September 6, 2018
Written by: Diablo Cody
Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody
Budget: $16,000,000
Quote: "I dreamed some bad people were trying to nail you to a tree with hammers and big stakes and shit. Just like J.C. But I didn't let 'em get to you, 'cause I'm a hard-assed, Ford-tough mama bear."
Trivia: To prepare for her role as a possessed living-dead teenager, Megan Fox lost around 15 lbs, bringing her weight down to a near-frail 97 lbs, and stayed out of the sun.
Written by Diablo Cody at around the same time she wrote Juno, Jennifer's Body is a film created for the teens and twenty somethings of the late 2000s. It's filled with pop culture references, witty dialogue, and the individualist stance against the status quo. Sure, these can all be chocked up to teen movie cliches, I wouldn't disagree with this, but there is something else to the movie. Yes, it has Megan Fox. Yes, she is incredibly sexy in the film. Yes, Fox murders boys by having seducing them. Yes, it has a decent amount of gore. However, this is not what I think makes the film a success. Because, in all honesty, the movie is not as hot as one hopes nor are there any real scares. Instead, it is the relationship between Megan Fox's character and Amanda Seyfried that is the most interesting part of the film. Their relationship is a microcosm for some of the bigger issues that teenage girls and young women deal with daily in their lives. Being a man, I will tread on this subject lightly since I have little to no personal experience in this area (the best I got is that I've taught middle school for six years now).
The film begins with Needy (Amanda Seyfried) in a mental institution for violent behavior. Flashback to an earlier time and she is now the nerdy, bookish, shy girl who is best friends with the school hottie Jennifer (Megan Fox). Jennifer is the complete opposite of Needy. Jennifer is self-obsessed, vapid, and selfish. One day Jennifer takes Needy to a bar to see some college emo band. During the show the band mistakes Jennifer as a virgin, the bar burns down, they convince Jennifer to go with them and perform a satanic ritual. The ritual backfires and instead turns Jennifer into a succubus (you might remember this type of demon from Sunday School or more likely from South Park... remember, Chef was going to marry that woman who turned out to be a succubus and they had to sing the song Morning After backwards to get rid of her). Succubi are demons that seduce and then feed off men sucking out their life. And that's exactly what happens throughout the rest of the movie.
Beginning with the Indian foreign exchange kid and then continuing on to the football jock, a goth kid, and finally Needy's boyfriend Chip. Like a vampire, Jennifer becomes weak, pale, and ugly (I mean as ugly as Megan Fox can possibly get) when she hasn't fed for a couple days.There is this really great moment in the film when Jennifer is alone and apply makeup to her face to mask how pale and emaciated she has become. The look and the tears that follow is such a heartbreaking scene. It is this vulnerability that is so moving. The most popular girl in school with demonic powers to boot and even she has trouble facing herself in the mirror. The movie climaxes at the school dance (where most high school movies climax). Except, they never actually go to the dance. Jennifer target's Needy's boyfriend, seduces him and kills him to which Needy asks her, Why? The jealousy, insecurity, and infighting is an unfortunate part of relationships. Eventually Needy stabs Jennifer in the heart with a box cutter landing her in the mental institution. Back to where we started.
I remember seeing Ginger Snaps when it first came out and absolutely loved the film. If you haven't seen it, it's a coming-of-age tale of a girl as she simultaneously becomes a werewolf. That film really reminds me of this one. This movie is very much a coming-of-age story of two girls. We see them forge out their own identities, seek independence, and navigate the struggles of adolescence. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two girls. Lacking a better word, they are frienemies. Needy likes being friends with the popular girl. Also, there is the element of sexual attraction that Needy has towards Jennifer (the two make-out at one point in the film). Jennifer, on the other hand, likes having a loyal follower who worships the ground she walks on. Jennifer's exploitative nature is only heightened by becoming a succubus. Aside from having to feed on the boys, the demonic possession didn't really change who she was all that much. Would she still have used whoever she wanted to get what she wants? Yup. Would she still have seduced Needy's boyfriend at some point? Probably. Like the werewolf aspect in Ginger Snaps, the demonic possession in Jennifer's Body only highlights elements of who these characters always were.
The critics are not wrong that a lot of the comedy in the film falls flat. Also, there are not a lot of good scares in the film. While both are true, I still thought this was a great film. It is a look at a certain section of humanity... told through the lens of a demonic possession film.
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