Hell is Absolutely a Teenage Girl: 'Jennifer's Body' and Its Importance as a Coming-of-Age Horror Film

In 2009 a film that would eventually become a cult classic made its theatrical debut and that film is Jennifer's Body. Despite the horrible reception it received from people who were expecting to see Megan Fox naked, Jennifer's Body has always resonated with various communities. More in particular, queer people, who may have also had the experience of being a teenage girl at the time or at one point. It hits a particular spot for many people and still manages to be an effective film. 

The film's cult classic status has made it live on throughout the years, and the retrospectives are endless for the film. Especially as it falls into the coming-of-age horror subgenre, meaning it's relatability is continual. 

Jennifer's Body2009

Jennifer's Body follows Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried), two best friends who find themselves at odds when Jennifer becomes a demon. The film digs relatively deep into the complicated nature of being in love with your best friend, but also being mistreated by them. And it's a coming-of-age delight with messages also about girlhood, trauma, and objectification. People have analyzed this film to countless degrees, but it's because it's still a relevant piece of horror media. There is never going to be a time when teen girlhood and queerness don't need to be discussed. 

The beginning of Jennifer's Body kicks off with a clearly unstable Needy, who endured a certain amount of hell prior to being sent to what one can assume is a forensic psychiatric hospital. As Needy is the narrator, we're being told the story through her point of view. It's very much the point of view of a teen girl who has been traumatized, and it's an effective way to get into the meat of the story. The experience of being a teen girl in often a traumatizing one, even without best friends becoming demons and eating the boys in your small town. 

From the moment we flash back to what happened before Jennifer turned into a demon, it's clear that Jennifer is the sexualized one between them. She makes the girls who don't want to sleep with her jealous and the boys who wish she'd give them a chance into desperate characters. Despite how people might be jealous of her, she's not a perfect person with a history of stable connections. In fact, she's an objectified teen girl who is manipulated and taken advantage of by men, something that dooms her at a dive bar. 

Nearly everything that happens at the dive bar is uncomfortable and or oddly comedic. It isn't until Low Shoulder sets their sights on Jennifer as their upcoming sacrifice, that things become extremely sinister. Dealing with predatory men isn't solely something teen girls' experience, but in the case of the film, it's important to highlight how Jennifer being under a spell of some sort (fan speculation) is an allegory for how predators know how to say the right things. And it can lead to dangerous situations like being tied up as well as unsuccessfully sacrificed to Lucifer in the woods. 

Both Jennifer and Needy's individual experiences are different spectrums of being a teen girl. On one hand, Jennifer being hypersexualized by those who want to use her is awful. But Needy being overlooked and seen as the weird girl who is a shadow next to her hot best friend, isn't a fun experience either. On top of her complicated feelings for Jennifer in, which have been buried inside her forever. The point of a coming-of-age horror film is to take experiences of being an adolescent that's moving towards adulthood and make them extra terrifying. 

The moment that Jennifer and Needy kiss is one that's mostly terrifying for Needy, who knew she wanted that forever but is confused by Jennifer's behavior. Meanwhile, since Jennifer is eventually revealed to be a succubus, most of her inhibitions are gone. She does and takes what she wants without thinking about consequences. And kissing Needy is something she always wanted to do as a human. Therefore, she takes the chance to seduce and kiss her, which only leads to having to explain herself. 

As someone who was a teen at the time Jennifer's Body came out, it resonated in all the right ways. Dealing with hidden queerness and failing to accept yourself made for difficult waters for me. Combine that with being a teen girl who wishes they were a Jennifer, and you've got a recipe for disaster. But when I finally got around to watching Jennifer's Body and got to the scene where Jennifer and Needy kiss, it made me think of how that would feel. The intimacy and emotionally turbulent reaction from Needy perfectly encapsulates how a first queer kiss goes sometimes. 

Of course, their friendship isn't something to neglect about the film, and the complex nature of their relationship has built resentment between them. It's not an uncommon experience for teen girls and their best friends to be pitted against each other. Instead of getting too personal, I'm no stranger to dealing with falling for a best friend and how that can span across a long length of time.

Aside from Jennifer and Needy's connection, the film is still very topical regarding the weirdness of adolescence. High school is often a minefield for young girls and there are levels of experiences, especially when you take marginalized identities into consideration. A coming-of-age horror film like this turns the perils of objectification and flips it on its head by making the victim into the consumer. Jennifer being a succubus is a fun role reversal because instead of boys using and discarding her, she does that to them by eating them to live. 

The villainous, by way of Needy's perspective, nature of Jennifer can also play into how teen girls are seen as vicious. Society doesn't take the stories of teen girls all that seriously, and typically they are seen as simply catty and hard to deal with. Instead of giving us a boring take on a coming-of-age experience, Jennifer's Body explores important themes about best friendships, queerness, and how tumultuous everything can be throughout adolescence. 

Overall, Jennifer's Body is an enduring horror film that has managed to maintain its cult classic status. It's a coming-of-age horror film that's also very queer and feminist in its messaging. And even with the aspects that might not age well (more specifically some dialogue), it's still a film that we talk about and celebrate to this day. It's well worth revisiting and picking apart as a modern look into the coming-of-age subgenre.

(image credit: 20th Century Fox)