Sometimes it takes a little bit of time and space for a film to find its audience. Not every movie comes out of the gate as a box office hit but they eventually can achieve the recognition that initially alluded them. It has taken Diablo Cody's JENNIFER'S BODY ten years to achieve its horror cult status. For Megan Fox Jennifer's Body is due for some love and she couldn't be happier.
Fox was doing an interview with "Collider" and she expressed her happiness that people are finding a new appreciation for the film, even if it took ten years for it to happen:
"That, obviously, is overdue. We were all aware of what we were making at the time that we were making it. We were all taken aback – and we meaning me, Karyn [Kusama], Diablo [Cody], and the main players – by how the studio marketed that movie, which was outrageous, and by how it was received. I can't sit there and watch that movie and not be like, "This is a fucking hilarious, subtle satire. This is a great movie." It's so interesting. Diablo is so brilliant. Some of those shots in that movie, like that shot going across the football field, are insane. It was so good. The DP and the directing was so good. I don't know. It just wasn't time. It was a decade ahead of its time, and it took this long for culture to catch up."
Fox is right about how JENNIFER'S BODY was originally perceived. Co-starring Amanda Seyfried, the film was panned by critics upon its release and was a box office failure. There has been speculation about what this film initially missed the mark. The public definitely viewed Megan Fox as a sex symbol during that time and the film's marketing leaned in heavily on that angle rather than the biting satire. This proved to be an inaccurate representation of what the film was about and Fox's role in the overall narrative. Sometimes the nuances of satire are hard to market and I get a studio trying to bank on her sex appeal to sell tickets but that really wasn't what the film was about. In the film, Fox played the titular role of Jennifer, a high school student who unwittingly becomes the victim of a satanic ritual at the hands of a rock band that turns her into a living succubus. The film then transitions to following Jennifer's hunt for male victims while it falls on Seyfried's Anita to attempt to stop her.
The story is full of feminist undertones in regards to the character of Jennifer using the circumstances of her assault on her life as a means of getting revenge and Anita's personal responsibility in stopping her but Diablo Cody has said the marketing team missed the mark by not even trying to attract the female demographic that would have identified more with the story and both characters:
"[The producers wanted] to market this to boys who like Megan Fox. That's who's going to see it. And I was like. No! This is a movie for girls too! That audience, they did not attempt to reach."
Despite the initial perception and backed up by comments by Megan Fox Jennifer’s Body has certainly found its audience and it has become a cult favorite of the horror genre, particularly with the LGBTQ+ community. The original female angle of the story has also found its moment now that a marketing team isn't trying to skew the film's narrative to sell tickets. Fox believes having the image she had ten years ago hindered her career and the film early on but she says the quality of the roles she is being offered now has improved and that has to do with how she also views herself and the work:
"What's changed is how I feel about myself, and because that frequency is different, I'm attracting different types of things to myself. When your self worth is at a different level, you attract better things to you. Once I started appreciating myself and having confidence in myself, the types of scripts and roles that are being sent to me are the ones that I'm excited to do."
What are YOUR thoughts on JENNIFER'S BODY? Do YOU think it has become a cult classic?