every available opportunity. She has a doormat-esque Best Friend Forever in the form of geeky Amanda Seyfried. And she fancies Adam Brody’s amusingly mock-Maroon 5 / 30 Seconds To Mars emo rock band front man when they play at her small town’s local hang-out. In one of the script’s cutest touches, the band are amateur occultists and are convinced that someone who teases as much as Fox must be the virgin they require for their rituals. Turns out she is not even a backdoor virgin and the impact of this on their ritual is that she turns into a boy-eating demon.
“She’s evil. Not just high school evil. Actually evil.” That is the principal joke at work within JENNIFER’S BODY, and it is a fun one, nothing more, nothing less. The high school milieu has been at the forefront of much sharper, darker movies (eg HEATHERS) and scenes of Fox luring and killing horny boys immediately recall the more explicit, feminist horror of 2007’s TEETH, but JENNIFER’S BODY is still a blast.
Key to its success on any level are the lead performances. Seyfried is a very pretty girl downplaying her natural looks in the clichéd Hollywood geek fashion, but she does it with genuine appeal, wit and poignance, reaffirming her status as one of the most underrated actresses of her generation. Fox, at last given something to sink her teeth into, plays on her image, crafting a sexually provocative, wholly shallow (not to mention dumb) cheerleader, but she’s got enough versatility to also pull off the monstrous side while finding moments of surprising vulnerability and melancholy.
If the movie has a major failing, it is that it might have been really, really special had it gone further. Cody is a confirmed genre fan who loaded JUNO with references to the horror masters she loves (specifically Herschell Gordon Lewis and Dario Argento) and gives one character here a poster of EVIL DEAD for their bedroom. The movie, however, in its released form, is coy in terms of on-screen raunch and gore : there is an absence of shock or scares, and you get the feeling that its edge has been blunted considerably from the original conception. (Perhaps not surprising given it is a major studio production with R-rated restrictions to follow).
Nonetheless, this well paced movie still hums along nicely on the strength of a zesty script confirming Cody’s gift for dialogue : snappy put-downs, teen sarcasm and casual, clever verbal cruelty are a recurring laugh-getter. The two central girls have an impressive on-screen chemistry and Cody is savvy enough to find the parallels inherent within these two very different people : it doesn’t matter whether you are a demon, a nerd or the school hottie… insecurities abound in us all.
It works best when viewed as a light high school horror fantasy, with glorious eye candy, an arousing Sapphic kiss, a rocking soundtrack and a satisfying twist in the tale. Some nice supporting turns, including Jonny Simmons, quietly perceptive as Seyfried’s boyfriend ; JUNO’s always-wonderful J K Simmons as a teacher ; and a cute Lance Henriksen cameo at the very end.
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
