This genre of movie has two main ingredients; a dash of horror blended with a dollop of comedy. Combine that with the emotional rawness of Juno’s Author Diablo Cody, and the sex appeal of Megan Fox and you’ve got yourself one delicious new movie, ‘Jennifer’s Body.’
I found this movie wickedly entertaining and to be honest I am completely surprised by that. I don’t generally enjoy tacky, pointless horror films as I suspected this would be, but I enjoyed everything about it. From the lameness of the ultra-emo indie rock band “Low Shoulder” to the crazy story line of a demonic sacrifice gone wrong Jennifer’s Body grabbed my attention and held onto it all the way through.
The thing that stood out the most was the way director Karyn Kusama made this fictional story feel like it could have been real life. What I mean by that is the town’s reaction to what was happening was realistic not the whole life sucking demon part.
Kusama’s direction showed the parents loosing their minds over their lost children. She showed the struggle for Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried, to cope with the things her best friend had done and what she becomes. These are the natural reactions that occur in a tragedy that we don’t see in the typical horror film.
In most horror films there is no element of reality. There is someone or something on a killing spree, people die and someone comes out of the dust and kills the bad guy, end of story.
In ‘Jennifer’s Body’ that “someone” is a real person whose character develops from a lovely girl into a fang toothed monster because of crazy circumstances. This made it possible for the audience see the emotional connection between the villain and the heroin before the crazy horror story kicked in.
The horror elements in the movie though few and far between were executed perfectly. The basic, someone is in the room, when are they going to pop out at me, approach did it’s job of making me cringe with suspense. Sure, maybe it wasn’t too creative, but it was certainly effective.
Making Jennifer, played by Megan Fox, look like a crazy demon lady was fairly successful in creeping my out as well. When the camera zoomed in on her smiling demonic face I’ll be the first to admit I had to close my eyes.
Other than that the film was mostly funny in a dark bizarre sort of way. Adam Brody as the emotionally disturbed lead singer of “Low Shoulder” was especially hilarious. Whether or not he was meant to be funny, the way he mocked the style of the indie rocker/emo stereotype had me tearing up with laughter.
Seyfried was wonderful as always and the combination of Seyfried and Fox was a genuine contrast of the smart conservative and the sexy seductress. They played off of each other well and made their characters equally enjoyable to watch.
To sum up my feelings about this film I would have to say most professional movie critics would probably think it stinks, but as your average movie-goer I give it 3 ½ out of 5 stars for it’s ability to keep me entertained, to scare me, and mostly to make me laugh.
Jennifer’s Body is a hit or miss. Some people will hate it for it’s tack and some people will love it for the craziness that it is. I say throw your movie standards to the wind and enjoy it for what it is, but that’s just my opinion!
Hayley Smorczeski
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