Jennifer's Body

When I first heard about Jennifer’s Body on my favorite horror blog ever, Final Girl, I knew I had to see it. It really had nothing to do with the fact that Diablo Cody wrote it, although I liked Juno. It was mostly because the idea of Megan Fox playing a cheerleader who goes bad, really bad, and hungry for boys, if you know what I mean, and I think you do, made my toes wiggle with excitement. Feminist-ish horror. Yay!

*Here be perhaps a few spoilery-type items*

Jennifer Check is the popular girl. She’s the one that every girl wants to be and every guy want to sleep with. Somehow her best friend is geektastic Needy (nickname for Anita), despite the fact that they share little in common. Needy’s boyfriend Chip doesn’t get it. Most people don’t. But it works for them. After convincing Needy to go with her to the local bar to see an indie-rock bad (Low Shoulder) play, Jennifer hooks up with the “salty” lead singer who really just wants her for her virgin body. (Joke’s on them haha) Unfortunately, when you sacrifice a non-virgin to Satan to help your indie-rock band become the next Maroon Five, she gets all hungry for boy flesh. Let the chomping and seducing begin!

While I was pretty disappointed there was a gross lack of nudity in this horror film (hello- horror movies always have some), I did like the snappy, snarky dialog despite thinking it seemed a bit too snarky to be natural. There was some nice gore, and the scene where Jennifer takes the football guy into the woods for some afternoon delight is hilarious and gross all at the same time. It reminded me of one of my favorite South Park episodes (I think it was called Woodland Critter Christmas?). The lesbian tension between Jennifer and Needy is a big underlying sub-plot and always nice. (The kiss between the two of them was hot.)

I enjoyed Jennifer’s Body quite a lot (hush you – you know who you are) but I wouldn’t put it with my favorites. It’s almost as if it couldn’t find a balance between being funny and being serious so it never felt like one or the other. However, Adam Brody playing the indie-rock bank lead singer was an inspired casting choice. He was hilarious in his bits. I’d recommend this to my fellow horror geeks, but you could wait for DVD. If you aren’t about Megan Fox being sexy for an entire movie, you won’t be as interested in this one.

Rating: 4 Purrs for Megan Fox in tiny outfits, chomping with the best of them, and actually looking sallow here and there in the film – plus who doesn’t love the line – No, evil evil, not high-school evil.