Jennifer's Body

Having long since been enamoured with the hopes and possibilities of female empowerment in horror cinema, it is with unabashedly ecstatic enthusiasm that I proclaim Jennifer's Body to be an adoringly feminine twist on a familiar formula. From the pen of Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody and the watchful eyes of producer Jason Reitman and director Karyn Kusama comes this tantalizing tale of a high school student named Jennifer (Megan Fox, actually acting for once), who becomes the victim of a Satanic ritual performed by the members of a fame-obsessed indie band.

That initial plot synopsis sounds like pretty standard stuff for a gory horror movie, but Cody quickly flips the concept upside down by having Jennifer emerge from the ritualistic aftermath as a woman possessed and brimming with bloodthirsty power and an insatiable appetite for male flesh. Before long, Jennifer is luring boys with her seductive looks and turning them into partially devoured ground beef. Pitting a nearly unstoppable woman against a bunch of clueless men is acceptably unique on its own, but the theme of female empowerment doesn't just begin and end with Jennifer.

In the middle of all this cannibalistic mayhem is Needy (Amanda Seyfried, brilliantly fearless in her role), the best friend of Jennifer and the only citizen in the small town of Devil's Kettle who seems to be clueing in to Jennifer's sudden transformation. Smart, bespectacled Needy doesn't flaunt her sexuality in the blatant manner that has become Jennifer's trademark, but Cody is sure to strip her protagonist of the virginal label that usually accompanies the female heroes of slasher stories.

In that regard, Needy is both what we expect from this kind of movie and also something else entirely, a young woman still trying to figure herself out, but always maintaining a convincing amount of psychological and emotional maturity. She is a complicated character and the most essential aspect of the entire movie, because not only does a large fraction of the female empowerment theme fall in her lap, but she is also expected to carry all of the movie's dramatic weight. Excitingly, Seyfried more than rises to the challenge and delivers an exquisitely layered performance that provides Jennifer's Body with an engaging vessel through which the movie can communicate its message.

It is so rare to find a modern horror movie where the characters are worth caring about, but Seyfried's performance, coupled with Cody's writing and Kusama's direction, lend this movie an emotional resonance that elevates the imaginative material. Even Needy's boyfriend (Johnny Simmons, offering another nuanced portrayal of adolescence) is an interesting character with real thoughts and emotions helping to influence his decisions. The rest of the high school world illustrated in Jennifer's Body is populated with the usual stereotypes (the football jocks, the anti-social Goths), but their limited screen time is used to good effect, ensuring that even the stereotypes are treated with respect.

Horror and high school are two flavours that go together like a delicious Molotov cocktail, explosively identifying the uncomfortable qualities of awkward adolescence that lurk beneath the surface. The groundbreaking television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer spent its first three seasons (and some of its seventh and final season) exploring such a thematic mixture, just as Stephen King's novel Carrie did thirty-five years ago. Now, Cody and Kusama have put their own spin on the notion of high school as a metaphorical Hell and the result is a very worth addition to the impressive group.

For all of the movie's successes, Cody's script does rely a little too heavily on flashbacks to help tell the story. The constant switching of chronological focus weakens the narrative structure, but Kusama's sharp and confident direction helps keep the plot on track and moving at an effectively crackling pace. Cody's attention to character and her ability to simultaneously dismantle the clichés of the horror genre and equally embrace them make it easy to forgive her missteps with the movie's structural elements.

There are so many aspects of Jennifer's Body worth praising in the realm of cinematic entertainment, but the movie's biggest surprise undoubtedly arrives in the form of Megan Fox. Since catapulting to stardom with her vacuous performance in the first Transformers movie, Fox has given moviegoers little reason to believe she has even a shred of acting ability. In the past two years, she has graced innumerable magazine covers and become famous for just about everything but her acting.

Happily, her role in Jennifer's Body gives her room to breathe and she ends up doing a whole lot more than simply posing for the camera with her lips permanently pursed. As it turns out, the role of a vapid high school student who uses her sexuality to her vicious advantage turns out to be the perfect role for Fox. At the very least, it shows that she can do a lot more than just scream and run from giant CGI robots. She continually hits the right notes in her scenes, which is especially impressive given that she must navigate territory that is both emotionally fragile and refreshingly evil. At one point, she flashes a demonic grin that manages to be a portrait of nightmarish beauty. Seyfried steals the show, but at least Fox gets to prove that she can be more than a lifeless doll waiting to be manipulated.

As a collaboration of so many fertile female minds, Jennifer's Body stands out as a powerfully unique addition to the horror genre. The encouraging, inspiring theme of female empowerment in the face of male oppression is never lost amidst all of the snappy dialogue and heavy bloodletting. Instead, it remains present for the entirety of the movie, presiding over the proceedings like an ominous force. The beauty of Jennifer's Body is that it never loses sight of its goal and it never sacrifices its big, beating heart in favour of empty thrills and chills. The feminine ideas at the movie's core are not simply hung up to dry, but rather attached to characters of dramatic worth, people who give the movie an emotional identity. It is this careful commitment to narrative execution that makes Jennifer's Body such a triumphant celebration of women in horror cinema. In the grand scheme of horror genre gender roles, the tables have finally turned and the result is spectacularly unforgettable.