I don't know if any of you have noticed by now, but I make a lot of videos about high school movies and TV shows. I've covered Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, every Twilight movie. That was an adventure. But one high school movie that just kind of came and went and no one really cared until years later was the 2009 cult hit Jennifer's Body. It starred Megan Fox, who I think we can all agree got a lot of hate around this time for really no particular reason other than she's pretty and was in some mediocre movies.
But all the same, I thought it was finally time I checked this one out. So, let's take a walk. But before that really quick, this video is brought to you by The Walking Dead Survivors. The Walking Dead Survivors is a strategy mobile game based on the Walking Dead comic series that's free to download, so just click the link down below in the description to get started.
The game is based on the original world and storyline from the comics, and there are more than 80 different characters from the Walking Dead universe for you to rescue and add to your community. And each one of them comes with their own special abilities and buffs you can level up, like some characters help you build buildings faster or give you more money, just all kinds of different buffs and abilities for you to discover and figure out which you like best. You can build out your community by ridding the area of walkers and decide how your community's gonna grow.
either by ruling with an iron fist or utilizing a more communal, benevolent approach. And the choices you make determine how your game will end up going and what kind of community you're going to have. There's also PvP clans you can join to get more resources and protection from other players. There's a lot to do in this game.
So if you're interested, the game has just launched globally on iOS and Android. So click the link down below in the description and get started today. Okay, back to the show.
Jennifer didn't always look this rough. Yeah, me neither, kid. I remember back when I used to wake up and be like, oh boy, today's gonna be a great one.
And then 2020 happened, and now I'm just sitting here at 4am being like... But anyway, these are the two main, main characters of this movie, Jennifer and Anita, aka Needy. Jennifer is your typical high school pretty girl who does cheerleading and walks around showing off that belly button. I mean, how are the boys in this school supposed to focus on anything when they got these girls walking around with their shoulders and belly buttons exposed? Next thing you know, they're gonna start listening to that gosh darn rock and roll music.
Now, like I said, the other main... character is Needy, your typical socially awkward band nerd glee club relatable girl who's actually also really pretty but totally doesn't know it cuz she's got glasses. Anyway, somehow these two are best friends. Hey, wanna stat? What's up, Vagisil?
You and me are going out tonight. Uh, tonight? Why? Because Low Shoulder are playing at Melody Lane.
They're this indie rock band from the city. I saw their MySpace page and the lead singer's extra salty. Wait, what, so he just walks around all day like, you know, I could have been a Twitch streamer if it weren't for all these pretty girls who don't even play games and just show their cleavage all the time. Anyway, that night, Needy's getting ready for the indie rock show, but her boyfriend Chip is none too thrilled about her going to see some salty individuals, whatever that means, and they end up having the most wonderfully bizarre conversation.
If jeans are hella low, I can almost see your front butt. It's a rock show. This is my rock look. Well, I can see, like, your wound.
Okay, pro tip for you kids. This is the least sexy thing you could probably ever say to a girl. Which one is Jennifer stalking?
The lead singer. Girls like her don't go out with drummers. Anyway, the singer guy, Jennifer says he's extra salty, so...
Salty. Salty is beautiful. Well then you must be soy sauce. Also quick aside here, but I just gotta say the number of low-rise jeans in this movie is concerning.
Anyway, so after getting ready, Jennifer and Needy head on over to Melody Lane, the kind of place where you can just smell the Benadryl a mile away. Also, Chris Pratt's here for some reason, so interpret that how you will. Hi.
Hi. Uh, I just wanted to meet you. Uh, I'm sorry. What was that, Jennifer? Nikolai, this is, uh, my band.
You know, as someone who was friend-zoned by every girl in high school, it always makes me laugh to see how girls would talk to me versus how they would talk to, like, attractive guys. Oh, hey, Kelsey. How was your day? Well, I don't know.
I mean, it was going pretty good until you showed up. Hey, Kelsey. I'm playing basketball. Now after this riveting conversation, right before the band starts to play, Needy overhears them talking about how they're looking for a virgin, and somehow they think that Jennifer might be the one they're looking for.
Dirk, what about her? That's the one. I don't know, you sure she's-Listen, I grew up in a town like this, okay?
There's always that girl. They love to show it off, but they do not give it up. You told us you were from Brooklyn.
My point is, this girl is definitely a virgin. Anyway, while they're playing their modern-day indie rock song, where the chorus is just like one line repeated 14 times, the whole place catches on fire. Sure, why not?
And our two main characters barely make it out alive, but there's something a little weird going on with the lead singer Salt Lake guy. Oh, thank God, you guys are alright. I've been looking everywhere for you two. Listen, it's uh...
