Jennifer's Body: A Misunderstood Movie

TW: mentions of sexual assault

I’ve only really begun to take my Halloween costumes seriously since coming to St Andrews. I used to simply throw on a dark outfit, wear a witch hat or a headband with cat ears, do a black smokey eye, and call it a day. In the past three years, I have discovered the fun in putting effort into a costume. This year’s costume was without doubt my favourite: Jennifer Check from Jennifer’s Body. To make my costume the most accurate it could be, I decided to rewatch the movie, and I found it even more interesting than when I had first seen it. 

Jennifer’s Body tells the story of popular teenage girl Jennifer (Megan Fox) and her best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried). The two don’t have much in common: Needy is a wallflower, while Jennifer is exuberant and the recipient of male attention wherever she goes. One night, Jennifer and Needy go to a bar and watch an indie band called Low Shoulder play. A catastrophic fire starts in the bar, though Jennifer and Needy escape, shaken and traumatised. The band members find the girls and, pretending to offer Jennifer help, convince her to get into their van, where they then take her to the woods and try to sacrifice her to the Devil in exchange for fame and recognition. The sacrifice goes wrong: the victim must be a virgin, and Jennifer is not. The band still receives the benefits of the sacrifice, but a demon takes possession of Jennifer and consequently compels her to eat human flesh. As a result, Jennifer hunts down boys to devour them. 

When the movie premiered in 2009, it was strongly criticised. It got a 44 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 34 per cent audience rating. This is because the movie was marketed to the wrong audience who watched it for the wrong reasons. The way Jennifer’s Body was advertised is perfectly summarised by film critic Roger Ebert, who called the movie “Twilight for boys.” The movie was marketed as a straight teenage boy’s fantasy. As the screenwriter Diablo Cody recounts, there were barely any women at the pre-screening. The audience was composed mainly of young men, many of whom demanded that the movie include more provocative scenes. The movie might have been marketed as the fantasy of a teenage boy, but it ended up disappointing this constituency. The men in the movie are represented in a negative light: the band members are pathetic, cruel, and thirsty for fame, and Jennifer’s victims are gullible and uninteresting. The teenage girl who watched Twilight could see herself in Bella, but the teenage boy watching Jennifer’s Body could not wish to see himself in any of its male characters. 

Lately, the film has been rediscovered. More people have recognised its brilliance, and the fact that, hidden behind its glossy appearance, there are thought-provoking and deep themes. Many have seen in Jennifer’s sacrifice a metaphor for sexual assault: she is exploited by the band members who take advantage of their position of power to use and hurt her. Jennifer then tries to take back her strength and power by seeking revenge. It is through vengeance that she gains some of her vitality back. Another important theme in the movie is that of insecurity. Needy worships Jennifer, but constantly criticises herself. Jennifer values herself only for her beauty. When Needy tells her that she is insecure, Jennifer replies that this could never be the case, because three years prior she was nominated ‘Snowflake Queen’. To her, the only reason for her not to be self-conscious is the fact that the people around her recognise her attractiveness. There is a sad irony in that, when the movie first came out, Megan Fox’s beauty was so heavily marketed that it implied that there was no other value to be found in the film.

Despite the faults in the way it has been marketed and the misconceptions surrounding it, Jennifer’s Body is finally being recognised for what it is: a truthful depiction of the dark experiences often intrinsic to girlhood.

Image from Wikimedia Commons