Jennifer’s Body

While this horror-comedy from director Karyn Kusama has some truly scary moments, it’s often derailed by a not-nearly-as-clever-as-it-thinks-it-is script from Diablo Cody, who also wrote Juno. Megan Fox stars as Jennifer, a high school cheerleader turned demon after an ill-advised ride in an up-and-coming band’s van. Amanda Seyfried plays Needy, the nerdy best friend who witnesses her gal pal running around at night covered with blood and flashing demon eyes. There are some sequences that work—I liked Jennifer’s first appearance as a demon, with her creepy bloody smile—but Cody puts all sorts of distracting wannabe catchphrases in there, and they sound out of touch. Do girls really refer to each other as Vagisil or Monistat? Do high school kids call each other “Jello” or “Salty”? Each time one of the characters says something like this, the film feels instantly dated. Too bad, because Fox and Seyfried are decent here, and Kusama knows how to handle some scares.