Jennifer's Body

Release Date: September 18th, 2009

Click here for the Jennifer's Body Trailer.

Jennifer Check(Megan Fox) is the typical "popular Girl". Everybody knows who she is, all the girls want to be her and all the guys want her. Anita "Needy" Lesnicki(Amanda Seyfried) is your shy, nerdy, unpopular girl who, strangely enough, has been best friends with Jennifer since the "sandbox days". Needy does everything with Jennifer and does anything Jennifer says. one night, Jennifer drags Needy to a local bar so they can see the Indie band Low Shoulder. Jennifer has her eye on bedding the lead singer, Nikolai Wolf(Adam Brody). Jennifer goes to the bar when Needy hears the band talking about Jennifer. Needy lies and tells the group that Jennifer is a virgin in hopes they will leave her alone.

During the show, the bar mysteriously catches fire and burns down, killing multiple people. Needy and Jennifer escape as well as Low Shoulder, who approach the girls afterward. Nikolai takes Jennifer, who is slightly intoxicated and in shock, to his van where they drive off and leave Needy. Later that night, Needy is home alone and Jennifer shows up bloody and beaten. Needy tries to help Jennifer when Jennifer lets out a monstrous howl and then vomits up black, ferromagnetic fluid. Needy panics and runs to call her boyfriend Chip Dove(Johnny Simmons) when Jennifer grabs her and throws her into the wall before leaving.

The next day at school, Jennifer arrives and appears to be fine with no memory of the night before. While the school mourns the loss of some students and parents in the fire, Jennifer remains unsympathetic. The next day at school, Jennifer finds the schools football captain, who is in mourning over loosing his best friend in the fire. Jennifer tells him that his friend wanted him and Jennifer to hook up so she takes him into the woods behind the school. While seducing him, Jennifer throws him against a tree and brutally massacres him.

A month after the incident, Jennifer begins to look pale and sickly. When a Colin Gray(Kyle Gallner), one of the school's outcasts asks Jennifer out, she initially denies him. But later accepts and tells Colin to meet her at a house. When Colin arrives, he sees that the house is abandoned and finds Jennifer in the attic. Jennifer begins to seduce Colin and then ends up brutally slaying and eating him as well. While Jennifer is killing Colin, Needy, who is in Chip's room having sex with him, begins to experience images of Jennifer and her deeds. Needy rushes home from Chip's house and almost hits Jennifer in the road who is covered in blood.

When Needy returns home, she finds Jennifer in her bed, completely normal. When Needy asks what is going on, Jennifer tells her that when she left the bar with Low Shoulder, Nikolai and his band took her to the lake and revealed that they began worshiping Satan in hopes that they will become famous. They told Jennifer that they needed a virgin sacrifice to offer in exchange for their fame. But, since Jennifer wasn't a virgin, the demon remained in her body, forcing her to feed off of people to remain strong. Needy freaks out and tells Jennifer to leave, who jumps out of the second story window of Needy's room and disappears.

When Needy begins to believe that Chip may be Jennifer's next victim, she realizes that she has to stop her. Needy tells Chip that Jennifer is a succubus and is killing people to survive but Chip doesn't believe her. She then tells Chip not to go to the school dance because she fears for his life and breaks up with him in hopes he won't go. Chip decides to go anyways and is met on the way there by Jennifer who lies to him and says that Needy and Colin were sleeping together. Jennifer then lies again and said she has always had feelings for Chip and takes him to an abandoned indoor swimming pool. Jennifer begins to attack Chip throwing him into the water. Needy arrives moments later to find Jennifer feeding on Chip's neck. Needy jumps into the pool and pulls Jennifer off of Chip. Needy tries to drown Jennifer who then begins hovering 10 feet above the pool. Needy pulls Chip out of the water and Jennifer begins to attack Needy. As the two fight, Chip stabs Jennifer in the stomach with a pool skimmer. Jennifer bleed a little and then escapes through the window. Needy holds Chip and he dies in her arms as they both proclaim their love for one another.

Later on, Needy breaks into Jennifer's room and begins to fight with her. As they struggle, Jennifer begins to hover, along with Needy, above her bed. Needy rips off the "BFF" necklace she gave Jennifer and then stabs her in the heart with a box cutter killing Jennifer and releasing the demon from her body. Jennifer's mom, who heard the struggle, comes into Jennifer's room to find Needy onto of her daughter's dead body. Needy is committed to an Insane Asylum. Needy was bitten by Jennifer during the fight, obtaining some of her power and murderous instinct. Using her powers, Needy escapes from the asylum. While walking along the road, Needy finds the knife that Nikolai and his band used to kill Jennifer. Needy finds out where the band is and breaks into their hotel room where she brutally murders all of them.

Horror movies are a hard thing to pull off for many film makers. Diablo Cody, who is best known for her film Juno takes a stab at one of the most difficult genres of film to create. However, Cody doesn't just aim for a straight and terrifying horror flick but instead aims at making a film that is both creepy, thrilling and scary but at the same time funny and appealing to fans of multiple genres. Although Juno won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, I don't think Jennifer's Body will be up for any awards.......ever.

Upon initially hearing about this movie and seeing trailers for it, I was not impressed. For me it looked like a cheap slasher flick that would focus more on how gory and brutal they could make the killings, focusing less on actual acting skills, plot and substance. However, I was surprised to find out that while not a fantastic move, it was better than I had originally planned it to be. While the violence was gruesome and disturbing, it didn't cross the line of horrid and disgusting as some movies tend to do.

Casting, to me, is a big part of a film. You can have a great movie, with a fantastic plot, script etc... and put a bad actor in the mix and completely ruin the whole thing. Jennifer's Body had a cast that, for the most part, played their roles very well. Megan Fox takes on her first lead role as the demon possessed Jennifer. Fox seemed custom made for this role. The pretty, popular, eye candy of the school seems tailor made for her. But what was really entertaining was how genuinely scary Fox was. When under the influence of the demon, Fox was one of the creepiest characters and definitely made you turn in your seat. Amanda Seyfried portrayed the dorky "plain Jane" perfectly. She made you truly feel for the predicament her character was in and allowed you to feel her struggle and fear.

The supporting actors in this film were also good. Adam Brody was a perfect Indie rocker/devil worshiping psycho. He was also creepy in the way he humorously murdered Fox's character without a second thought. I was surprised to see J.K. Simmons, who played the role of Mr. Wroblewski, one of the school's teachers. J.K. Simmons is always funny and he added an awkward sense of humor in this film.

As for the plot, it was fairly original. A girl who gets sacrificed to the devil but instead becomes possessed and goes on a bloody, murderous rampage to stay strong isn't something you see typically. What I think saved this film is the addition of a comedy aspect. If Cody had tried to go completely horror and attempted to only try and scare audiences then it would have completely failed miserably, however, it only failed a little bit.

This movie wasn't a complete and utter failure, but it wasn't an outstanding, must see film. It was mainly just mediocre. There were good performances from the actors/actresses and the plot was pretty original but the delivery of the film was just o.k. If you like funny, teen horror movies or semi-gruesome demonic possession flicks then you will probably like this movie. If you are looking for some way to pass a few hours out of your day and don't mind dropping $10 for a movie ticket, then you should go see this movie, but don't expect to leave feeling like this was a fantastic movie. It was good, but not great. Oh and for all you male readers out there, if you are going to go see this movie in hopes of seeing a part of Megan Fox you have never seen before, then stop where you are because it doesn't happen in this movie.

Overall, better than expected but still fairly mediocre. I give Jennifer's Body 5 Demon Possessed Cheerleaders out of 10.