Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein.
Few female killers in the wide world of horror have been able to match the impact of Jennifer Check. Played by the incomparable Megan Fox, Diablo Cody’s teenage seductress rises from the ashes of a hideous crime and returns to wreak bloody vengeance on the teenage boys in her small town. Jennifer’s Body was initially dismissed as a vapid vehicle for a gorgeous star – an unfortunate parallel to the film’s own message – but Karyn Kusama’s teen horror comedy has finally found a devoted audience that appreciates its biting satire and unflinching look at the hell of teenage girlhood. Fifteen years later, Cody returns to the genre with a new heroine searching for power in a world built to dismiss her. Directed by Zelda Williams, Lisa Frankenstein follows a teenage girl desperate for acceptance who...
Few female killers in the wide world of horror have been able to match the impact of Jennifer Check. Played by the incomparable Megan Fox, Diablo Cody’s teenage seductress rises from the ashes of a hideous crime and returns to wreak bloody vengeance on the teenage boys in her small town. Jennifer’s Body was initially dismissed as a vapid vehicle for a gorgeous star – an unfortunate parallel to the film’s own message – but Karyn Kusama’s teen horror comedy has finally found a devoted audience that appreciates its biting satire and unflinching look at the hell of teenage girlhood. Fifteen years later, Cody returns to the genre with a new heroine searching for power in a world built to dismiss her. Directed by Zelda Williams, Lisa Frankenstein follows a teenage girl desperate for acceptance who...
- 2/21/2024
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
There are few archetypes more American than the high school cheerleader. Typically portrayed as a teenage girl with a megawatt smile, perfect hair, unmeasurable confidence, and an expertly crafted balance between squeaky-clean innocence and sexual deviancy, our society is still equal parts fascinated and offended by the mere existence of the cheerleader. Sure, films like "Bring It On" and the accessibility of competitive cheerleading on ESPN has brought some legitimacy to the sport and artistry, but by and large, cheerleaders are still used as shorthand to mean things like "bimbo, stupid, b*tchy, shallow, prissy," or to make another girl sound more interesting. As a cultural demigod once sang, "She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers."
With this seemingly "untouchable" social status and implied power of influence, it also makes cheerleader characters very easy to hate. Few have ever reached the level of disdain as Megan Fox's Jennifer Check in "Jennifer's Body,...
With this seemingly "untouchable" social status and implied power of influence, it also makes cheerleader characters very easy to hate. Few have ever reached the level of disdain as Megan Fox's Jennifer Check in "Jennifer's Body,...
- 2/9/2024
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Presented by Lisa Frankenstein, 1989 Week is dialing the clock back to the crossroads year for the genre with a full week of features that dig six feet under into the year. Today, The Lady Killers revisit Diablo Cody’s 2009 slice of horror, Jennifer’s Body.
“Hell is a teenage girl.”
By now it’s safe to say that the world was not ready for Jennifer’s Body when it first released in 2009. Call it bad marketing, Juno fatigue, or audience aversion to a female-led horror comedy, this progressive film not only bombed at the box office, it sent director Karyn Kusama to what she calls “movie jail” for the better part of the next decade. But nearly fifteen years later, this beloved film about female empowerment seems to have finally found its audience. Not only is it a prime example of Boys In Danger horror, but Kusama and writer Diablo Cody take...
“Hell is a teenage girl.”
By now it’s safe to say that the world was not ready for Jennifer’s Body when it first released in 2009. Call it bad marketing, Juno fatigue, or audience aversion to a female-led horror comedy, this progressive film not only bombed at the box office, it sent director Karyn Kusama to what she calls “movie jail” for the better part of the next decade. But nearly fifteen years later, this beloved film about female empowerment seems to have finally found its audience. Not only is it a prime example of Boys In Danger horror, but Kusama and writer Diablo Cody take...
- 2/8/2024
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
Presented by Lisa Frankenstein, 1989 Week is dialing the clock back to the crossroads year for the genre with a full week of features that dig six feet under into the year. Today, Jenn Adams weighs in on the dreamiest and scariest boyfriends the genre has to offer.
We’ve all dated our fair share of bad boys. They win us over with their dreamy aloofness, then just when we’ve let our guard down, they turn out to be monsters in disguise. Horror has a long history of these roguish young lovers, some so bad they commit cold-blooded murder. But they’re not all monsters.
Every once in a while, a cinematic boyfriend manages to be attractive, kind, and non-murderous, all while supporting his girlfriend as she runs away from the film’s true villain. Rospo Pallenberg presents us with two appealing boyfriends in the 1989 slasher Cutting Class. Brian (Donovan Leitch Jr....
