Jennifer's Body

Charlotte Stear

A killer cheerleader! A band of smoking hot devil worshipers! A fantastic soundtrack! What more could you want from a film?

Well maybe a few more things but we'll get to that later.
‘Jennifer's Body' is the eagerly anticipated follow up to writer Diablo Cody's ‘Juno'. She's taken a much darker story route but still has the undeniable humour you instantly recognise from Cody.

So, getting back to the killer cheerleader- Jennifer, played by Hollywood vixen Megan Fox (the fox pun there was unbelievably unintentional, honest!) goes after the lead singer of a band passing through their local sleepy town, Devil's Kettle. Unfortunately, during a meeting with the band Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon. This new Jennifer needs to devour humans to stay beautiful and peppy. A rather shallow premise for a film but this is undoubtedly a horror film that mixes gore with a good sense of humour.
Jennifer's best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) knows Jennifer's secret and has to try and stop Jennifer before she kills another unsuspecting male.

Our first glimpse of a possessed Jennifer is a fantastically creepy scene one that true horror fans will approve of but halfway through the film the story begins to lag somewhat and Jennifer's self obsessed character grows tiresome. However, Fox plays Jennifer well, she flits from being mean and bitchy to sweet and sincere and plays a possessed man-eater better than anyone could.
Although this film is entertaining, it does not reach its full potential. It is very funny and has some excellent one liners ("I just got Aquamarine on DVD. It's about a girl who's, like, half sushi. She must've had sex with a blowhole or something"), however, it begins to grate on you. It's the same terminology used in Juno and it becomes irritating. It almost becomes too cool, like Cody is trying far too hard to impress us.

Although it does become slightly annoying midway through, it picks up again and the end sequence is simply superb and worth the wait.
Hands down, Jennifer's Body is in the running for best Soundtrack of the year. And what would you expect after taking the film title from a classic Hole song? Tracks from Florence And The Machine, White Lies set a good background for the darker parts of the film whereas, Cobra Starship and Black Kids portray the innocent high school lives girls have...when they're not devouring boys.
Unfortunately for Diablo Cody people will constantly look to Juno for comparisons and that is simply something you can not do here. Jennifer's Body is a horror-comedy, it has cheap thrills and won't be in the running for an Oscar, but that was never the intention. Enjoy it for what it is, a cheerleader killing boys.

7/10

See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQ19JM_M1g

Tags: jennifer's body juno charlotte stear film 

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