The film has seen a resurgence in recent years, but it's the popularity it garnered inside the LGBTQ+ community that propelled its cult status. People who have found this film more than 10 years after its release have discovered a new story in it, freed from the rhetoric of its marketing campaign and the reading that critics gave it. A whole new generation of queer women can now see themselves in the characters of Needy and Jennifer in a way that few other films allowed in 2009 – or still allow even today. Durbin, Karen (September 18, 2009). "Whip It, Jennifer's Body". Elle. Archived from the original on August 9, 2011 . Retrieved September 24, 2009. And eventually, Jennifer tells us what really happened to her: The band drove her into the woods, tied her up, and sacrificed her to Satan in a bid for fame and fortune. But because Jennifer wasn’t a virgin, the sacrifice went wrong, and it ended with her becoming possessed by a demon and craving human flesh.

Broadly speaking, there are three different categories of cult film. The first, and rarest, are those which achieve success and whose cult status comes from being entrenched in a specific sub-culture - films likes Flash Gordon and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The second, and most typical, are those so far outside the mainstream that they never stood any real chance of turning a profit. Pink Flamingos, The Bed-Sitting Room and Eraserhead never courted popularity in the first place, being either knowing and provocative trash or at the weird end of the arthouse circuit. In Jennifer and Needy's world, girls aren't sex objects anymore, but fearless women who can help each other find their power. For this new audience, the kiss the two share isn't pandering to the male gaze or needless eroticism, but rather a moment they themselves know far too well. For many, this was intentional. As Lena Wilson told Fonseca, "anybody who thinks Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama didn't know exactly what they were doing when they made Jennifer's Body might want to reconsider their cultural blind spots". The next morning at school, Jennifer appears fine and dismisses Needy's concerns, appearing apathetic to the fire tragedy. She seduces the school's football captain and disembowels him. Meanwhile, Low Shoulder gains popularity due to their falsely rumored heroism during the fire, and offer to make a charity appearance at the school's spring formal. Jennifer's Body owes a big debt to two horror films about powerful women, one old, one relatively new. The first film it strongly takes after is Carrie, which is visually referenced in Fox's blood-soaked prom dress towards its climax. Both films have protagonists who are dealing with a sudden rise in their sexuality, whether through menstruating for the first time or being the most popular girl in school. And both films use their characters' ultimately malevolent power as a metaphor about underestimating women: the men who come a cropper in these films are generally those who try to take advantage of the main character.Giving a partially negative review of the film was Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York, who said the "movie has a centerfold sheen to it—and some lesbianic soft-core flirtation to match—as its plot dives deeply into Twilight-esque heavy-melo meltdown in the last act" and that "Cody throws one too many losses at Needy; the screenwriter loses her satiric way about halfway through. But for a while, this has real fangs". [45] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post said, "There's a certain kooky, kinky fun to be had with Jennifer's Body" but that "[a]dmittedly, this is the stuff of lurid adolescent distraction, not great cinema" and "is strictly a niche item but provides a goofy, campy bookend to Drag Me to Hell (2009) on the B-movie shelf. Watch it, forget it, move on". [46] San Francisco Chronicle 's Peter Hartlaub stated, "Enjoy the film for its witty dialogue and fun performances, but know that there isn't a single good scare. An episode of Murder, She Wrote has more thrills." [8] Hartlaub felt the film is not bad, is "almost always pleasing" and that Fox "proves that she has some [acting] range" but "the chances that it will be somebody else's pop culture reference 27 years from now are slim to none". [8] Joe Neumaier of New York Daily News said, "Fox merely needs to look either vacant or evil, which the Transformers boy-toy does spookily well" but "[w]ords and story are still the lifeblood of a movie, and Jennifer's Body is filled like a Twinkie with half-fleshed-out ideas". [47] Disagreeing with Fox's performance, Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips called Fox "a pretty bad actress" who "doesn't seem to get Cody's sense of humor. At all". [48] He reasoned the "movie's partially redeemed by Seyfried, who makes her character more than a repository for audience sympathy" and "her make-out scene with Fox is handled with more suspense and care than anything else in the movie". [48] In 2009, I was just entering my teenage years. If I had seen Jennifer's Body then, when it first came out, it probably wouldn't have taken another 10 years to realise I was bisexual. But it wasn't just me who missed out on this film, the story of a cheerleader who is turned into a monster in a failed satanic ritual. The film is also conflicted from a visual point of view. While it is thematically subversive, it often looks every bit as scuzzy and sleazy as the horror films it is trying to subvert. The film is a very sexualised affair, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether the sexuality is there to challenge expectations or to simply pander to the whims of horny teenagers. As Aeon Flux demonstrated, Kusama has yet to find a distinctive style as a director, and the film suffers from having an aesthetic which all often resembles all the awful horror remakes produced by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes. Numerous explanations have been offered as to why Jennifer's Body failed at the box office, ranging from American preconceptions of horror-comedies to the R-rating it received and the exploitative marketing, which played up the lesbian aspects of the film in a vain and shallow attempt to bring in the boys. None of these reasons are entirely plausible and none of them have any impact on whether or not the film is any good. It is simply depressing that a film made with such good intentions failed to find the audience which needed to see it the most. Wightman, Catriona (October 4, 2009). "Seyfried: 'Kissing Megan Fox was weird' ". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on October 7, 2009 . Retrieved October 14, 2009.