We’ve all dated our fair share of bad boys. They win us over with their dreamy aloofness, then just when we’ve let our guard down, they turn out to be monsters in disguise. Horror has a long history of these roguish young lovers, some so bad they commit cold-blooded murder. But they’re not all monsters.
Every once in a while, a cinematic boyfriend manages to be attractive, kind, and non-murderous, all while supporting his girlfriend as she runs away from the film’s true villain. Rospo Pallenberg presents us with two appealing boyfriends in the 1989 slasher Cutting Class. Brian (Donovan Leitch Jr....
- 2/8/2024
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
Femme fatales have existed since the dawn of narrative art. This intoxicating female archetype is known for her alluring sensuality and dark habit of causing harm or destruction to any man who falls into her grasp. From the sirens of Greek literature and Shakespeare’s Lady MacBeth to the vamps of the silent film era and gangster movie gun molls, femme fatales have continued to change with times.
A surge of classic examples arose in pulp literature and the subsequent film noir heyday of the 1940s and 50s – possibly a response to shifting gender roles in the wake of World War II. Many consider Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson to be the prototypical film fatale of the silver screen. In Double Indemnity, this magnetic blonde seduces a hapless salesman and convinces him to kill her husband in order to cash in on the titular insurance policy.
Despite her classical origins,...
A surge of classic examples arose in pulp literature and the subsequent film noir heyday of the 1940s and 50s – possibly a response to shifting gender roles in the wake of World War II. Many consider Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson to be the prototypical film fatale of the silver screen. In Double Indemnity, this magnetic blonde seduces a hapless salesman and convinces him to kill her husband in order to cash in on the titular insurance policy.
Despite her classical origins,...
- 12/5/2023
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
Many popular musicians have created fictional alter egos as a way to explore new sonic avenues that they wish to experiment with. David Bowie had Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, David Johansen had Buster Poindexter, Lady Gaga spent a whole season as Jo Calderone, and the less said about Garth Brooks's Chris Gaines era the better, but it certainly happened. For them, it's a kind of performance art - an expression of their interest in stepping out of their comfort zone and giving the endeavor a theatrical flair as well.
The debate about whether these could be considered merely publicity stunts is valid, but for some artists, there's a true creative desire to inhabit these personas. For Adriana Rivera, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, it's a culmination of her dream to merge two artistic outputs that have long fascinated and inspired her: music and acting. From this desire and its manifestation,...
The debate about whether these could be considered merely publicity stunts is valid, but for some artists, there's a true creative desire to inhabit these personas. For Adriana Rivera, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, it's a culmination of her dream to merge two artistic outputs that have long fascinated and inspired her: music and acting. From this desire and its manifestation,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Juan Arroyo
- Popsugar.com
Warning: Major spoilers for the following films abound.
When asked about the most horrific time in their lives, many will shudder then say the years they spent in high school. From unpredictable acne and savage bullies to the particularly brutal pain of childhood friends growing apart, the high school halls can sometimes feel more like a minefield. Horror creators have explored this familiar subgenre for decades, from early classics like I Was a Teenage Werewolf to the slick and witty slasher boom of the 90s.
Bishal Dutta’s terrifying It Lives Inside continues this tradition by blending high school horror with demonic possession to explore the terrors of finding your place in an unforgiving world. The film follows Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), a tortured student carrying something much darker than a challenging schedule. Her best friend is drifting away, she hasn’t slept in weeks, and she’s constantly toting a...
When asked about the most horrific time in their lives, many will shudder then say the years they spent in high school. From unpredictable acne and savage bullies to the particularly brutal pain of childhood friends growing apart, the high school halls can sometimes feel more like a minefield. Horror creators have explored this familiar subgenre for decades, from early classics like I Was a Teenage Werewolf to the slick and witty slasher boom of the 90s.
Bishal Dutta’s terrifying It Lives Inside continues this tradition by blending high school horror with demonic possession to explore the terrors of finding your place in an unforgiving world. The film follows Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), a tortured student carrying something much darker than a challenging schedule. Her best friend is drifting away, she hasn’t slept in weeks, and she’s constantly toting a...
- 9/21/2023
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
It’s been more than 13 years since Diablo Cody dared to sick “Jennifer’s Body” on the movie-going masses.
