The devil in Megan Fox

It's said that girls are horror-film fans, which seems mystifying:
Could there be a more disempowering genre for women?

"Jennifer's Body" aims to turn those tables:
This time, it's the boys who meet untimely deaths at the hands,
and jaws, of a bloodthirsty female.

That female is Megan Fox, who threw some memorable curves into the angular
"Transformers" films. She's the perfect choice to play Jennifer Check,
a come-hither high schooler smoldering in a damp backwater called Devil's Kettle.
Her nerdy best friend is Anita "Needy" Lesnicki, played by Amanda Seyfried ("Mamma Mia!")
wearing oversize glasses and a mop of unvolumized hair.

The story kicks into gear when Jennifer hops into a van with several sinister indie-rockers
(led by an entertaining Adam Brody, "The O.C."). What they do to her would horrify
even Mötley Crüe, but Jennifer reappears the next day in strangely good spirits.
What's more, as local boys begin turning up half-eaten, Jennifer only grows prettier.
Connecting the dots, Needy suspects her own boyfriend
(a baby-faced Johnny Simmons) will be next.

Screenwriter Diablo Cody ("Juno") and director Karyn Kusama ("Girlfight")
have nth-wave feminism on their minds, but their abundant ideas never jell.
Is Jennifer a sexual avenger or just a bimbo?
Where did the smart, confident Needy get her nickname?
And do the filmmakers really think viewers will still be shocked by a girl-on-girl kiss?

Last year, a low-budget horror flick called "Teeth,"
about a virginal girl who had incisors where she shouldn't, covered this territory
with more creativity, complexity and humor.
"Jennifer's Body," for all its promise, could use some of that bite.

(NewsDay)
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