It's really dangerous out here. You wanna head someplace safer like my van? Aw, now here we go!
Never go into an indie rock musician's unmarked tinted window van, alright? Cause one of two things is bound to happen. Either A. They're gonna try to wear your skin, or B.
They're gonna make you sit there for three hours and listen to all their unfinished demo tapes and ask, So, why do you think? After each one. Truly, a fate worse than death. Let's go, Jennifer! Let's go to the van.
I want to go to your really cool van, Needy. Let's go see his van. Why?
Why should we? We have the Sebring. Let's just get out of here. Let's go to L.O.
Ho and get some Northwood's nachos with extra badger sauce. Please, I'm starving. Needy, stop it.
Just shut up. And so Jennifer gets in and they all drive off, leaving Needy standing there by herself wondering what the heck just happened. So Needy eventually makes her way home, but after she gets there and calls her boyfriend to tell him what's up, something spooky happens.
Ah! Alright, Chad? So...
I'm guessing they didn't do the demo tape thing? After this, Jennifer raids Needy's fridge, eats some Boston Market chicken of all things, and then walks out, leaving Needy just kinda standing there like... But then the very next day at school, this happens. Where's it at?
Montestat. Haha, been a while James Charles is a pedo-Wait a second! Yeah, so I guess last night was just those gosh darn teenage hormones, you know what I'm saying? I mean come on, who hasn't devoured a whole roast chicken off the floor while covered in the blood of your enemies?
That's just a Thursday night in small town America right there. Now because of the fire that happened the night before, a couple students and teachers ended up like, not making it out, shall we say? And this being a small town, everyone's feeling affected. Everybody's a little messed up about this and it's okay to feel...
Discombobulated? Yeah. Hey Needy.
Oh, hi Colin. I heard you were there last night in the fiery trenches. Yeah.
Well, I'm glad you didn't die. Well, shoot, that would have been the nicest thing anyone could have said to me in high school. Usually, it just went like...
Do you even go to this school? How are you friends with Colin Gray? I thought Colin Gray only talked to the dead girls.
I just am. We have creative non-fiction together. He's a really good writer. Oh yeah, mhm, yep, sure he is.
Alright Colin, please share with the class what you did over summer break. I am the shadow in the prism of a teardrop. My heart is a child crying at the bus stop.
Uh huh. And how about you Sally? I love horses! So throughout the next little bit of the movie, we see Jennifer acting very strange, where like, she doesn't seem to care about the fire burning down the tavern, or what happened to the other kids, or anything really.
She does that thing that only hot people can get away with, where she's all like, Everything's stupid, and everyone's ugly, and you can't get mad at me because I'm just being real. And then she sets her tongue on fire. So, whatever I thought the pretty girls in my high school did in their free time, apparently I was very wrong. However, later on, a month goes by, and Jennifer's looking a little bit not like she was just ten seconds ago.
But you look really tired. Is everything okay? No.
I feel like boo-boo. My skin is breaking out and my hair is dull and lifeless. It's like I'm one of the normal girls.
Oh, come on, it's not that bad, Jennifer. I mean, you're still attractive enough that if you say anything on the internet, you'll get at least two guys in camel hats and or anime girl profile pics telling you how wrong you are. Now, remember that Colin guy from before?
The one with all the things and stuff? Well, he gets it in his head that because Jennifer looks like this now, she just might be desperate enough to go out with him. I don't, I don't, I don't think so. Um, I actually wanted to, uh, to ask you something.
You wanna know if I'll go out with you? No. Yeah, what? I...
I don't, how'd you, how'd you know? Just go ahead with the pitch. Well, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come over and see my new Yu-Gi-Oh!
dual disc accessory, but you seem more like the kind of girl who wants to sit on the roof and listen to 30-year-olds sing about how hard life is when you're 14, and your mom tells you to clean your room, but you don't wanna. And so, Jennifer texts him her address, and he goes to meet her, but... Turns out it was all a trap and she lured him into this abandoned or like half-built house thing I'm not really sure which so she can do this.
I Need you frightened I See, I knew this would happen. This is exactly why I never dated any girls in high school, okay? And definitely not because they all turned me down like five times. Shut up, let me look. Anyway, while this is happening, Nidhi gets these weird visions on her ceiling and goes out to drive around for a bit to see if she can figure out what's going on.
And that's when she sees Jennifer run out of the forest looking like this, and then everything's just all in a kerfuffle. So not knowing what else to do, she goes home and tries to go to sleep, but turns out Jennifer's just sitting there right in her bed the whole time with her good old TikTok filter face going on. And this is the point in the movie where we finally get to learn what the huck is going on.
