You may be forgiven for thinking that Jennifer’s Body was just another teen horror film. In many ways it is, of course, and I’m sure some people saw it as such, but there must have been a seed of doubt in their minds. The dialogue is smart and the plot is ironic and deviant. If you were in a cinema, you wouldn’t realise the reason for this until the end credits (there are no credits at the beginning): Jennifer’s Body was written by Diablo Cody. You may know her from her acclaimed debut Juno. This film is not unlike that one, except that it is firmly situated in the very gory teen horror genre. We’ve become used to writers and directors playing with genre in recent years, and some of these experiments are more successful than others. It has to be said that this is one of the least successful, primarily because the intelligent dialogue gets lost under the plot. You don’t really care what the actors are saying when someone is about to rip their chest open. Nonetheless, the film does stand out for its intention to subvert some standard narratives. The instigation of the action, for instance, is down to an insignificant indie rock band that practices satanic rituals in the hope of becoming successful. This film is enjoyably dark and twisted, but a lot of it was all done over ten years ago in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
2 comments:
Buffy was dark? I was thinking it was more comparable to Heathers with a dash or three of horror?
I enjoyed it though. Not quite sure what to mAke of the rumour that Diablo Cody is involved in the screenplay for the remake of The Evil Dead but it could be a lot worse
[other than leaving it well alone, of course]
I think my writing failed me slightly - I meant it was dark and twisted, but all this (other stuff like irony, teens acting cleverer than they are) had been done before in Buffy. Definitely fun though.
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