Year of release: 2009
Director: Karyn Kusama
Stars: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, JK Simmons, Adam Brody, Amy Sedaris, Chris Pratt, Cynthia Stevenson
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Synopsis:Karyn Kusama's third film following "Girl Fight" and "Aeon Flux" tackles an original screenplay by Oscar winner Diablo Cody, responsible for "Juno". The film follows two high school girls, Jennifer and Needy, best friends since they were little girls. Jennifer is the beautiful girl whom everyone idolizes and has crushes on, whereas Needy is the more discrete and quiet one, with a sweet boyfriend who cherishes her. When Jennifer decides to go to a rock concert with Needy, the band chooses to sacrifice Jennifer mistakenly thinking she is a virgin, in hopes to get the success they are pining for. Somehow Jennifer doesn't die and returns inhabited by a demon, something that makes her insatiable for human bodies, with unpredictable consequences.
This basic premise for the film, has the interesting concept of merging horror film with teen comedies in the lines of "Heathers" or more recently "Mean Girls", however the result is very tame and pale when compared with those previous examples. Diablo Cody has a talent for writing smart lines and quirky humor, but in terms of story development this film definitely has points where it doesn't hold much sense. The director can only do so much with what it has, and Karyn Kusama smartly holds the key to the film in the less showy character, Needy. Thankfully Amanda Seyfried is a good actress, and plays it low key, whereas Megan Fox's Jennifer has no humor or dimension - she is a rather wooden presence. The film ends up being a wasted opportunity and aside from some smart lines, it's neither scary nor very humorous. For some lessons on how to create something intelligent, please check Sam Raimi's "Drag me To Hell".
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