I just want to explain some things to you. Besides, best friends don't keep secrets. Right?
Okay, so you remember the Night of the Fire? I got really messed up. And those guys from Low Shoulder?
Totally evil. They're basically like agents of Satan with really awesome hands. I'm sorry, wait. Are we talking about the same people?
These guys? I think you might want to walk that back a little bit, Jennifer. Now, just to summarize everything here for a second, it turns out that the band made a deal with the devil that if they sacrificed a virgin, he would make them famous. But, as you may be shocked to learn, it turns out Jennifer's been around the block a few times.
And their ritual thing ends up halfway failing, which turned Jennifer into a vampire zombie succubus thing. However, the band is famous now, so at least the world gets to hear more songs like... I gotta drive so far, I just wanna go home and hang out with my real friends. I don't know how hard it's been since I finally turned 14 On a family trip with my mom and her stupid boyfriend Gotta fake a smile when I look up from my phone Gotta pretend it's all okay But I just wanna say Shut up, you're not my real dad Shut up, you're not my real dad Shut up, you're not my Shut up, you're not my-Shut up, you're not my-Shut up- But between the band, the murders, Jennifer and all that, Needy's kind of just at the end of her rope and has no clue what to do. Just bought our formal tickets.
Chip, I can't go to the dance with you. What? Why? Look, just trust me.
You shouldn't go at all. What's going on? You're breaking up with me? Please, Chip, I just need to show you something.
Is this about Jennifer? Yes, but I promise you this is the last thing that I-Needy, I care about you. A lot.
As a person, not just some girl I made love to for four minutes the other night. And thank goodness for that. So she takes Chip off to the side and explains to him that she's been doing some digging into what might be going on with Jennifer, and she thinks she might have figured it out. The guys in the band tried to sacrifice her in the woods. But what they didn't know is that she hasn't been a virgin since junior high.
If the human sacrifice is impure, the result may still be attained, but the demon will forever reside in the soul of the victim. She must forever feed on flesh to sustain the demon. She's eating boys!
They like make her really pretty and glowy and her hair looks amazing. And her forehead is always perfectly proportioned to the rest of her face, her relaxed tummy looks exactly the same as her flexed tummy, and she doesn't even make any noise when she farts, she just kinda sounds like And then when she's hungry, she's weak and cranky and ugly. I mean, like, ugly for her.
Ah, yes, pretty girl ugly, aka when you look like a normal human being. Now, as you might imagine, Chip doesn't really believe anything she's saying, so Needy decides that the only way to keep him safe is to break up with him, because, as we've seen thus far, Jennifer has this thing where she wants to, like, ruin everything that Needy likes for some reason. But all the same, this being a teen high school flick, the climax of the movie is, of course, the spring formal dance thing.
So what ends up happening is Needy goes to the dance to try and keep an eye on Jennifer to make sure she doesn't like try to eat anyone. But Jennifer takes a little detour on her way to the school and guess who she runs into. Listen, I need to talk to you about you know who. You know how Needy has been really upset since Colin Gray died? Well, it's not just because he was like brutally murdered and stuff.
I don't want to say this. Shit. Needy and Colin were intimate. She and Colin were doing things that you have never even heard of. I mean, she made him dress up like Shrek, and he told her to wear a Teletubby costume, and they were using so many toys.
Just Hot Wheels everywhere. I mean, it might have just been a birthday party, but who can say for sure? So what ends up happening is Jennifer takes Chip to some weird, random, abandoned swimming pool that oddly enough looks a lot like my first apartment. And Needy has another one of her visions and follows it to find Jennifer eating her boyfriend. Why?
She's just hovering. It's not that impressive. Why, you sure told her.
And then Chip stabs Jennifer with a long metal whatever this is and she runs away, but ultimately Chip doesn't make it. Now this brings us all the way back to the scene we saw at the very beginning of the movie, where Needy breaks into Jennifer's bedroom to get revenge for killing her boyfriend. But after stabbing her through the heart, Jennifer's mom walks in and thinks that Needy killed Jennifer, which I mean, like, she did, but you know, without knowing the whole, like, vampire succubus thing, I can see how this might look a little suspicious.
What is it, baby? Yeah, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here. Also, where's Jennifer's mom been this whole movie?
She just randomly shows up, like when you're watching a movie and the characters start doing the old devil's tango. And your mom, who ran away with her underwater basket-weaving acro-yoga instructor 12 years ago, just walks in like, Oh, hey kids, what you getting up to? And that's pretty much where the movie ends, except for one last monologue about what happens to Needy after all this is over.
