Jennifer's Body
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: September 18, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
14
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
SlateDana Stevens
A wicked black comedy with unexpected emotional resonance, one of the most purely pleasurable movies of the year so far. Read full review
80
Film ThreatNick Antosca
The difference between “Juno” and Jennifer’s Body, I realized, was that Diablo Cody's disgustingly smug dialogue -- supposedly so winning when spoken by Juno -- is much easier to swallow when it comes from characters who actually are disgustingly smug -- like Jennifer. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It's not art, it's not “Juno,” it's not “Girlfight,” for that matter, but as a movie about a flesh-eating cheerleader, it's better than it has to be. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Hot! Hot! Hot! Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Bloody fun is here to be had. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The movie deserves -- and is likely to win -- a devoted cult following, despite its flaws. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Not since Brian De Palma's "Carrie" has a horror movie so effectively exploited the genre as a metaphor for adolescent angst, female sexuality and the strange, sometimes corrosive bonds between girls who claim to be best friends. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
As a horror movie, Jennifer's Body doesn't fully deliver. But as a comic allegory of what it's like to be an adolescent girl who comes into sexual and social power that she doesn't know what the heck to do with, it is a minor classic. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
The “Transformers” hottie undergoes her very own transformation here, thanks to satanic possession. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
The movie has a centerfold sheen to it--and some lesbianic soft-core flirtation to match--as its plot dives deeply into "Twilight"-esque heavy-melo meltdown in the last act. Cody throws one too many losses at Needy; the screenwriter loses her satiric way about halfway through. But for a while, this has real fangs. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Admittedly, this is the stuff of lurid adolescent distraction, not great cinema. Jennifer's Body is strictly a niche item but provides a goofy, campy bookend to "Drag Me to Hell" on the B-movie shelf. Watch it, forget it, move on. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de Semlyen
Fox is fun as a demonic harpy, but sadly the meeting of Hollywood’s two rock’n’roll queens is closer to safe studio product than slash-and-burn envelope-pusher. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Performances are for the most part strong, especially Seyfried's, and Kusama uses Fox well, making the most of the actress' blank-eyed arrogance. It's not a performance that suggests a lot of range, but it's fun to watch. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A campy pastiche of horror and high-school movie cliches, the film only rises above standard-issue scare fare by dint of Cody's sneaky sense of humor. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
You ought to have a movie that's both smart and sexy. But Jennifer's Body is neither. Most damning of all, it's not scary. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The movie’s partially redeemed by Seyfried, who makes her character more than a repository for audience sympathy. (Her make-out scene with Fox is handled with more suspense and care than anything else in the movie.) Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Jennifer's Body is not as hot as you hope it would be. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Enjoy the film for its witty dialogue and fun performances, but know that there isn't a single good scare. An episode of "Murder, She Wrote" has more thrills. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The one perfect aspect of Jennifer's Body is its title: No one is going to like this movie for its brain. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele
Diablo Cody's glib teen-hip dialogue mostly feels like self-conscious splatter over a sorely lackluster scare flick. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin Chang
This high school horror romp tackles its bad-girl-gone-really-bad premise with eye-rolling obviousness and, fatally, a near-total absence of real scares. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
An attempt to infuse some girl power into their mash-up of cheeky horror films and teen-angst movies. The result is more mash than smash as Jennifer’s Body squanders its initial good will by failing to deliver the goods on either score. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Words and story are still the lifeblood of a movie, and Jennifer's Body is filled like a Twinkie with half-fleshed-out ideas. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Jennifer’s Body falls into the dispiriting category of dumb movies made by smart people, in this case a glibly clever writer and a talented director who think a few wisecracks are enough to subvert the teen horror genre. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Cody’s script fails in the fundamentals. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderNoah Berlatsky
Overall, though, the flashes of competence just emphasize the extent to which the film has no idea what it's doing. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Jennifer's Body mixes, matches, and crosses three popular genres: horror, comedy, and teen angst. Unfortunately, it fails at all of them - and "fails" might be too kind a term. Read full review
20
SalonStephanie Zacharek
So contemptuous toward its own characters, and its audience, that it chokes off any visceral thrills it might have offered. The movie substitutes calculation for brains, and the filmmakers seem to think we'll all be too stupid to notice. Read full review
10
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
This is the sophomore production from "Juno" screenwriter Diablo Cody, similarly told through ultra-stylized slangy teen dialogue, which is cool, in theory, in the way it respects the verbal resourcefulness of idle flyover kids, but is excruciating to listen to in actual fact. Read full review
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