Film Review: Jennifer's Body (2009)

Review by: Sweetreviewer

Diablo Cody was smart in the way she wrote the story because there’s no doubt in my mind that this movie will have a cult following not because it’s really all that great, but because of its catch phrases similar to Juno. As you might be aware this movie didn’t do all that great in theaters. It didn’t do it for most people. This was a horror/comedy for me at times ,mostly comedy with a little blood on the side.
However, I don’t think Karyn Kusama did such an outstanding job directing it, or perhaps it was Megan’s acting. We all know she isn’t that good. It didn’t convince me. This movie was more of Mean girls plus blood. Even in ‘mean girls’ Rachel Mc Adams was convincing. Amanda Seyfried did do a great role as “Needy” Jennifer’s best friend. She was very convincing and owned her character.

In 'Jennifer’s Body' Megan Fox plays Jennifer Check a prissy mean high schooler that isn’t even a virgin from behind as she mentions at one point. She is sacrificed to Satan by a rock band that longs to be famous (getting my drift yet?) in continuation ,the rock band is led by Adrian Brody who believes Jen is a Virgin. When they sacrifice her she turns her small town into a carnage and dabs into cannibalism of her fellow male classmates.
Amanda Seyfried stars as Needy, Jennifer’s best friend. It is a little awkward to see the prettiest girl in school hanging out or led alone Bff of the dorky girl in school. This was done purposely because Diablo Cody probably wanted us viewers to wonder about that and question it. Later on Jennifer, even when she becomes a Demon starts showing feelings of Jealousy like most friendships tend to have especially when they are teenagers. At one point in the movie Needy tells Jennifer that she is insecure while she is about to ravish Needy’s Boyfriend. Jennifer tells her that she can’t be insecure because she was “snowflake queen” Needy comes back with a funny remark and tells her something like “that’s when you were socially relevant”

Although the movie tries to have a witty humorist approach towards horror it doesn’t make it a great movie. Not that a lot of cult classics were all that great, with the exception of some. There is a scene where Jennifer and Needy kiss and even in their kiss Cody or Kusama try to make it seem sexy for the boys and for the girls…drama. They decided to add some tension to the kiss because after all they were best friends and now Jen’s a Demon and she’s killing boys. But maybe they still want each other but not really? And the attempt of a back-story creation continues…. But again it didn’t do it for me. I just might not be all that into horror comedy. Only when there's some substance.
The movie wasn’t bad but it wasn’t all that good in its entirety. Teenagers might enjoy it and people that like these types of movies. It’s a movie that didn’t really add anything that new to the table. We’ve all seen this entire scenario in a lot of movies, except this time they made the antagonist a Demon literally. As I mentioned before, Cody tried to create a lot of catchphrases throughout the entire movie. Some funny ones that I enjoyed were when Jennifer says " move on (dot org)"or when she tells Needy “You need a mani bad. You should find a Chinese chick to buff your situation.” And my favorite was when Jen gets stabbed by Needy she is bleeding and asks Needy if she has a Tampon. Needy tells her no then Jen replies “thought I asked you looked like you might be plugging” then there were others quotes that tried to be funny instead seemed like the words were just forced. Like when Jennifer says “he gives me such wetty” or “I’ll say hello titty to the bartender.” Or when Needy says “she’s evil no just high school evil” The worst one was when Needy says something like “I knew something was going to happen the minute she got inside that van. Then proceeds by saying “he was skinny, twisted and evil like that tree I saw when I was a kid.”The ending was ok but a teenage girl definitely would have enjoyed it.

In conclusion, it may have been similar to Juno in wording but it will not be winning an Oscar. Yes, some quotes were funny and I would have probably used them if I was in high school, but there were other quotes that appeared to be forced. If you’re into movies that are made just because and you enjoy predictability give it a go. If you just want to laugh for a second or two give it a onetime watch with your 16 yr old daughter or sis. I don't mean to be so harsh but I feel this movie lacked substance. If it was a low budget film I'd appreciate it more. I scrutinize it because they had a semi good story for an actual horror film and went the opposite way. This is why most people opted for it to come out on DVD hence the 6 mil at the box office.

By the way we now know some interesting facts about the Demon/Succubus thanks to Cody. Demons throw up a black substance.They can elevate/fly. If you are bitten by one you will encompass it's abilities and last but certainly not least they get very pale if they don’t feed and when they feed they are full. You never know perhaps I may be wrong about it all. Perhaps, Diablo Cody started a new wave for Demons as Stephanie Meyers did with Vampires, Not.