“We were rehearsing earlier today and I was listening to this script and I was just thinking, ‘I can’t get over this crazy fucking screenplay,'” director Karyn Kusama gushed of her and Cody’s bubblegrunge slasher comedy from 2009, while on stage at The Wallis in Los Angeles.
The two halves of the “Jennifer’s Body” team appeared together Tuesday night as part of Film Independent’s Live Read Series. The nonprofit arts organization behind the Spirit Awards, in partnership here with streaming service Mubi, sometimes puts on staged interpretations of beloved film scripts: typically asking one auteur to freshly interpret the work of another.
But to Kusama and Cody, the feature-length live performance presented an opportunity to revisit their own maddeningly misunderstood bit of demonic possession canon. Having barely broken even at the box office,...
“We were rehearsing earlier today and I was listening to this script and I was just thinking, ‘I can’t get over this crazy fucking screenplay,'” director Karyn Kusama gushed of her and Cody’s bubblegrunge slasher comedy from 2009, while on stage at The Wallis in Los Angeles.
The two halves of the “Jennifer’s Body” team appeared together Tuesday night as part of Film Independent’s Live Read Series. The nonprofit arts organization behind the Spirit Awards, in partnership here with streaming service Mubi, sometimes puts on staged interpretations of beloved film scripts: typically asking one auteur to freshly interpret the work of another.
But to Kusama and Cody, the feature-length live performance presented an opportunity to revisit their own maddeningly misunderstood bit of demonic possession canon. Having barely broken even at the box office,...
- 4/12/2023
- by Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
Amanda Seyfried has a long-running career that spans decades. The star got into acting at 15 years old and has managed to hold onto the spotlight since then. Although Seyfried has appeared in several productions, she is better known for her roles in Mean Girls, Jennifer’s Body, and The Dropout.
The actor recently said Jennifer’s Body taught her what she doesn’t like to do as an actor.
A quick overview of ‘Jennifer’s Body’
Jennifer’s Body follows a high school cheerleader, Jennifer Check, who becomes possessed after a boy band tries sacrificing her to Satan for fame and success. Jennifer then becomes a human-eating succubus with a taste for guys. Jennifer’s best friend, Needy, senses something’s wrong with her friend and confronts her.
Jennifer confesses and tells Needy what happened, but Needy attempts to stop her friend from committing more murders. After Jennifer kills Needy’s boyfriend, they fight,...
The actor recently said Jennifer’s Body taught her what she doesn’t like to do as an actor.
A quick overview of ‘Jennifer’s Body’
Jennifer’s Body follows a high school cheerleader, Jennifer Check, who becomes possessed after a boy band tries sacrificing her to Satan for fame and success. Jennifer then becomes a human-eating succubus with a taste for guys. Jennifer’s best friend, Needy, senses something’s wrong with her friend and confronts her.
Jennifer confesses and tells Needy what happened, but Needy attempts to stop her friend from committing more murders. After Jennifer kills Needy’s boyfriend, they fight,...
- 3/20/2023
- by Produced by Digital Editors
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
When "Jennifer's Body" came out in 2009, people kind of hated it. Or at least, that's how it seemed. What was this campy and over-sexualized story about a teenage girl who eats human boys? The film received mixed reviews with most of them falling into the "this is terrible" camp, and even though Roger Ebert gave the movie three out of four stars, he still referred to the whole thing as "'Twilight' for boys" which, honestly, feels like he missed the whole point.
"Jennifer's Body" is most definitely not "Twilight" and most definitely not "for boys." Instead, it's a smart exploration of the ways men use women in order to reach the peak of success. Directed by Karyn Kusama, the movie stars Megan Fox as Jennifer Check, the super hot teen girl who is predictably a cheerleader and unpredictably best friends with Needy Lesnicki. Played by Amanda Seyfried, Needy...
"Jennifer's Body" is most definitely not "Twilight" and most definitely not "for boys." Instead, it's a smart exploration of the ways men use women in order to reach the peak of success. Directed by Karyn Kusama, the movie stars Megan Fox as Jennifer Check, the super hot teen girl who is predictably a cheerleader and unpredictably best friends with Needy Lesnicki. Played by Amanda Seyfried, Needy...
- 1/29/2023
- by Miyako Pleines
- Slash Film
For too long, horror movies have put women on the wrong end of the butcher’s knife. Since even before the days of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, genre actresses have been regularly relegated to damsel-in-distress acts or, worse still, assigned sexist victim statuses that rob their characters of not just their autonomy but too often also of their common sense.
