Spooky season is upon us and that means the leaves are changing, the air’s getting colder, and it’s time to watch Jennifer’s Body for the 100th time! For those of you who haven’t seen it, think about this movie as having the comedy and the trials of female friendships of Mean Girls and the slight gut-wrenching horror of The Exorcist. No major spoilers ahead!
- Complexity of Female Friendship
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Jennifer’s Body’s screenplay was written by Diablo Cody, who is a self-proclaimed feminist (She wrote Juno as well), and directed by Karyn Kusama. Cody herself said in an interview that she “wrote [Jennifer’s Body] for girls” and in doing that she explored the “toxic aspects of female friendship”. How so? The movie’s two main characters, Needy (Amanda Seyfreid) and Jennifer (Megan Fox), are best friends in high school. As a someone who has experienced first-hand the amazing, yet sometimes challenging world of having close female friendships, I’m already hooked. Friendship, especially between women, is filled with love, laughter, and a little sabotage. Jennifer’s Body absolutely nails it.
- The POWER of Women
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I love giving credit where credit is due, and Megan Fox did phenomenal as Jennifer, however I wanted to shine some light on Amanda Seyfried, who plays Needy. Needy as a character shows the audience that she can be sweet and smart, but she can also be strong and honestly badass. That, my friends, is what we call a multifaceted woman. Needy is someone who will literally go through the greatest lengths for their best friend. If that’s not love, then I don’t what is.
- The Marketing
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Most people who think about Jennifer’s Body don’t also accompany the movie with friendship, especially if they haven’t seen it. The main reason for that is its marketing. This movie’s marketing team essentially sexualized Megan Fox (ie. The trailer, the movie posters..as seen above, and the infamous kiss scene) and completely disregarded the original feminist premise that Diablo Cody wrote this screenplay to be. I guess eating boys wasn’t really a big selling point in 2009… I felt like the marketing was important to mention because even I had low expectations when I watched the movie for the first time.
I could genuinely go on and on about the greatness of this movie, but that would include spoilers and I want everyone who hasn’t seen it to give it a chance. For my horror movie lovers, remember it still has the same aspects of usual horror: projectile vomiting, levitating, and sacrifices. Happy spooky season!
HCXO,
Brianna Perry