Clare Shepherd reviews Jennifer's Body (From Stroud News and Journal)

Clare Shepherd reviews Jennifer's Body

10:30am Friday 13th November 2009

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JENNIFER’S BODY (15) AFTER her truly ridiculous sci-fi film Aeon Flux (2005) director Karyn Kusama is back with a spot of horror, which is written by Diablo Cody who so brilliantly and astutely penned Juno (2007); it’s a sort of Twilight (2007), only with boys as the victims.

Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) is head cheerleader and the most popular girl in her school, though she isn’t very nice. Her best friend Anita (Needy) Lesnicky (Amanda Seyfried) is a plain Jane – yes even the pretty Seyfried can be made to look dowdy – who follows her about like a faithful hound. Out on the town one night Jennifer and Needy are listening to the indie rock band Low Shoulder when disaster strikes, and the stage is set alight resulting in an inferno. Terrified and disorientated Jennifer accepts a lift from the band in their van, a trip that turns her from a schoolboys’ tease to teasing vampire. Low Shoulder and the bands lead singer Nicolai Wolf (Adam Brody) are devil worshippers, and Jennifer is their Satanic sacrifice, the result of which they hope will get them a record deal. Needless to say things don’t go according to plan and a carnivorous demon, which likes nothing better than gobbling up boys, possesses Jennifer. It takes Needy a bit of time to realise Jennifer isn’t just high school evil, but really evil. But when she does she makes it her mission to stop the bloody mayhem that Jennifer leaves in her wake, and also try and save her own boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons) from being Jennifer’s next meal.

This is all unoriginal stuff for a horror film and the script is not as sharp as one would have hoped for from Cody. That said there are some amusing lines, but it’s a trifle boring, not least because it isn’t remotely scary. Fox is perfectly adequate as Jennifer, but she is meant to be cold and blank so no character development is necessary. However Seyfried, last seen in Mamma Mia (2008), really gives dimension to Needy and is fast-tracking herself to leading lady. One of the main problems with the story is Jennifer is so ghastly to Needy it is quite impossible to imagine them ever being friends. There is also a totally weird lesbian scene that doesn’t seem to bear any relationship to the rest of the film. All that said, this medico offering isn’t all bad, it’s just not good.

Clare Shepherd 4/10

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