Megan Fox, Monsters and Marmite?

Jennifer's Body - Karyn Kusama

I think this is the first review where I’m really unsure whether to like or hate Jennifer’s Body. I came into the film expecting not much, just a teen slasher film with clever dialogue and sexy actors. I pretty much got that but told in an unusual way. It defiantly is a curve ball. The direction is there, the dialogue is there, the music is spot on, the acting is okay, as expected, but there is something different about it. Something that is very hard to pinpoint. It’s hard to really enjoy the film, because i think i went into the film expecting it to be rubbish, I expected the film to be bad, but i was wrong, i think.

The film follows “Needy” played by Amanda Seyfried, a total departure from her last film, Mamma Mia, which I’ve never seen and never will. Needy is beat friends with Jennifer, played by the face, Megan Fox. I would say actor, but she doesn’t act, she just flaunts, which is great. I’m not knocking it, but it works. She knows she has the effect over the audience. Something very similar to Marilyn Monroe. So after seeing a band perform at a local bar, Jennifer becomes a demon after a sacrifice went horribly wrong. She starts killing and eating local boys and Needy finds out. All nastiness and sometimes hilarity ensues with Needy and Jennifer going back and forth about what’s going on. A nice cameo from Seth Cohen, sorry Adam Brody, and an annoying boyfriend of Needy, plus a cameo, which some people might have missed, J Jonah Jameson as a school teacher. The film follows Needy throughout the whole debacle; it’s an okayish narrative which is different for a teen slasher film, with dark comedy thrown in, in the way of the dialogue.

It does have the through back to older horror films in the way of the special effects and everything and it’s a nice touch. It does have the feeling of being a b-movie. I guess that’s the style they were trying to achieve. Comparing this film to current horror films with twists of comedy, it does it more focused on a teen audience, having references to culturally significant thing, but it doesn’t carry it over in the way of action. The audience know what’s going to happen even before they show it. Audiences want something totally different, something never seen before, like showing a car crash. A horrific car crash where say, for comedy value, it smashes into a cow. And then it would show the crash and it would hold onto a shot of one of the drivers. With say, his face, like in half, just crushed from the impact. How amazing would that be? I would love to see a director put that in a film! (Next review is Halloween 2!)

6/10

Simon Childs