Megan Fox has taken over Hollywood by storm, all based on the sex appeal that she has to offer. Tons of pre-adolescent boys had their jaws drop when they first glimpsed her in short shorts in TRANSFORMERS. The fathers who took them to see the film did the same. And now Fox takes her sex appeal image and uses it to full advantage in the film JENNIFER’S BODY.
In the town of Devil’s Kettle, Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and Jennifer (Fox) are the best of friends and have been since their early days in the sandbox. Now high school age, the pair is inseparable. This seems strange to some as they are as different as night and day.
Needy is the terminal geek, the blonde who wears glasses and is shy. Jennifer is her polar opposite, the hot brunette the boys drool over who always seems to be the center of attention. While Jennifer is out playing the field, Needy has a steady boyfriend named Chip (Johnny Simmons).
One night, Jennifer convinces Needy to go with her to the local watering hole to catch an up and coming band playing there named Low Shoulder. As the band plays (and as the lead singer’s eye catches a glimpse of Jennifer, a girl he believes to be a virgin), Needy notices the place catch fire. Most escape the flames with a few exceptions, among them the band who Jennifer hooks up with for a ride in their van.
Needy drives home only to later be confronted by a blood covered Jennifer who raids the fridge and then spews forth some nasty black bile on the floor. While this might seem a problem at first, it gets worse as Jennifer begins chowing down on the boys from school in order to keep her radiant beauty alive.
Needy investigates what could possibly be the cause and discovers (with a bit of information provided by Jennifer) that the band had taken her to a secluded spot, the namesake of the town (a whirlpool at the base of a waterfall that goes nowhere), and sacrificed her in order to become mega stars. The plan worked with the exception of the fact Jennifer was far from being a virgin which I turn changed her into a succubus, a female demon who keeps from changing by eating the living. Now if Needy can only find a way to stop her.
The night of the prom arrives and everyone is ready to go. Needy tells Chip not to show, even though the pair of consummated their affections for one another and Chip wants to be there with her. Then again this is a horror film and when was the last time anyone took the sage advice of someone stalking a killer? Of course Chip goes, only to be confronted and led astray by Jennifer. Can Needy save him?
The movie offers one thing different than most films and that’s a female protagonist who preys upon helpless macho males instead of cowering and screaming like a baby. In this film it’s the boys turn to scream.
But while being different, it’s the same in other ways with the seductress leading males to a grisly end. From SHE to QUEEN OF THE DAMNED this has happened before. And horror films that dealt with sexuality have been made before, including a bi-sexual scene between Needy and Jennifer that compares to Deneuve and Sarandon in THE HUNGER.
The best this film offers is some witty dialogue and new setting to a familiar tale. The worst is that it offers relatively nothing new in the horror category. Not only that, it takes on a cartoonier atmosphere than one might expect. It does contain gore, titillation without nudity and a nice opening and closing (Needy tells her tale from the confines of a mental institution). But other than that, not much.
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