Everyone’s talking about the new R-rated trailer for Jennifer’s Body, a horror comedy starring Megan Fox as a possessed cheerleader. My first impression was that it seems too much like last year’s Teeth, only with less interesting subtext. Alison Willmore of The Independent Eye instead finds the movie reminiscent of 2000’s Ginger Snaps, though she doesn’t think that’s a bad thing. Either way, coming from screenwriter Diablo Cody, Jennifer’s Body doesn’t appear original in any way except for its forced, writerly dialogue (”You need a mani bad. You should find a Chinese chick to buff your situation.”). And interestingly (coincidentally?) enough, her Oscar-winning movie, Juno, just so happens to feature actress Emily Perkins, costar of the Ginger Snaps trilogy.

Originality aside (it’s also being likened to Heathers and Species), Jennifer’s Body is being celebrated as low culture, criticized for being worse than low culture and otherwise dividing the bloggers up as only Cody’s feature follow-up to Juno could. Meanwhile, the truly important people (i.e. the teen boys looking at blogs) probably won’t care about what’s a good screenplay or what films this may have ripped off, because they’re probably only paying attention to all the teased Megan Fox nudity (including plenty of footage of that “topless” scene we saw “leaked” photos of last year).

By the way, my second impression of the trailer was that it’s cool they used a Runaways song so that this Bloggery can be linked to last Friday’s posting, in a way. Shows how bored I was with the plot/dialogue/visuals. Also, because you probably won’t see her acknowledged on most posts about this movie, Jennifer’s Body is directed by Karyn Kusama, of Girlfight and Æon Flux.

Now, on to the film blog reactions, after the jump:

• Mandi Bierly at Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch addresses the two sides of interest here:
  

  As a Buffy fan, I perked up when Mamma Mia!’s Amanda Seyfried says, “Jennifer’s evil….No, I mean, she’s actually evil. Not high school evil.” I’m sure others perked up every time Fox looks naked (and that time she references going “both ways”).

• Mark at I Watch Stuff acknowledges the male interests:
  

  Megan Fox and a Bowflex reference? It’s like this movie knows everything dudes love! Or at least everything dudes contemplate possessing when they’re drunk and watching TV at 2 in the morning.

• Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend gets specific with the kind of males who’ll be interested:
  

  If like the trucker-hat wearing guy sitting behind me you shouted the words “I’d hit it!” at the screen when you saw her on that motorcycle in Transformers 2, then you’d probably better get a box of tissue before you watch the first ever, red band trailer for Jennifer’s Body. It’s here, and Megan Fox wants to strip you naked and bite off your head.

• The Superficial made a special exception for the trailer:
  

  I don’t normally post trailers, but I’m willing to make an exception for one that involves a semi-nude, demon-possessed Megan Fox telling a chick “She goes both ways.” It’s almost like someone opened my heart, listened to the music inside and made a movie about it. — I should probably get that looked at.

• Todd at IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com takes that male interest acknowledgment too far:
  

  Zombies and demons should really look into hot chicks. It would definitely make it a little easier on them. Megan Fox could tear my leg off after she finished my liver and there’s a good chance I’d probably still cum at some point.

• Helen O’Hara at Empire points out that it’s not completely good for the guys:
  

  Gentlemen, prepare to be deeply, deeply confused. On one hand, Megan Fox looks fantastic in this red-band trailer for Jennifer’s Body on Shock Till You Drop and is a) dressed like a cheerleader and b) all wet. On the down side, if you watch it there’s a fair chance she’ll eviscerate you. Talk about a moral dilemna.

• Mark Graham at Vulture wonders if the male gaze will be enough for this to profit:
  

  Perhaps most interestingly, though, the film will be the first real test of Megan Fox’s box-office clout; when the Karyn Kusama–directed film opens in September, we’ll finally know whether teenage boys will turn out to ogle her when she’s not surrounded by giant robots and massive explosions.

• Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood addresses the marketability and makes a comparison:
  

  The mighty combo of producer Jason Reitman, director Karyn Kusama, writer Diablo Cody and Transformers hotty Megan Fox (whether or not she can act) should add up to a very commercial Jennifer’s Body. This angry-at-men demonic horror flick reminds me for some reason of Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.

• Ben Child at the Guardian Film Blog discusses the Heathers lineage:
  

  I’ve always thought the idea of a sequel to Heathers, that relentlessly black cult classic of 80s high-school comedy, was a bit pointless…Having said that, there have been a number of spiritual successors, Lindsay Lohan vehicle Mean Girls probably being the pick of the bunch. Now, Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno, has picked up the baton, and with some degree of relish by the looks of it.

• Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere notes a film history preceding this movie:
  

  It’s not widely disputed that the classic femme fatale character, first evident in 1940s film noir and later revived in various Halloween-styled slasher pics and high-school satires like Heathers, stems from male fear/resentment of female erotic power. It’s a sexist construction, in short. Even if you cloak it in fang-toothed female revenge and empowerment-gone-wild, it’s basically the same old Lucretia McEvil game.