Sure, we’ve come to celebrate Final Girls as the genre’s beating heart: scrappy survivors who best their foes and more often than not kick some serious ass. But it definitely wasn’t Sally Hardesty with the power tools in “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and, though suspense and spy films have boasted female antagonists for decades, the horror genre has only just begun to position women as the villains with the same balanced frequency as men.
The scariest horror villainesses weaponize the misogynistic tropes that allow audiences to...
Sure, we’ve come to celebrate Final Girls as the genre’s beating heart: scrappy survivors who best their foes and more often than not kick some serious ass. But it definitely wasn’t Sally Hardesty with the power tools in “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and, though suspense and spy films have boasted female antagonists for decades, the horror genre has only just begun to position women as the villains with the same balanced frequency as men.
The scariest horror villainesses weaponize the misogynistic tropes that allow audiences to...
- 10/11/2022
- by Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "The Crush"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu and Peacock
The Pitch: Two years before Alicia Silverstone would become teen queen royalty for her performance as Cher Horowitz in "Clueless," she made her feature film debut opposite Cary Elwes in the evocative "Lolita" thriller, "The Crush."
The 1990s were a golden era for erotic thrillers, but few were willing to tackle the taboo nature of a sexually-forward teenage girl and a grown man who certainly knew better. Elwes plays a writer named Nick Eliot who moves to a new city for a magazine job, and rents the back house of Cliff (Kurtwood Smith) and Liv Forrester (Gwynyth Walsh), whose 14-year-old daughter, Adrian (Alicia Silverstone) becomes enamored with him. Nick...
The Movie: "The Crush"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu and Peacock
The Pitch: Two years before Alicia Silverstone would become teen queen royalty for her performance as Cher Horowitz in "Clueless," she made her feature film debut opposite Cary Elwes in the evocative "Lolita" thriller, "The Crush."
The 1990s were a golden era for erotic thrillers, but few were willing to tackle the taboo nature of a sexually-forward teenage girl and a grown man who certainly knew better. Elwes plays a writer named Nick Eliot who moves to a new city for a magazine job, and rents the back house of Cliff (Kurtwood Smith) and Liv Forrester (Gwynyth Walsh), whose 14-year-old daughter, Adrian (Alicia Silverstone) becomes enamored with him. Nick...
- 9/24/2022
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
With prom season well underway, it's the perfect time for another round of /Film Showdown, the series where all-time great genre characters that would likely never meet otherwise are fantasy booked in a battle of might. As Needy Lesnicki so expertly states, "Hell is a teenage girl," and we're pitting two of the most vindictive and powerful prom queens in a head-to-head showdown to see which girl reigns supreme and which teenage dream turns into a nightmare.
One is the character that put master of horror Stephen King on the map, and the other has survived satanic rituals and entitled horror fanboys. Cover your dirty pillows and...
The post /Film Showdown: Carrie White vs. Jennifer Check appeared first on /Film.
One is the character that put master of horror Stephen King on the map, and the other has survived satanic rituals and entitled horror fanboys. Cover your dirty pillows and...
The post /Film Showdown: Carrie White vs. Jennifer Check appeared first on /Film.
- 5/25/2022
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Months before “Jennifer’s Body” hit multiplexes on Sept. 18, 2009, writer Diablo Cody had a feeling the edgy horror-comedy would tank. And flop it did, despite the screenwriter taking home an Oscar for her debut film “Juno” a year earlier. Cody easily found a studio to finance “Jennifer’s Body” after the success of the Ellen Page-led teen pregnancy comedy, but the disappointing marketing strategy and pans from focus groups and critics seemed to be a sure recipe for box office collapse. Fast forward a decade, and now, the film is regarded as a cult classic.
“Jennifer’s Body” grossed a lackluster $31.6 million worldwide on a $16 million budget and was significantly beaten out by 2009 horror flicks “Paranormal Activity,” “Zombieland,” “The Final Destination” a remake of “Friday the 13th.” Megan Fox — who became a Hollywood sex symbol after her depiction of Mikaela Banes in the 2007 film “Transformers” — starred, and Cody said that because of her image,...
“Jennifer’s Body” grossed a lackluster $31.6 million worldwide on a $16 million budget and was significantly beaten out by 2009 horror flicks “Paranormal Activity,” “Zombieland,” “The Final Destination” a remake of “Friday the 13th.” Megan Fox — who became a Hollywood sex symbol after her depiction of Mikaela Banes in the 2007 film “Transformers” — starred, and Cody said that because of her image,...
- 9/11/2019
- by Mackenzie Nichols
- Variety Film + TV
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