'Jennifer's Body'
Review: 3.5/5
Screenwriter Diablo Cody's observation of teenage life has a clearly identifiable, jocular pitch; her distinctly idiosyncratic study of high-school deviance is measured in her characters' dialogue, which exists as a kind of glorified misfit banter. While reality assures us that kids between the ages of 13 and 19 are quite often more reticent than Cody's anarchic loquacious types, it's not uncommon for the evil Jennifer in director Karyn Kusama's newest 'Jennifer's Body,' to utter such delightfully abhorrent maxims like: "It smells like Thai food in here. Have you two been f*****g?" Such are the sentiments that enhance Kusama's openly B-Horror shlockfest. That and the inspired casting of Megan Fox in the lead role (a role that will solidify her a depraved cult icon for years to come), and Amanda Seyfried as Jennifer's best friend, Needy Lesnicky.
A film like this could have easily desired to be much more, but Kusama wisely, even devoutly adheres to the reality that this is nothing more than a B-Horror Movie, and with that decision, the film renders itself a highly adept exercise in camp. A scene involving Jennifer making lunch out of a football player classmate (he wears his lettered jacket) and thereafter taking a nude swim in a nearby lake only furthers my contention. When Needy, terrified at her friend's metamorphosis, and shocked that she is after more than just male meat, inquires: "Don't you only murder boys?" and Jennifer gleefully responds, "I go both ways," you get it. The film does not take itself seriously, and requests that the spectator accept this notion.
The film's trailers and overall marketing campaign, which so brilliantly offered minimal plot information and instead glorified the concept surrounding Fox's character, are to thank for the film's inevitable surprises. It is safe to assume, though, that these surprises will satisfy audience members who know what they're in for. Don't expect 'The Exorcist.' You won't get it. What you will get is a deftly written, and sufficiently directed schlock-horror; a decidedly sensationalized portrayal of absurd high-school goings-on. Sure to be a cult classic within the genre.
(note: look out for a hilarious J.K. Simmons as a naive, one-armed science teacher).
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