Jennifer’s Body

As horror films have splintered into a mind-boggling array of sub-genres from new species of torture porn to Japanese remakes and low-rent, low-rate British zombie flicks, the hybrid teen-horror-comedy has been left on the sidelines.

Enter Diablo Cody, the writer behind the award-winning Juno, with noble intentions to inject some life into this abandoned genre with Jennifer’s Body. It is ostensibly a tale of two friends – the bookish and underappreciated Needy (Amanda Seyfried), and the bitchy, implausibly sexy and ridiculously popular Jennifer (Megan Fox) – who find their long-standing friendship under threat after Jennifer’s eponymous body is possessed by a demon after a sacrifice-gone-awry.

The first real shock comes with the realisation that Megan Fox can act. The film doesn’t exactly push her very hard (though this may still, in fact, be the limit of her talent), and at no point does she look anything like a regular, under-18 high school student, but she has been given a role that actually requires her to do more than stand in front of a green screen looking hot. And she does it rather well.

Amanda Seyfried also puts in a solid performance, backed up by Johnny Simmons as a geeky boyfriend, while JK Simmons offers up good comedic support with a terrible wig and a hook for a hand.

The script is peppered with plenty of Cody’s quirky language and a variety of neat touches. But this is (sub) genre filmmaking at its most elementary – box ticking rather than envelope pushing. Though shot with verve by Karyn Kusama Jennifer’s Body neither reaches for nor attains any great heights.

It possesses none of the knowing wit that made the first Scream such a breath of freshly expelled air, nor is it as scary as ‘real’ horror. And although Jennifer’s Body offers up both comedy and horror, each is doled out in only the meanest of amounts, with the film just scraping through to a lacklustre and unsatisfying finale.

JW Smith

Anticipation:

Diablo Cody (unique and talented) plus Megan Fox (hot but bland) equals some measure of intrigue.

Enjoyment:

Jennifer’s Body looks good, sounds good and feels good, but there’s nothing more to it than cinematic fast food.

In Retrospect:

Just about funny enough with scares here and there, but easily forgettable.