(L to R): Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Preview:
Director Karyn Kusama has offered an update on the ‘Jennifer’s Body’ sequel.
Original writer Diablo Cody is working on a script.
The 2009 original has become a cult favorite.
While it may not have set the box office alight back in 2009 (partly due to some questionable marketing decisions), horror comedy ‘Jennifer’s Body’, which starred Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, has become something of a cult classic.
And now its director, Karyn Kusama is confirming previous chatter that a sequel is in the works.
35943
Talking to Deadline, Kusama revealed that she had spoken to Diablo Cody, who wrote the original and learned some details about the sequel –– more on that below.
She’s also happy that the movie has a following:
“I’m just so grateful that the film managed to find its audience, perhaps on a different timeline than any of us might have expected or hoped for, but I’m just so thankful that the work continues to speak to people. I’m just so satisfied by that.”
Megan Fox in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
The 2009 film follows Jennifer Check (Fox), a demonically possessed high school student who kills her male classmates and devours their flesh in order to survive, while her bookworm best friend Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Seyfried) must find a way to end her killing spree.
What has Karyn Kusama said about the sequel?
Amanda Seyfried in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
This was what Kusama had to say about the sequel following Cody saying she was ready to write it and Seyfried had teased the possibility of one:
“I know she’s working on it right now, and I’m very excited to hear what comes of it. I know some of the bones of it, so I’m not going to give anything away, but it sounds fun and crazy like the first film. And I have no doubt that Diablo will do something absolutely incredible with it.”
When will the ‘Jennifer’s Body’ sequel be on screens?
With the movie still at a very nascent stage, there is zero word on when it might start shooting, let alone arrive in theaters.
Megan Fox in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Before ‘The Twilight Zone‘ or the movie ‘Magic,’ this horror anthology film gave us the definitively creepy relationship between a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) and his dummy. It’s the standout segment of stories told to a man who has a recurring dream of impending horror — if he can only remember what it is.
This poetic (but shocking) French horror film — about a disfigured girl whose father tries to build her a new face from those of women he abducts — was years ahead of its time. (And yes, it did inspire the Billy Idol song of the same name.)
A scene from 1975’s ‘Shivers’. Photo: Cinépix Film Properties.
Horror master David Cronenberg‘s first thriller is every bit as visceral as his later films. It plays like a twisted version of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers,’ in which a parasite turns an entire high-rise apartment building into sex-crazed predators intent on infecting everyone they see.
If you haven’t seen any films by Italian horror director Dario Argento, start with this operatic, blood-drenched chiller. It centers on a young ballerina who discovers her prestigious German ballet school is home to a coven of witches.
Isabelle Adjani won a César (the French Oscar) and Best Actress at Cannes for her role as a woman who tells her husband (Sam Neill) she wants a divorce. Soon after, her behavior becomes increasingly erratic and violent. One of the craziest horror movies you’ll ever watch.
A modern Japanese horror classic, its last 30 minutes sent people fleeing the theater. Here, a widower sets up a fake movie audition to find a new girlfriend. He chooses the quiet Asami, but he has no idea who she really is.
Never saw this black comedy/indie cannibal western starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle? You’re not alone, since critics didn’t know what to make of this horror hybrid when it first came out. But you should watch it right now. Or else.
Matthew McConaughey in ‘Frailty’. Photo: Starz Entertainment.
One day, the father of two young sons (Bill Paxton, who also directed this gem) reveals he’s been chosen by God to kill demons — who look just like ordinary people. One of those traumatized sons grows up to be Matthew McConaughey, a Texas cop who’s told his brother is the “God’s Hand” killer that the FBI has been hunting.
In this low-budget, deeply creepy thriller, a group of men are hired to clean the asbestos from an abandoned mental asylum. One of them begins listening to the therapy sessions on tape and, needless to say, it doesn’t end well.
You might have seen ‘The Strangers,’ about a terrifying home invasion, but did you know it’s a remake of this possibly even more horrifying French film?
Among the new wave of French horror films is this bloody, viscerally disturbing entry about a violent woman who stalks the pregnant Sarah. Why? So she can take her unborn baby.
A brilliant criminal defense attorney’s latest case involves a woman who claims she didn’t kill her husband. So who did? it was Kandisha, an ancient spirit who avenges abused women. David Carradine (‘Kill Bill: Vol. 2‘) and Saïd Taghmaoui (‘Wonder Woman‘) co-star in this Moroccan horror film that won several film fest awards.
Tom Noonan in ‘The House of the Devil’. Photo: MPI Media Group.
Ti West‘s homage to ’80s horror movies is so perfectly retro, it feels like a classic you’ve just stumbled across. One night, during a full moon, college student Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is hired to sit an unseen old woman at a creepy, isolated house. It slowly builds to one hell of a bloody ending.
