By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 1 hour ago

Something I have written about extensively before is how hard it is to find a good horror comedy because these films end up being either too funny to be scary or too scary to be funny. Rare indeed are the spooky films that can make you scream with laughter and cry out in fear, often in the same scene. Those are the films I treasure the most, and if you’re ready to bite into something both gloriously grisly and fatally funny, it’s time to stream Jennifer’s Body on Hulu.

The premise of Jennifer’s Body is that the titular Jennifer is a small high school’s resident mean girl who survives a fire at a dive bar but comes back different. Specifically, she comes back with an unquenchable desire to kill and eat men thanks to a pesky demon possession (hey, it happens to the best of girls). The only one who suspects something is amiss is her best friend, but unless this meek girl can find the inner fortitude necessary to stop her bloodlusting bestie, the entire town is in danger of becoming one big, Satanic feast.

Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body (2009)

The cast of Jennifer’s Body is surprisingly stacked, including Amanda Seyfried (the Oscar-nominated actor known best for Mean Girls and Les Misérables) as the best friend whose friend develops a bad case of resting demon face. Also starring in the film are two very different Marvel stars: J.K. Simmons (whom Marvel fans know best for portraying J. Jonah Jameson in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films) and Chris Pratt (known to MCU fans everywhere for portraying Guardians of the Galaxy lead Star-Lord). Even genre legend Lance Henriksen (who I will always remember best for the movie Aliens and the TV show Millennium) pops up near the end of the movie.

Those are just a few of the killer stars in Jennifer’s Body, but the best performance comes from leading lady Megan Fox, best known outside of this film for her starring role in the first two live-action Transformers movies. Jennifer has a deliciously devil-may-care attitude even before the demon possession, and afterward, Fox perfectly embodies both the character’s seductive charm and her insatiable thirst for blood. She’s every man’s dream and every man’s nightmare all rolled into one, and her performance will keep your eyes glued to the screen even as it makes your skin try to crawl right off your body.

Megan Fox owns the screen in Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Aside from Megan Fox’s performance (seriously, this is her best role ever, and I say that as the world’s biggest Transformers fan), Jennifer’s Body has a secret weapon: it was written by Diablo Cody, the whip-smart writer who penned the iconic film classic Juno. This horror movie unapologetically centers on the experiences of women, and arguably nobody writes women like Cody, which leads to some scary lines that perfectly channel the feminine rage of the modern American woman. 

To the rightful accusation “you’re killing people!”, Jennifer coolly responds, “No, I’m killing boys,” which outlines her murderous ethos while cleverly dehumanizing men in the same way that dude bros (both in the film and in the real world) constantly dehumanize women. Before you throw anything at me, the movie is far from “woke,” and the message never gets in the way of the plot. Rather, the sexual politics undergirding this film add a level of cultural resonance while making this bloody film a cut above most other horror movies.

Amanda Seyfried in Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Unfortunately, critics often hate horror movies, and Jennifer’s Body (despite all its clever subversion) is no exception. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 46 percent, with critics complaining that the movie’s clever dialogue didn’t make up for it being neither funny nor scary enough. With respect to these critics, they are completely wrong: the dialogue alone fills this movie with one laugh-out-loud moment after another, and Megan Fox’s performance makes for frightening scenes that you’ll think about long after the credits roll.

Will you agree that Jennifer’s Body is a modern horror classic, or will you agree with the critics that this demonic romp needed a little more time in Satan’s oven (Hell: the ultimate Easy-Bake)? You won’t know until you stream it on Hulu and experience all the devilish dialogue and cannibalistic charisma for yourself.

Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, and Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Afterward, you can join me and the rest of this cult classic’s fan club (there are dozens of us… dozens!) in hoping that this overlooked horror gem eventually gets its long-overdue sequel.

JENNIFER’S BODY REVIEW SCORE