For example, these promotional posters highlight Fox’s body and no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to find the feminist subtext in these images. In fact, these images don’t even really tell us anything about the plot. Where is Needy? Is Jennifer a vampire? The posters completely erase the female friendship that is at the core of the film.Kit, Borys; Simmons, Leslie (February 8, 2008). "Seyfried in 'Body' cast". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 10, 2010 . Retrieved February 11, 2008. (subscription required)

Perry, Byron (March 5, 2008). "Johnny Simmons". Variety. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019 . Retrieved January 10, 2014. Only Time Magazine's Mary F Pols seemed to have found a more subtle approach in the film, writing that "[Its] depiction of the ways in which women like Needy are willing to compromise themselves to indulge an ultimately less secure friend is spot-on." The film's poster, featuring a tarted-up Fox in a schoolgirl's uniform, perched on the teacher's desk with the words "Hell yes!" scrawled on the chalkboard, didn't help matters. The trailer and poster made the film look like just another teen slasher B-movie, with the stereotypical high school hot girl as a murderous monster targeting horny teenaged boys, plus a bit of girl-on-girl action for some extra gratuitous titillation. There is none of the sly humor and sharp dialogue that makes Jennifer's Body such a nerdilicious delight, and there is no indication of just how well the film handles the intense and complicated relationship between Jennifer and Needy.If you’re in search for a way to ogle Megan Fox’s body, there are a lot better ways to do it than subjecting yourself to this,” said ReelViews. And of course, the results were mixed. Upon initial release of the film, some hated the overt sexiness Megan Fox brought to the film. How could the girl from Transformers portray a feminist icon? Perhaps, Fox grew tired of the reliance of her body in her past work with, so she utilized Kusama’s film as a way to subvert the reliance of the male gaze in mainstream cinema. She uses both her and Jennifer’s body to counteract the stigma from Transformers. JENNIFER'S BODY (15)". British Board of Film Classification. August 17, 2009 . Retrieved September 19, 2014. Fox Searchlight Lawyer's Defend Jennifer's Body from Snarky Bloggers". mediabistro.com. February 11, 2008. Archived from the original on June 29, 2009 . Retrieved February 11, 2008. Spears stated that while writing the stories, the film was still being made and he had not seen any of it at the time. He mainly learned about the characters through the script. "I got to read the screenplay. It was kinda crazy writing characters that were being changed on set and in the editing process. I had to bob and weave to keep up but that was all part of the fun", he said. [72] See also [ edit ]

When Nikolai is about to stab Jennifer, there is a distant shot where he says, "We have to make a really good impression on him," Jennifer isn't crying and her mouth is closed. The novel features less of Jennifer than the film, but does capture her "going in for the kill" several times. It focuses heavily on following her soon-to-be victims and provides information on their personalities not elaborated on in the film so that readers can better conclude whether the boys deserved to be murdered. The novel consists of four chapters, with a prologue and an epilogue, with art provided for each by different artists. Each one follows a different boy and what is happening in his life just before Jennifer kills him. [72] A month later, Jennifer is beginning to look pale, and accepts a date with school goth/punk Colin (Kyle Gallner), whom she brutally kills that night. While Needy and her boyfriend, Chip (Johnny Simmons) have sex, Needy senses something dreadful has happened. She leaves in a panic and almost runs over Jennifer, drenched in blood. She rushes home and finds Jennifer in her bedroom, who initiates physical intimacy and explains what happened after the fire: Low Shoulder took her into the woods and offered her as a virgin sacrifice to Satan in exchange for fame and fortune. However, although the sacrifice and greedy exchange were a success, Jennifer was not a virgin, and when the lead singer Nikolai (Adam Brody) murdered her, a demonic spirit took over her body. It is revealed then that Jennifer knew she needed human flesh and blood to survive. In addition to the known murdered townspeople, Jennifer also encountered the exchange student Ahmet after the fire and upon hearing that no one knew he had survived, she took him into the woods and ate him, making him her first victim.

Trailers and Videos

Friday Estimates: Meatballs And Informant Do Well, Jennifer's Body And Love Happens Don't". The Box Office Junkie. September 19, 2009. Archived from the original on September 26, 2009. Faraci, Devin (February 5, 2008). "Jennifer's body is going authentically Emo!". Chud.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008 . Retrieved February 11, 2008.