Karyn Kusama’s cult horror movie Jennifer’s Body was famously derided when it was released in 2009, with the media landscape at the time not equipped to handle Megan Fox in a role as a powerful, avenging mean girl. It’s now rightly regarded as a classic of the teen movie genre, and is embraced by feminists.
Adam Brody (who was best known as nerdy heartthrob Seth in The OC) was perfectly cast as the pretentious lead of an indie band, whose villainous ways lead to Jennifer becoming ‘a body.’ In a recent interview, Brody discussed the initial reaction to the movie. “To have it receive such tepid reviews – and in a way, to be a punching bag – felt shitty. It wasn’t my movie, so I didn’t take the brunt of it, but it still felt a little unjust.”
“[The marketing] couldn’t have missed the mark harder.” Everything that Brody loved about Jennifer’s Body – its neon Gothic visuals, for example – was abandoned in favour of a male fantasy. “The film was a marketing person’s dream, and then to see them do that…” Brody is referring to the poster which sees Megan Fox perched on a classroom table in a tiny tartan skirt and high heels. “Part Goosebumps, part Maxim. It’s not even anything she wears in the movie.
“The film was directed by a woman [Karyn Kusama], starring two women [Fox and Amanda Seyfried], written by that year’s screenwriting Oscar winner [Diablo Cody – who won for Juno], and instead they’re like, ‘Let’s bury all of that. Don’t tell anyone that. This is for people who like Transformers.’”
The 2000s were a toxic time for many young women celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears – and Megan Fox was very much a victim of the media too. It has taken a long time for some of them to make their comebacks and recover, but thankfully the tide is slowly turning.
Check out our guide to the best slasher movies.