But sometimes change can be good. For instance, most occult scholars don't know this, but if you're bitten by a demon, and you live, you just might absorb some of the demon's abilities. Just might get lucky for once in your miserable life. Hey, come on, why you gotta call me out like that?
And then she breaks out of solitary and goes to take out the band member guys who started the whole thing in the first place. So, what was your favorite part of the movie? That was mine too. Now to be totally honest, I actually thought this movie was...
not that great, but it's also not terrible either. My only real concern is like... How did this movie even get made in the first place?
This is the most absurdly insane movie I've ever seen. Like, I get what it was going for, but it kinda just feels like it was trying to tell three different stories all at once. I mean, I liked it just fine for what it is, but like, this movie is a heck of a ride. So like I just said at the end of the video, like, I get what the movie was going for. And like, I've read all these essays and stuff about how, you know, when the movie came out, it flopped, and then now, probably two or three years ago, it really started to pick up and people started to see it for...
what it actually was trying to be rather than like what people thought it was supposed to be. But watching it back, it did kind of strike me as a very strange like mixed message in a way. Because like the movie starts out with this sort of the, you know, the weird intricacies of female friendships where it's like Jennifer's the pretty one so she kind of has like priority. It's like even though she and Nita are best friends there's definitely a class system going on and all that. And then it turns into like this, you know, Jennifer has something done to her body that she has no control over and then it sort of goes in that direction.
But then instead of Turning into this like revenge story or like, you know, Jennifer, like taking things back from the men who did whatever to her. It's like she just like focuses all of her anger and revenge feelings and whatever, like puts it all on like Needy for some reason. Which, you know, throughout the movie, it's kind of like, oh, Jennifer's actually sort of jealous of Needy. But then it's like, actually, she's maybe in love with Needy.
There's no resolution about Jennifer and like the guys in the band at all. It's like they they come to town like multiple times and she never even talks to them or does anything. with them. Like it's really kind of interesting how the character of Jennifer has no character arc or hero's journey or anything.
It's like she starts out in the movie and she sucks. She's really vapid and kind of bimbo-ish or whatever, you know. This horrible thing happens to her and she gets these like superpowers kind of. What she does with them is she like, you know, she enacts revenge quote-unquote on like, on like totally innocent like regular nice guys like Needy's boyfriend or the emo kid or like there's this one football player I didn't mention who's Just like a regular guy who's sad that his friend died in the fire.
or whatever. It's like, what is she fighting against exactly? Because the guys who did stuff to her, she apparently has no interest in.
Also, I think it's interesting, you know, the whole message about, right, she loses control of her body because of what men do, and she tries to like take control back. And like, I totally get that that's what the movie's going for. But also Jennifer's superpowers, quote unquote, demon powers come from men. So it's like, it doesn't really seem like this, you know, girl like standing up against the patriarchy type of thing.
Like it. was maybe trying to be because her powers are completely reliant also on men. So it's kind of like, I don't know, it seems like a weird mixed message. And then also the whole like intricacies of female friendship, which it kind of touches on, but like it has like these three, maybe four different plot threads and like messages it's trying to say, but like it only goes halfway with all of them.
I feel like this movie, I mean, it flopped because marketing was bad, but also I think like it's just, it tries to say like a little too much. Like if it had focused on one or maybe two of these like messages or whatever and really flesh those out, I feel like it would have been more interesting. Like if we got to know Jennifer better, like why is she like this?
Like what exactly made her this way? What's going on with her? Because she has no journey. Like I said, like she just starts out as like this jerk, bimbo, vapid girl. And then at the end, she just has no remorse for what she does.
And she just becomes even more bad of a person. And like there's no redemption. There's no...
Reason why she's doing stuff. She just like does stuff and then the movies over. It's really weird Anyway, hope you enjoyed the video everybody. I worked really hard on this one This took a long time to make so I hope you enjoyed it If you did don't forget subscribe don't forget ring that Bell so you don't miss any videos from me send me an email at Alex Meyers contact at gmail.com and let me know what movie or TV show I should do or what are your thoughts on Jennifer's body? Or whatever.
I have a game on the App Store It's like a match three type of game with my little dudes in it so you can check that out if you want I've podcast it with my girlfriend It's called Doing the Devil's Tango. It's like a dating advice, dating story type podcast where we take emails from you all, your relationship situation or whatever, and we just give our thoughts, our advice. And of course, above all else, everybody have a great day and I'll see you all next time.