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Movie:		3.0
Picture:		5.0
Sound:		6.0
Extras:		5.0
Score:		4.0

Director(s):	Karyn Kusama
Writer(s):	Diablo Cody
Starring:	Adam Brody • Amanda Seyfried • Amy Sedaris • J.K. Simmons • Johnny Simmons • Megan Fox
Genre:	Comedy • Horror
Release Date:	December 29, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	Blu-ray - $22.99
Amazon:

If I can be grateful to Jennifer’s Body for anything (that’s a big if), it’s that it, at the very least, tried to inject some sorely needed life into the teen horror genre. It almost goes without saying that it failed, but after watching score upon score of nearly indistinguishable direct-to-DVD horror releases, it’s kind of nice to have something fail in entirely new sexual and cultural dimensions. Whether this will inspire any brave new worlds in horror remains to be seen, but for the moment, it’s nice just to break out the thesaurus.

Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) is the quintessential high school ‘mean girl’: she’s hot (perhaps the only adjective used to describe Fox in this or any other film), which seems to immune everyone in the general population against her abject and meaningless cruelty. Primary amongst her victims is Needy Lesnicky (Amanda Seyfried), her inexplicably nerdy best friend who seems to tolerate Jennifer’s abuse because of a latent lesbian attraction to her (this is never really explored, confirmed, or explained). One night after attending a ‘Low Shoulder’ rock show, Jennifer is abducted by the band (fronted by The O.C.’s Adam Brody), and is made the subject of a virgin sacrifice to Satan. Unbeknownst to the band, Jennifer is not the virgin that she claims to be, and begins to develop all sorts of pretty standard demonic powers that cause her to feast on the flesh of her classmates. Naturally, Needy is the one who figures all of this out first, and is also the one charged with bringing the bloody spree to an end.

Those of you who have seen Juno will be familiar with Diablo Cody’s writing style, which is defined primarily by her tendency to both name-drop cultural references and to invent slang terms that are uncharacteristic of things that people would actually say. I know that a lot of people like Juno, so I’m not going to ramble about how much I didn’t, but it’s fairly clear in this case that everything that might have worked about Juno works hard and fast against Jennifer’s Body, effectively grounding it before it even gets off the runway. The horror-comedy is just about the most difficult thing to pull off well (which probably explains the abject cult reverence that ensues whenever one is even watchable), and requires a sharp sense of not only timing but aesthetic and ensemble performance; you need to feel something. Cody’s characters are too busy spouting her dry jokes to ever seem all that scared by what’s going on, or even all that interested in it. It’s an immense tactical mistake, one that prevents any scene from fully hitting its mark and any character from becoming sympathetic. At least in my case, it also prevented me from caring in what happened from one scene to the next.

The other thing that can’t really be avoided in discussing this movie is its distinct lack of any kind of nerve. For all of the talk that preceded its release about this being a ‘feminist’ and ‘subversive’ horror film, I can point to one simple fact that would seem to refute that: I was never made uncomfortable by it. Sure, I’m a horror fan and I’ve seen all sorts of gross things, but I’m still a guy, and I can tell when a direct and credible threat to my masculinity has been made, and the simple fact that Jennifer’s victims are boys doesn’t cut it. Part of this can be attributed to the jokiness of most of these proceedings, but part of it can be chalked up to the film’s unwillingness to adopt an R-rated mentality (most of its MPAA rating has to do with good, old-fashioned cussing). The sex and violence in this film never moves past anything that you couldn’t assume most 12-year-olds could handle, nor is it ever explicit in its violence towards men in the way that so many films are so happily violent against women. As a chip away at the old, stodgy, man-centered slasher film model, this film doesn’t make the inroads that The Descent or even Hostel: Part II made.

But really, the essential failure of this film comes down to the implausibility of its central relationship, being that of Jennifer and Needy. While I’m sure that aspects of it probably ring true, I have never in my experience known there to be two girls (or anyone, for that matter) who would seem to be from such polar opposite social categorization (a hottie and a nottie, if you will) whose only friend is one another. Nor am I really willing to buy that it would take her best friend becoming a demon for Needy to come to the simple realization that maybe this relationship is kind of toxic. Sure, people can have self-esteem issues, but when you ask a protagonist to undergo abuse like this for over a decade just so that they can have a totally predictable personal catharsis in the third act, you know there’s an issue of credibility going on here.

Blu-ray Bonus Features

Gag Reel

Deleted Scenes

Video Diaries by Megan Fox and Johnny Simmons, Amanda Seyfried, Diablo Cody, Dan Dubiecki

Fox Movie Channel Presents Life After Film School With Writer Diablo Cody

Trailers

Commentary by Director Karyn Kusama and Writer Diablo Cody (Theatrical Version Only)

Commentary by Director Karyn Kusama (Extended Version Only)

Jennifer’s Body: The Dead Pool-A short documentary about the film’s climactic pool scene.

Megan Fox is Hot-A short clip that sort of delivers what it promises.

Megan Fox ‘Peer Pressure’ PSA