When a cheerleader is possessed by a demon, it’s up to her BFF to end the horror.
Directed by – Karyn Kusama
Written by – Diablo Cody
Starring – Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, Sal Cortez, Ryan Levine, Juan Riedinger, Colin Askey, Chris Pratt, Juno Ruddell, Kyle Gallner, Josh Emerson, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris, Cynthia Stevenson
Let me start by saying that I have not seen Juno and I know nothing about Diablo Cody. Let me also state that as a writer, I think Diablo Cody sucks. Plain and simple. The dialogue to this flick is annoying and full of little pop culture references that will only force the movie to trapped in its time period. Now even though the dialogue of whatevers, for reals, BFF, Hannah Montana jokes and obnoxious semi valley girl talk annoyed the hell out of me, I still enjoyed this movie.
The situation is interesting and there’s some good gore in there. Sure, we’ve seen a girl possessed before, but this one’s eating people. And although I can’t stand Megan Fox (I still find her line delivery in this one flat and a little whiny the whole time) she is nice to look at. Seriously, yet another example of a movie piggybacking on the success of its inhabitants. It’s Diablo Cody’s new movie, Megan Fox is in it! YAY, let me barf now.
Like, I can't believe you ruined my dress, ooohhh my god!
The movie saves itself by having great performances from Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons and the scene stealer Adam Brody. Their dialogue is much less annoying and Adam Brody steals the show in my opinion. Jennifer winds up being possessed because Adam Brodys character, Nikolai, wants to make a deal with the devil to make his band famous. The scene where we get to see the botched sacrifice (it doesn’t work because Jennifer isn’t the virgin she said she was) is hilarious. In fact, it was probably the one funny part of the movie which is another problem when I keep hearing everyone go on about how dark the comedy is in this one. Other than that scene, I wasn’t laughing. Cringing from Fox’s acting ability maybe, but not laughing.
Enough about what annoys me about the movie, seriously, I could go on and on about how much I hate Fox and Cody now, how about what works in it. I like how the movie is set up. We start at the end and flashback to how it all happened. Even with the most obvious question out of the way, I still liked the ride to get to the ending. And I’m telling you now, it’s all because of Amanda Seyfried. She does a great job in the movie and she’s one of the only reasons I could sit through it.
Don't all good concerts end in fireworks?
The other strong point of the film is some of the violence. Thank god this flick is rated R or it would be just another annoying teen horror flick. There’s some good gut spilling shots that deliver the gore I was hoping for. While I did enjoy the movie, it’s got too much working against it to really be great. The terrible dialogue, the fact that no matter how many times Jennifer’s friend sees her covered in blood she still wants to be her friend, the really stupid final scene and the endless pop culture references will probably make more than a few people really hate this flick. I don’t get the hype about Diablo Cody and judging by the horrible box office return on this movie, I’m thinking she might be headed the same way M. Night did. So full of promise and yet never delivering the goods again.
If you’re a fan of Megan Fox or Diablo Cody, you’ll probably like this one as well. As long as some gore doesn’t bring you down. I honestly think that most people won’t like this one. Well, horny teen boys will and isn’t DVD sales what it’s all about now!
Under the marquee – Will
I would really like to see this movie. I don’t mind Megan Fox so much, so maybe I’ll like it!
Like you said dude, no matter how crappy Fox is, she’ll just be the eye candy for this flick. Seyfried’s talent is wasted in this film, they should’ve put in someone else other than her since I liked her in Solstice. Hopefully it won’t hurt her future prospects too much for being connected to this film.
wow, youre reviewing a lot more mainstream films nowadays. Can’t believe you saw this
. Your review for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs got me pretty amped to see it though. Absolute no interest in this film.
@Casey – I’ve seen way worse flicks before, I just found the dialogue highly irritating. As far as a horror flick goes, it’s much better than the boring slasher crap they make lately.
@Eric – Don’t worry man, Seyfried is a shining point in this film. I don’t think it’ll hurt her too much.
@Cello – With the kids back at school I have lots of free time all day and I wanted to keep up with the reviews for new films. Figured that might bring some new readers to the blog. And I had to see this one, it’s got gore in it, how could i resist. (Even with my hatred of Megan Fox) I guess I hoped I could bash it but it wasn’t as terrible as I was wishing for! HAHA! Maybe that’s why I could enjoy it a bit.
And Cloudy with a Chance was great. Plus it’s got Mr. T in it, how can you say no. I would go the 3D route though, that probably helped this one a bit.
I’m going to see this no matter what. It’s disappointing to read the dialog sucked so bad. Your’s is not the first review I’ve read that’s noted that either. I am one of those people that actually liked JUNO. The thing about Juno that made it work for me was A>Jason Bateman and B>it was about teenagers but only two awkward, eccentric teens, so I was not forced to watch large scary groups of daft “BFF’s” interacting! I can’t tell you how much I detest the expression “BFF’s”. I’m deeply afraid, but glad that there will at least be gore!
i predict that Megan Fox’s popularity will shrivel down to almost nothing in the next few months; she’s gonna have trouble getting made for TV movie gigs within the next year
Most of the annoying dialogue is reserved for Megan Fox who, thankfully, is in the film alot less than Amanda Seyfried and her dialogue is much better. Maybe I’m too far beyond the teenage years so the slang only serves to annoy me. Although I honestly pray that people don’t talk like this somewhere for fear that my children may one day sound like this.
There’s enough strong points in this film to enjoy it. Really, the whole sacrifice scene is almost worth the price of admission! I laughed my ass off!
Megan Fox is going nowhere and here’s why:
Hot, hot, hot. No one cares that she can’t act, and she keeps making movies that don’t require her to do so. Plus, no one wants Jessica Alba and her sacred vagina to return and populate the box office again, because in my thoughts she’s far worse, and that vacant look in her eyes bores me silly. Fox at least has the look of a weathered bad girl, dumb or not. Her career will come to an end, but for now, she’s “It”.
I liked Juno as well, so it’s sad to hear how convoluted this film and it’s antics were. I anticipated something moderately campy, like The Faculty, that in spite of it’s cheese was still a great guilty pleasure.
All around people are disliking it for the same reasons, and that’s good enough for me to avoid it till DVD.
As usual, good review Will.
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I actually liked this quite a bit despite my aversion to Megan Fox. Diablo Cody is an acquired taste, and though I like her I’ll cop to the fact that her dialogue can be annoying and tween-y.
But even if I hadn’t liked the movie, Amanda Seyfried would have saved the movie. She’s one of the most versatile and talented young actresses working today.
I did like this one more than I thought I would but I just can’t stand Diablo Cody’s writing. It was extremely annoying but it doesn’t have to be that way. All of Amanda Seyfriend’s dialogue didn’t bother me at all, but that only made everything else worse.
An enjoyable teen horror with terrific performances and a nice line in jet-black humor thanks to Diablo Cody’s excellent script. Nice Review, check out mine when you get a chance!
Ahhhh, I hated most of the dialogue and don’t understand why Cody gets all kinds of praise for her writing. Adam Brody went beyond my expectations though and he was quite funny.