Coventry Review of Jennifer's Body

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Always double-check your virgin before sacrificing!

[6/10 · 3 July 2012]

Wow okay, I got to admit that this movie was not twice, not five times, but at least ten times better than I expected! Quite frankly, I deliberately ignored "Jennifer's Body" until I could watch it for free when it aired on TV. I assumed it would be just another lame teen horror movie, in the likes of the "Twilight" series or something, exclusively aimed at boys and girls in their puberty and revolving on the popularity issues of fresh-faced high school kids. That'll teach me to automatically assume that everything is crap nowadays! "Jennifer's Body" benefices from a fairly imaginative and smoothly written scenario – courtesy of "Juno" writer Diablo Cody – and contains surprisingly many moments of sheer old-fashioned gore horror. Additionally, the film has a compelling narrative and more than decent acting performances from the leads as well as the supportive cast. Cheerleader babe Jennifer and bookworm geek Needy attend a rock concert in the town's smuttiest bar, but only narrowly survive when the place burns to the ground. Jennifer joins the bizarrely alternative punk rock band members in their van and into the dark night, but when she reappears at Needy's doorstep later that night, she behaves disturbingly weird and hostile. During the next few days, when the entire town is mourning over the fire's casualties, Jennifer develops herself into an even hotter and more seductive girl than she already was, but actually now she needs the boys' flesh to maintain her beauty. For you see, the band guys were actually a bunch of Satanists who intended to sacrifice a virgin in return for fame & fortune. However, not being from around town, they were unaware that Jennifer is the town's floozy and therefore definitely not suitable virgin sacrifice material ("I'm not even a backdoor-virgin anymore", she confesses to her friend). The ritual turned Jennifer into a lewd yet ferocious demon, and all the boys in town are extremely easy victims. I really like the concept of a satanic sacrifice going wrong, as well as all the creative sub plots and different story angles. "Jennifer's Body" is a 100% feminist accomplishment, as also the director is a woman (Karyn Kusama of "Aeon Flux"). It's definitely not the greatest horror movie ever made, but I don't think any of these women aimed for that. It provides good, occasionally tense even, entertainment accomplished with the right mentality and enthusiasm.