‘Jennifer’s Body’ and the bloody crawl from box office bomb to cult classic

I watched “Jennifer’s Body” for the first time at age 15 after hearing my similarly aged Stan Twitter friends rave about the film. Its campy 2000s humor, fashion and homoerotic horror had me hooked. It instantly became one of my favorite movies, a seemingly popular experience among its young and newest viewers. 

However, not everybody was enthralled with the film from their first watch. In fact, it was almost universally hated at the time of its release. “Jennifer’s Body” only made about 32 million dollars with its budget of $16 million dollars (studios typically must make two and a half times their budget for a film to turn a profit), and a Rotten Tomatoes audience rating of 35%. I, as well as everybody I knew that had seen it, absolutely loved it, and I could not understand why critics and viewers had detested it. Fascinated with this movie’s backstory, I began to piece together the history of a film released much before its time. 

Diablo Cody (“Lisa Frankenstein”) wrote “Jennifer’s Body” fresh off of the mass acclaim and fame of “Juno,” saying in an interview with Vox that she had “this opportunity to do what (she) wanted, which is a very exciting and high-pressure situation to be in.” When describing her vision for the film, Cody said, “I want it to be female-focused, I want it to be about a female friendship, and I specifically want it to be about a girl who eats boys. I want it to be about like, cannibalism, and about sex, and empowerment and revenge and all that stuff, and I just, I knew what I wanted.” With this clear, raw and bizarre vision, she decided to write the raunchy horror film in stark contrast to “Juno,” with Karyn Kusama (“Yellowjackets”) signed on to direct. With Megan Fox (“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) at the height of new fame after “Transformers” signed on to play main character Jennifer Check and Amanda Seyfried (“Mean Girls”) right off of the set of “Mamma Mia!” to play her best friend, “Needy” Lesnicki, the film, in theory, was slated for success.

The marketing, however, told a wholly different story. Following in the horrifically sexist footsteps of Megan Fox’s sexualization after “Transformers,” the marketing team focused on trying to attract horny swathes of “Transformers”-consumed fanboys rather than an audience who would be more taken by the film’s social commentary. Cody shared that focus groups made up of young boys were used before promoting the movie, a decision evident in every piece of its marketing. The poster shows Megan Fox in a schoolgirl outfit that she never even wears in the film. An expanded poster gives blurbs like “slick, sexy, and very twisted,” “smart, sassy, and sexy as hell” and “Fox is dangerously hot.” While Fox does look great — I mean, she’s Megan Fox — focusing solely on her appearance and sex appeal began to create an uncomfortable disconnect from what the film actually contained. 

The trailer further misled audiences by containing a clip from every even lightly sexual moment (opening on Jennifer skinny dipping, the “we can play mommy and daddy” line, a close-up shot of Jennifer slowly unzipping her jacket, etc.) of the movie, setting it up as an erotic thriller for teenage boys rather than what it truly was. While these scenes were vital for the film and Cody’s vision, setting them as the driving force of the movie instead of the actual main plot points — Needy and Jennifer’s codependent and confusingly homoerotic friendship, empowering revenge — only worked to further confuse audiences.

With this misleading marketing strategy as its foundation, “Jennifer’s Body” dropped on Sept. 18, 2009 to an audience nowhere near prepared for its absurdity and witty brilliance. A completely positive critic review from this era is hard to come across. Many articulated the movie’s potential but ultimate failure, with statements like “it’s neither the best nor the worst of its kind” or describing the film as “ultimately not much fun.” Just one scroll through the Rotten Tomatoes reviews of the time provides a glimpse into just how hated this movie was, with reviews from critics like “Movie just sucks the life out of horror fans” and “Jennifer’s Body falls into the dispiriting category of dumb movies made by smart people.” While the film is not at all without worthy criticism — the racist and ableist remarks are worth plenty of questioning — these reviews hone in on all of the wrong critiques. 

There are also an abundance of reviews that just reek with misogyny, like one that says, “I assume that the decision to avoid (nudity) is Kasuma’s … one could assume, based on her past, that Cody has no problem with nudity,” referencing Cody’s history as a stripper. There is also the much too common Fox sexualization genre of review, like “Forget Jennifer’s body. This is all about Megan’s body.” or from the same review above, “If you’re in search for a way to ogle Megan Fox’s body, there are a lot better ways to do it than subjecting yourself to this.”

It’s evident that the shoddy marketing for “Jennifer’s Body” had disastrous results for the viewership, shocking those who worked on it. Cody has said of this time period, “It was painful for me to talk about ‘Jennifer’s Body’ because, you know, that movie was a commercial failure, and like, I was savaged personally, it wasn’t just having a professional failure.” Star Adam Brody (“The O.C.”) described feeling like the movie was becoming “a punching bag” and felt it was “unjust,” again proving the effects of the audience’s distaste for the film.

“Jennifer’s Body,” as quietly predicted by select critics and fans, has picked up a tremendous following in recent years. Musicians like Olivia Rodrigo, Madison Beer and Chloe Moriondo have taken massive inspiration from the movie, and discussions on its impact and wit are seemingly at an all time high. So, what changed? For one, the washing away of its corporate marketing into natural, word-of-mouth endorsements has made a massive impact, with young people recommending it to one another not because of Fox’s appeal to men — in fact quite the opposite, with Queer women recommending it at a rapid rate — but because of the wit and acknowledged absurdity of the film, from its incredibly poignant indie boy band Satanic rituals to mass amounts of vengeful yet wildly quotable boy murder. The cultural shift of the #MeToo movement also appears necessary to the success of “Body,” with its commentary on sexual assault, vindication and anger finally resonating in the way Cody intended.

The film’s inherent Queerness is another aspect much more appreciated today, crucial to its cult following. Lines like Jennifer’s “I go both ways” resonate harder in a world more understanding of Queer culture, lines which were either missed or sexualized at “Body”’s release. Queer women who did resonate with the movie when it was released are now able to look back and express their thoughts without poor reviews clouding their emotions.

Today, those involved in the film look back on it with just as much love as its modern viewers. Megan Fox takes Jennifer Check as her favorite role she’s ever played, and Cody says she loves talking about it now, likely because “the movie has suddenly found its audience.”

It seems that “Jennifer’s Body” was always full of brilliance, but released to a world nowhere near prepared to take it on. It’s an honor to live in a time that loves it like I do, and I hope everybody, from film bros to bleary-eyed young Queer girls, continue to find value in every drop of its bloody dramatic horror.

Daily Arts Writer Campbell Johns can be reached at caajohns@umich.edu.

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