I’m just going to start off by saying that we all need to apologize as a collective to Megan Fox. As a twenty something, I was first introduced to Fox in the iconic “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen” and later came to know her as the hot girl from “Transformers.” In the late 00’s, amidst Fox appearing as eye candy for a variety of action franchises and rising in the ranks as Hollywood’s resident sex icon, Fox appeared as the titular character in 2009’s “Jennifer’s Body.” And let me tell you, she absolutely slays in this role.
In case you aren’t familiar with the film, Fox plays a teenage girl who goes to a local concert with his best friend Needy (played by Amanda Seyfried) only to narrowly escape a fire which takes the lives of several people in the bar. After the show, Jennifer leaves with the band and they perform a ritual sacrifice on her in order to obtain fame and fortune. The band picks Jennifer because they believe she’s a virgin, however, she’s not and the ritual turns her into succubus. She then proceeds to make the teenage boys of Devil’s Kettle her victims and feeds the demon within one guy at a time.
What makes this film so great, in addition to the interesting plot and dynamite performances by the cast, is that it’s so damn funny. Fox’s character in particular delivers some of the best one-liners in the film and shows the actor’s dimension within the role. During the climax of the film, Fox and Seyfried’s characters go head-to-head and Fox’s witty remarks had me busting a gut. I mean, how many actors can successfully balance being a demon possessed killer with the snark of a high school villain? “I’m going to eat your soul and shit it out, Lesnicki,” has stayed in our heads and hearts for over a decade, which says a lot for a film that was mocked pretty heavily when it debuted in theaters.
“Jennifer’s Body” has made a huge comeback in recent years and many of us are ashamed that we slept on this cult classic in the first place. However, the world was in a much different place. “Jennifer’s Body” came out in a pre #metoo time, when it was okay to slut shame an actor because they took on stereotypical bombshell roles. However, Fox has always been more than an accessory to a male protagonist, she’s a talented actor who can seamlessly transition from a snappy one liner to an action sequence in a few seconds flat.
At the end of the day, I can’t make you appreciate “Jennifer’s Body” and arguably Megan Fox’s best performance to date. But what I will say is don’t let 2009 hold you back from enjoying this film. We’ve come a long way in a decade and this film was just too good for it’s time. We didn’t deserve your greatest back then, Megan Fox, but now we’ve seen the error of our ways.