• Alex Billington at First Showing is really excited by this trailer (in a movie lover way, we think):
  

  …it looks exactly like what I was expecting - sexy, awesome, and violent as all hell. Sure it looks a bit quirky and fun, but what do you expect from Diablo Cody? As always, Megan Fox looks deliciously hot, Amanda Seyfried looks great, and so does everyone else in it. I was already excited for this, but now I’m even more excited!

• Casey at BloodyGoodHorror.com’s The Mondokey Hole can’t say anything bad about this, but that might just be because he didn’t seem to notice the dialogue:
  

  For myself, the trailer seems to have plenty of 80’s horror sensibilities and does away with Cody’s trademark hipster slang dialog. While we all know that Megan Fox is fun to look it, it will be nice to see if she can act well enough to carry a flick for a change. Judging from what we see in the trailer, I’d say she does alright!

• Elisabeth Rappe at Horror Squad doesn’t want to say anything bad, but:
  

  If I have one criticism (and I don’t want to jump on the anti-Cody bandwagon by saying it, but here goes), it’s that the dialogue is a little too precious and self-aware. The Thai food line? Yeah. But it’s a minor complaint in a trailer of gory goodness … and really, what girl can’t get behind a demon who tears apart horny teenage boys? This might just act like two hours of good therapy!

• Richard Lawson at Gawker is “oddly intrigued”:
  

  Look, we’re not fans of Cody’s snappy, reference-laden “writing” any more now than we were when Juno came out or United States of Tara (a show that got better only after Cody stopped writing episodes) debuted. But couldn’t that jerky dialogue and look-Ma-no-hands kind of sardonic bravado acquit itself nicely in a silly/scary horror comedy? The Girl Gets Revenge trope worked fairly well in Teeth, and we all remember the nerdy Blockbuster clerk’s wet dream that was Scream. Smoosh those two things together and you just might get Jennifer’s Body.

• Meredith Woerner at i09 also admits to a surprising intrigue:
  

  I’m normally not a fan of Cody and after watching Megan Fox allow a tiny robot to hump her leg, I’d given up all hope for both of them. Jennifer’s Body looks like, dare I say it, a return to actually funny horror. Granted, I’m going to need to see a few more comedy scenes, but the vibe is there…

• Patrick Schumacker at Screen Junkies has a similar response, though he gets special points for using (originating?) the term “diablologue”:
  

  I’m not a huge fan of JUNO or THE UNITED STATES OF TARA, but darned if this one doesn’t look like a hell of a good time…Favorite inappropriate line from Megan Fox’s character in the trailer?  “Smells like Thai food in here.  Were you guys f**king?!”

• Guy Lodge at In Contention isn’t necessarily looking forward to this:
  

  I can’t say I’ve been looking forward to Diablo Cody’s follow-up with great anticipation. (Evidently awesome soundtrack notwithstanding.) Still, while this cheerfully tacky trailer for “Jennifer’s Body” does little to change my mind in that regard, I do credit Cody for playfully running as far from Oscarland as she could with this effort — a canny way to keep the industry pressure at bay.

  To any Karyn Kusama fans waiting for another “Girlfight” … keep waiting. To any Megan Fox fans waiting for cleavage shots … voilà.

• Daniel Carlson at Pajiba takes a small shot at Kusama’s involvement after primarily bashing Megan Fox:
  

  Making matters worse for Cody, Kusama’s limited credits also include Aeon Flux. The only way this thing is getting saved is if the script is up to snuff, and from the looks of the new red-band trailer, it might be. And of course the presence of Amanda Seyfried is always welcome.

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline also goes in for some Megan Fox bashing:
  

  Anybody who’s followed the aftermath of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen knows that inside Megan Fox’s lithe, photogenic frame, there’s the soul of a serious actress waiting to captivate Hollywood. And this morning, with the red-band trailer for her horror comedy Jennifer’s Body debuting online, we know that we’ll have to wait at least one more film for that takeover to occur.

• Sean at Film Junk doesn’t think Megan Fox’s acting will be an issue:
  

  Clearly the casting of Megan Fox in the lead role is going to guarantee some level of success for this film, but will her questionable acting also be the film’s downfall?

  After watching the red band trailer, I’m not even sure it matters. Her only real purpose here is to act as a sex object, which I’m sure she can handle just fine.

• Devin Faraci at CHUD.com criticizes the trailer in relation to the film’s script:
  

  It’s not great - I don’t know if the good (if Buffy-esque) script didn’t translate into a film or if Fox can’t cut a trailer to save their lives, but what I read on the page isn’t really represented here.

• Simon Dang at The Playlist concentrates on the move to push this Red-Band spot out before the presumably lackluster PG-rated spot hitting theaters this weekend:
  

  Are the trio of Kusama, Cody and Reitman possibly undermining the studio in releasing this trailer? Was the studio-made trailer so bad they had to preemptively release this to stop bad buzz? Or is it, as they claim, simply under-representative? Guess we’ll have to wait and see but the trailer at hand here certainly harks back to fun horror films of old and, at the same time, is run through with Cody-isms.

Now, here’s that Red-Band trailer, courtesy of ShockTillYouDrop: