CONTENT WARNING
This film contains depictions of abuse, and this post does briefly note said depictions.
This is a stellar film from Karyn Kusama — whom has helmed so many extraordinary pieces such as GIRLFIGHT, THE INVITATION, as well as the best eps of YELLOWJACKETS — and writer motherfucking Diablo Cody. It deftly navigates teenage changes, teen popularity dynamics, and the intensity of youthful friendship. It’s supremely quippy in the way that post-JUNO Diablo Cody is, and it’s bloody and it’s a lot of fun, but there’s a lot under the surface.
If you aren’t familiar with the film: Jennifer, perfectly embodied by Megan Fox, is a high-school cheerleader, all hot and popular, and Needy — a surprisingly dorky Amanda Seyfried — are best friends, and have been since they were children.
“Sandbox love never dies.”
Jennifer lusts after an emo band, helmed by the O.C.’S Adam Brody gamely reveling in swarm. Jennifer convinces Needy to attend the show and, after a terrible fire breaks out at the bar and kills a bunch of people, said emo band woos Jennifer into their van, then sacrifices her so they can gain illegitimate infamy through Satan.
They thought Jennifer was a virgin. Jennifer? Not a virgin.
Jennifer is reborn as a blood-lust demon and only Needy can see what horrible acts she commits — when others cannot — and matters escalate.
“I thought you only murdered boys?”
“I go both ways.”
I will note that — while I am queer — I am a dude. I know that I am not the right person to discuss the many nuances of this film, so please read Carmen Maria Machado’s take on it and bisexuality and queerbaiting and more. It is an astounding essay that everyone should read, as she uses JENNIFER’S BODY as a launching point to discuss queerness.
“We can understand queerness itself as being filled with the intention to be lost,” Muñoz wrote in Cruising Utopia. “To accept loss is to accept the way in which one’s queerness will always render one lost to a world of heterosexual imperatives, codes, and laws . . . [to] veer away from heterosexuality’s path.”
Carmen Maria Machado
(Machado not only penned one of the greatest modern collection of short stories with HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES but also IN THE DREAM HOUSE, one of the greatest modern memoirs. These are essential reads, and I implore you to seek them out.)
“I need you frightened. I need you hopeless.”
This is a brazen, angry film that gives queer teen girls agency. Its detail portraying the complexities of young female friendship and more is the heart of the film. The abuse, that of Jennifer being ‘turned’, is certainly the pivot point but is also ancillary. While the emo band are the male aggressors here, you could easily write them out and still have the focal point of the film: the relationship between Jennifer and Needy.
“She can fly?!”
“She’s just hovering. It’s not that impressive.”
“Do you have to undermine everything I do?!”
If you are a film nerd, you know that JENNIFER’S BODY was absolutely and unfairly ignored upon release, mostly because the promotion for the film posited it as cheap, vapid and queerbaiting exploitation horror, instead of the measured character study it actually is. Thankfully, around its tenth anniversary, folks started to realize that it’s a fucking amazing film.
“I am a very different person now. […] A very bad, very damaged person.”
If you haven’t seen it and think it’s just about Megan Fox getting freaky with Amanda Seyfried? It is far more than that. As with all of Kusama and Cody’s works, it has a lot to say, and it does so very violently.
“Kiss someone, fuck someone, think about fucking someone while kissing someone else. Let sex be unknowable, warm, thrilling, funny, erotic, terrifying; let sexuality be all strange currents and eddies and unknown vistas and treasures and teeth. Because, Queer Reader, when Jennifer’s body came for you — publicly, privately, neither, both — it was more than more than enough.”
Carmen Maria Machado