Seen on: September 14, 2009

The players: Director: Karyn Kusama, Writer: Diablo Cody, Cast: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, J. K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris

Facts of interest: Diablo Cody also penned "Juno."

The plot: A sexy high school cheerleader (Megan Fox) starts running around eating every tasty boy she can find.

Our quick thoughts: To tell you the truth, Karyn Kusama’s horror flick “Jennifer’s Body” worked for me. It’s not a film that will make my list of this year’s best, but it successfully establishes a menacing atmosphere and tells an entertaining action-driven story about a hot high school chick devouring every tasty boy she comes across.

Scripted by Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, “Jennifer’s Body” doesn’t feature the delicious character development and originality of her previous film “Juno,” but in a certain way, the film boasts an awkward vibe that easily captured my interest and offered me a brainless, yet amusing, bloody big-screen experience.

Megan Fox stars as sexy high school hottie Jennifer Check, whose life and eating habits drastically change after a creepy incident turns her into an evil cannibal. While Jennifer starts running around school seducing boys before literally consuming them, it’s now up to her nerdy best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) to bring an end to the horror show.

It’s certainly a compelling concept, and Cody’s script is indeed way more interesting to experience than many other standard horror films I’ve seen this year. Cody injects the whole thing with excellent comic moments, and that’s one of the main reasons I enjoyed “Jennifer’s Body.” The movie doesn’t take itself all too seriously, but it would suck if it did.

The underlying theme of the story is friendship, which is particularly reflected through the character of Needy, who knows Jennifer’s secret but finds herself conflicted about how to deal with it all. It would have been great to see Cody explore her characters in a more detailed way, because for the most part, “Body” focuses more on bloody action than anything else.

While Kusama’s film is not exactly suspenseful, it carries an overall creepy atmosphere that helps advance the plot without dragging too much. Additionally, as I mentioned before, Cody’s gift of creating the most awkward lingo and her ability to combine macabre scenes with a touch of offbeat humor certainly contribute to the film’s quality.

Megan Fox is the right person for the role of Jennifer, although I admit she’s pretty dreadful at first. She gets much better once she gets so hungry, and eventually, she handles the part of a crazy monster that needs to feed off boys quite well. Seyfried delivers an acceptable performance as well, and J.K. Simmons is just hilarious in the role of a nutty high school teacher.

Freaky quote: "It smells like Thai food in here. Have you guys been fucking?" – Megan Fox

The final word: The beginning and end of “Jennifer’s Body” fail to work as well as the film’s middle part, but all in all, this is a mildly entertaining horror comedy that heads into a different direction than most cheap Hollywood horror flicks. It’s by no means a brilliant movie, but it’s certainly watchable. In short, this is a decent no-brainer.

Article by Franck Tabouring