Megan Fox’s flair for disdain is utilised to its fullest potential in this dark, witty, teen horror-comedy from Diablo Cody. It starts with her being abducted by a touring indie band, who mistakenly believe they’ve found the virgin they need in order to sign with a major label through a deal with the devil. Fox’s Jennifer then returns as a creature from Hell, who must seduce and eat her way through her high school’s male population in order to stay hot.
The high concept premise turned off many critics, as did Diablo Cody’s sometimes painfully self-conscious dialogue, but both expose the insanity of teen movie conventions, and also the real experience of adolescence, from which the former distantly derive. Occasionally toeing the line between pandering and ridiculing, Cody’s ironic tone assures us we’re in safe hands.
The role is an opportunity for the much-maligned Fox to ridicule the constraints of her vixen-like public image. She quite literally vamps it up, pouting through her flat line readings, dialled down to a derisive, brain-dead monotone, which alternatively derides the ridiculously narrow constraints of her roles, and relishes Cody’s cheeky subversion.
Jennifer’s best friend, Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried, is kept in the shadow of her apocalyptically hot friend by the traditional teen movie device of glasses and a ponytail. For much of the film she quite literally envies the Devil’s accomplice, for the hair and body she feels she ought to have. But Jennifer’s experience of sexuality is through presentation and self-objectification. In a final confrontation, Needy calls Jennifer out, “You’re killing people!” “No,” Jennifer replies, “I’m killing boys.”
High School boys become just a means to an end. It’s a hell of a ride.
