What’s Hailey Watching? Jennifer’s Body

After escaping the tragedy of witnessing a bar burn down along with many people, Needy watches her best friend, Jennifer, crawl half-conscious into the back of a van full of men with nefarious intentions. The smell of crisp, burning bodies still lingered in the air. Without a clue what to do, Needy runs home, locking herself inside, leaving her best friend in the hands of unimaginable monsters.

Jennifer’s Body is a raunchy, 2000s horror movie starring the one and only, Megan Fox. The inspiration behind Jennifer’s Body was to create a feminist horror movie exploring themes such as the male gaze, abuse against women, and how the patriarchy towers above women. To exemplify this, the director Karyn Kusama created Jennifer’s character to be a demon-possessed, man-eating cheerleader.

Needy sobs in her empty, dark house with nothing to do but wonder how she got into this situation and if Jennifer would be okay. As she calls her boyfriend Chip for comfort, she hears a noise, a knock on the door. Slowly approaching the door, she reaches out and swings it open, with nothing there but the sound of the howling wind. Needy decides she’s okay and is just paranoid and hangs up the phone. She turns around to see who else but her dear friend Jennifer, staring at her with blank eyes, covered head to toe in blood. Needy barrages her with questions about whether she’s okay and what happened in the woods after she rode away in the van. In response, Jennifer screams at her, revealing a mouthful of sharp, bloody teeth. Jennifer was no longer the Jennifer Needy whom she had known and loved; she had become something else.

The movie begins by highlighting the strange relationship between Needy and Jennifer. Needy explains that Jennifer was the only one who could show off her breasts as they were “her thing.” Needy could show off a little leg, but nothing more. She needed to look good, but never better than Jennifer. The only reason Needy was still friends with Jennifer was because they had been friends since childhood, but even then, Needy remembers having struggles with Jennifer. Their relationship could be viewed more as a friendship of convenience. Jennifer always got to look good and used Needy as her little accessory. Needy was friends with Jennifer simply because they always had been. There was little authenticity left.

The next day, Needy arrives at school to see Jennifer sitting in class looking perfectly normal, glowing even. Confused as to what she had witnessed the night before, Needy questions Jennifer. However, Jennifer gave her little to no mind. With sorrow in his eyes, their professor starts class by explaining the tragic event of the bar burning down, where many of their friends and loved ones had died. While the class sits quietly in their chairs, mourning, Jennifer jokes to Needy about how silly the whole situation is, without a shred of sympathy for an event she witnessed. In no better news, the school’s exchange student, Ahmet, was found brutally murdered in the woods, completely ripped to shreds. Again, Jennifer smiles and giggles. It is later revealed that Jennifer was Ahmet’s murderer. After that night in the woods, something had changed. She became a man-eating monster, feeding on boys to regain her strength. The longer she went without eating, the weaker she got. But as soon as she found a new boy to prey upon, her glow and glamor returned. She had become a literal man-eater.

One thing I love about Jennifer’s Body is the title. It is simple, effective, and quite creative in my mind. The movie highlights the male gaze throughout, first by selecting an actor known for her stunning looks and cast in plenty of male-gaze films. They discuss how Jennifer is the only one who gets to show off her breasts and is painted as the hottest girl in school. Her body is a prominent aspect of the film. Then, she is turned into a monster. Monsters are typically presented as ugly creatures with lots of hair, extra body parts, and ominous figures. However, Jennifer remains young and beautiful, but only after she eats. Her body became capable of consuming people in the most gruesome ways possible. Her body is a killing machine. The title hints at duality: a beautiful girl with a dangerous diet.

One night, Jennifer appears in Needy’s house, insisting on having a sleepover so she can explain herself. Needy hesitantly agrees, curious about what happened the night of the fire. Jennifer explains that after she climbed into the back of that van, she instantly knew something bad was about to happen to her. The boy band that had taken her away was using her as a sacrifice to gain fame and fortune. They drove Jennifer out into the middle of the woods and strapped her down onto a rock. With pain and fear in her eyes, she begs and screams at them not to hurt her. But for the sacrifice to work, they needed to chant their wishes and plunge a knife into the chest of a virgin. Jennifer dies on that rock in the hands of four truly evil men. However, they were mistaken about her virginity. Because she was not a true virgin, the sacrifice didn’t work. Jennifer died, but came back to life as a man-eating demon, cursed to feed on boys for the rest of her existence.

At the time of its release in 2009, Jennifer’s Body was not well received, with critics saying it wasn’t scary enough to be a horror movie, wasn’t marketed well, and was too in line with the male gaze. However, I find the opposite to be true. I wasn’t very old when the movie was released and didn’t learn about it until recently, so I can’t say anything about the marketing; however, I would like the argue that Jennifer’s Body was actually made for the female gaze. As I said before, it does incorporate many aspects of the male gaze. But ultimately, this movie was made for the girls. The whole point of the film was about revenge against boys and patriarchy. Jennifer’s Body was released shortly after the #MeToo movement began. It was made to stand up and protest violence and sexual abuse against women. To combat this, they made Jennifer a man-eater. What feels more satisfying than that? In a sense, Jennifer’s Body represents the repressed anger women feel against sexual abuse. It was made to comfort those who have been hurt. And for that reason, I rate this movie a 9/10.