Jennifer’s Body stars Amanda Seyfried as Needy and Megan Fox as Jennifer, who are life long friends. Their lives change after one fateful night at their local dive bar. Needy knows that something happened to Jennifer, but Jennifer dismisses Needy’s concerns, and no one else notices anything different about Jennifer. Can Needy get to the bottom of what happened to her friend before more people get murdered?
Jennifer’s Body is a movie that falls a little short of its ambitions, but is still a fairly solid story in spite of its shortcomings. I usually hate the how it got here trope, but while I didn’t think that it was necessary, it had the effect of piquing my interest, which means that it was an effective use of the narrative device similar to the first episode of season 2 of Hannibal. I was instantly invested in Needy’s story and compared and contrasted her to the meek and mild high schooler that we would see in the majority of the film. I literally wanted to know how she got there.
The best horror is actually a metaphor for something rooted in reality, and in this case, tragedy amplifies characteristics that a person already exhibited. Needy and Jennifer are basically frenemies, but Needy does not know it. Even though Jennifer is the alpha, Jennifer is jealous of Needy and wants to show that she can take anything that Needy has whether or not Needy is willing to give it such as the spot light. Subconsciously she may also want to destroy any competition for Needy’s affections. Needy only adores Jennifer. Jennifer’s value is rooted in superficial and ephemeral qualities, and she cares more about keeping up appearances than developing her emotional palette or learning more about her true self.
Jennifer’s Body is an evocative title. It suggests that before or after the events of that night, her body was the only asset that she derived value from—not her mind, her personality, etc. Yet there has to be more to Jennifer than just her body because she retained Needy’s friendship; however Needy wears glasses. Needy can be a little blind when it comes to a friend. The horror in this film forces Needy on a journey to take off those glasses and confront her friend, her boyfriend, her town and others. It is endemic to the life of any female, whether old or young, to be dismissed whenever she has a concern about anything or tries to correct false prevailing societal views. Needy is the Cassandra of this film.
I find it fascinating that the first victim in Jennifer’s Body denies that she is in trouble when help is offered, denies that anything happened to her and is never mourned. She becomes the central villain of the story although the real villains are eventually addressed in a delightful footnote and are actually seen as pillars of the community. She feels empowered by the worst night of her life. “It’s like some X-Men shit.” She can’t discern the difference between curses and blessings. She is unable to distinguish right from wrong. The powers come with too heavy a price, but she thinks that it is worth it because it gives her the power that she wants: eternal beauty and youth. She does not value relationships or people for what they are, only for what they can give her. She is a villain for not changing and giving men what they want with one extreme caveat: the price that must be paid. She is a villain because she bought the lie that she was told about herself-her worth resided in her body. The tragedy of the film is that she has so internalized misogyny and become complicit in the patriarchy that she hurts those who have never hurt her. Succubus or Lilith figures are the saddest types of monsters. They never know who they are independent of others’ expectations. She does not seem empowering to me because she never seeks revenge.
Jennifer’s Body focuses on the primary conflict between Needy and Jennifer, but Needy’s trajectory feels larger than the scope of the movie as if the story is actually an origin story for a supernatural vigilante. It feels as if a lot of things got left on the cutting room floor regarding Needy and why she is special. In contrast to Jennifer, she has relationships and a sense of self. She and her mother have unexplained visions, but the tree theme feels abruptly dropped: “Through the trees,” petrified tree, crucifixion. In contrast to Jennifer, Needy can have sex without it defining her and unlike most mythological stories, she seems to grow in power after no longer being a virgin. By the end of the movie, she goes full Buffy. Honestly I was just so excited to see Seyfried take center stage instead of just being someone’s love interest although she does get her obligatory, abbreviated same sex make out scene. The suppressed lesbian element to their friendship is otherwise unexplored.
The male victims are interesting because other than the first one, they are not cannon fodder, but fully developed characters that we become invested in. Because guys are not trained in the gift of fear like women, they do the dumb things that we need them to do in order to get a horror movie. They are more invested in relationships than the female characters in this film. There is something cursed about the land in that town, including nature, but it isn’t fully explored. Jennifer is like a demented Snow White in one scene.
There are a couple of scenes that feel as if It Follows brilliantly borrowed them. Found footage, my guilty pleasure, is sprinkled during the end credits along with a cameo by Lance Henriksen. Trigger warning to anyone who lost someone or was involved in The Station Nightclub fire on February 20, 2003 in Rhode Island during a Great White concert since a portion of the story seems inspired by that real life tragedy. Shout out to high school libraries fully stocked with books on the occult. I will happily sign a waiver on the criminal waste of Boston Market’s rotisserie chicken because of extenuating circumstances.
Overall I enjoyed Jennifer’s Body, but a certain je ne sais quoi was missing for it to completely land. The dialogue while enjoyable was funny ha ha, not funny actually laughing and having a good time. I would definitely watch a sequel, but I think that ship has sadly sailed. It would even make a good TV series, but I think that I am the only one asking for one. I would definitely recommend it, but I would not call it essential viewing for horror fans.