Jennifer's Body - a Misunderstood Feminist Cult Classic

Jennifer's Body - a Misunderstood Feminist Cult Classic

In 2009, Jennifer’s Body, starring Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox, came out in theaters and had horrible reviews. The movie did horrible at the box office and had a rating of 44% by Rotten Tomatoes and an even lower audience score. Jennifer’s Body was initially marketed as a sex fantasy for straight males. The truth is this movie was not a sexy in the way it was advertised and it is much more complex and unsettling than that. The plot surrounds Jennifer (Megan Fox) and her best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and the mystery of what happens to Jennifer. Jennifer was lured into a van that belonged to an indie rock band that consisted of a group of men and eventually returns to Needy as confused and in shock. It is discovered that the band used her as a sacrifice to the devil for fame and fortune. This can be symbolized as a sexual assault, in that a woman’s body is used without her consent for the selfish gain of the abuser. When Jennifer comes back as a possessed demon, she seeks revenge by luring men by her sex appeal and eventually killing them. The film was rated poorly when the initially advertised “male gaze” perspective on Megan Fox turned out to be a feminist outlook on abuse and patriarchy.

Thematically, this movie hits on many of the issues that are being talked about today, especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Nine years later, the film is praised and looked at in a more symbolic and analytical view. Jennifer’s Body is listed in the New York Times lists of great horror movies directed by women. The flop of a perspective on Jennifer’s Body becomes a case study in what we value in movies and what we dismiss, and how those values can shift over the course of a decade.