Review of Jennifer's Body (2009) by Kyle20Ellis — 14 Apr 2020

I'll admit it, Jennifer's Body is a bit of a guilty pleasure. There are plenty of reasons to hate it - Diablo Cody's usually cracking dialogue sounds a bit creaky and forced, and incorporates some cringe-inducingly crude teen slang creations.

It's also got a pretty weak first act and an unnecessarily long run-time. Meagon Fox has found her ideal role as a possessed cheerleader, a role where she is actually required to act lifeless, and as per usual entire scenes are built around her sex appeal.

It's lucky really that Jennifer Check (Fox) isn't the protagonist, and that job falls to the far more talented Amanda Seyfried, who's character "Needy" Lesnicki is much more interesting than Jennifer anyway.

The film also owes an awful lot to older, better films (Carrie and almost everything made by Wes Craven spring to mind), in fact I really don't think there's much at all that hasn't been recycled from another source.

What Jennifer's Body does have is one of the most entertaining and over-the-top finales in the history of teen movies, plenty of laughs (both intentional and unintentional), bucket-loads of gore, and a general feeling that it's not taking itself too seriously.

The film's choice of antagonists is also pleasingly original, and equally scary and funny, and the scene where they cause Jennifer's possession is easily the best in the film. So it'll never be considered a classic of the comedy or horror genre, and considering its numerous flaws, it really doesn't deserve to be, but Jennifer's Body is still more often than not undeniably enjoyable in its trashiness.