Jennifer's Body Review

Jennifer's Body joins a very small number of horror movies where hero and villain are both female and both proper, believable characters. We've all met Jennifer: the girl who zeroes in on her selected male target, blasts him into submission and devours his soul. In Jennifer's case this is literally so, and it's a lot of fun to watch Fox, beautifully sending up her own 'FHM' image, cannibalise a gamut of high school stereotypes: nervous Asian guy, football jock, and the fey emo kid - in Jennifer's words, "He's into maggot rock. He wears nail polish. My dick is bigger than his."

Probably because the studio was after a 15 certificate, we don't actually see too much blood, this being more high-school comedy than gorefest, but the inventive descriptions make up for it: apparently one of Jennifer's victims looked like "lasagne with teeth" when he was found. The most monstrous thing in the film is in fact Adam Brody's indie frontman, leader of dire band Low Shoulder who are to blame for Jennifer's demonic state. Intent on sacrificing a virgin, they make just one crucial error - she's no virgin, which has unfortunate occult consequences. Why would an MOR emo act want to sacrifice a virgin, traditionally the province of death metal? Why, to further their careers of course - as Brody puts it to a reluctant bandmate: "Do you want to be rich and awesome, like that guy from Maroon 5?" Killing virgins in order to emulate Maroon 5 surely ranks higher in the catalogue of evil than practically any other act.

None of this, fun as it is, would be worth much without such a winning heroine, but Amanda Seyfried is simply yummy as Anita "Needy" Lesnicki, the put-upon geek and unlikely best friend to Jennifer's cheerleader queen. The relationship is not an equal one. Although Needy tries to convince herself that "sandbox love never dies", these days she's more likely to find herself on the end of a stream of invective from her BFF: "Please don't talk to yourself; it's one of your more freakish needy behaviours and it makes us both look like total gaylords." And that's pre-demon Jennifer talking.

Jennifer's Body has more to say about the dynamics of teenaged female friendship, sexual power games and the trials of adolescence than many a more self-consciously worthy film, but even without this uplifting backbone it would still be an above averagely entertaining night at the cinema. Unleash your inner teen queen bitch and enjoy a dose of pure fun: the cult following starts here.