Yes, this film got terrible reviews, but like so many others on this list, it’s worth a look. Megan Fox plays a Regina George-type who’s not just ‘high school evil” but “evil evil.” She’s a demon; a literal maneater who must be stopped by nice girl BFF Amanda Seyfried.
‘Oldboy‘ director Park Chan-wook spins a very different kind of vampire tale in which a priest volunteers for a medical experiment that turns him into the living dead. He soon finds a companion who’s far more bloodthirsty than he could ever be.
A scene from 2012’s ‘Kill List’. Photo: Optimum Releasing.
Before ‘High-Rise,’ director Ben Wheatley directed this thriller in which two ex soldiers become freelance hit men for a mysterious new employer. Bloody Disgusting called it “the #1 Horror Film” of 2012. It’s definitely the creepiest.
Appropriately enough, given its title, ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ is made up of parts sewn together from other, better movies: there’s a little ‘Edward Scissorhands’ in there, a seasoning of ‘Ginger Snaps,’ and even strands of screenwriter Diablo Cody’s own 2009 cult favorite, ‘Jennifer’s Body.’ But the messaging is confusing to say the least, the jokes miss the mark, and the direction – by first-timer Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Robin Williams – falls flat.
Following the death of her mom in a home invasion, Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) is forced to move to a new town and a new high school when her dad Dale (Joe Chrest) gets remarried rather quickly to high-strung nurse Janet (Carla Gugino). Despite the best efforts of her well-meaning but dim stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano), Lisa is an outcast and loner at school, pining from afar for the editor of the literary magazine while she sits in a local graveyard and writes poetry at the grave of what appears to be a young 19th century nobleman.
After her drink is cruelly spiked by a mean girl at a party, Lisa wanders in a hallucinatory daze to the graveyard, where she wishes she could be with the young man buried in that grave. But instead of ending her own life, Lisa somehow manages to reanimate the young man himself (Cole Sprouse), whose decaying, fetid, walking corpse she stashes in her walk-in closet.
Horrified at first, Lisa soon realizes that she’s attracted to her Victorian dreamboat as she begins to clean the accumulated grue off him and get him nicer clothes. She also ascertains that he’s quite fond of her – and sensitive to her needs – in ways that soon lead Lisa and her Creature (who is never named) on a path of vengeance against those who have wronged her.
Whatever happened to Diablo Cody? The writer of such sharp satires as ‘Juno,’ ‘Young Adult,’ and ‘Tully‘ has dipped with mixed results into the horror-comedy genre before with ‘Jennifer’s Body,’ but Cody is utterly flailing here. ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ plays like a first-draft screenplay that Cody had sitting on her hard drive for years, collecting digital dust, before sending it off with barely a glance at it. While Sprouse’s Creature actually gets a decent character arc (helped by the actor’s winning, wordless performance), Newton’s Lisa is literally all over the place, bouncing from pariah to school vamp within a single cut and even introducing a tired “loss of virginity” subplot late in the ballgame. The plot pushes the characters instead of the other way around, and aside from a few chuckles here and there, most of the jokes don’t land.
The ’80s setting arguably contributes nothing to the proceedings except some nostalgia-fueled costumes, set designs, and needle drops, and director Zelda Williams’ visual aesthetic – which also includes a clever, black-and-white animated title sequence – is on point. But Williams has no idea how to give this half-baked story any momentum, stringing out jokes from scene to scene with no sense of rhythm or pacing, and often leaving her actors adrift.
The final product plays – inadvertently, we assume – like a cheapo ‘80s direct-to-video horror knockoff, complete with some funny-not-funny gore and stiff staging, but armed with the kind of post-modern self-awareness that only makes its flaws stand out more.
Kathryn Newton has distinguished herself as a young actor to watch with film and TV roles in ‘Blockers,’ ‘Big Little Lies,’ ‘Freaky,’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ the latter of which introduced her as fledgling superhero and future Young Avenger Cassie Lang. But while the 26-year-old Newton effectively embodies a high school student here, the script gives her nothing else to work with. Her character’s motivations spin on a dime, buffeted by whatever the script requires, and giving us little with which to empathize with Lisa’s plight(s).
We’ll confess to not knowing Cole Sprouse’s previous work as Jughead on ‘Riverdale,’ or in his earlier Disney Channel efforts. But in a completely non-verbal role, Sprouse delivers an odd appeal and makes effective use of his own physicality. His reanimated Victorian lad is, ironically, perhaps the best-written character in the movie, even if the circumstances of his resurrection are nonsensical. Sprouse manages to bring some dignity to a role that is, especially early on, relegated to rather gross throat noises and a heavy load of goopy prosthetics.
The rest of the cast doesn’t get much of a chance to stand out, although Liza Soberano as Taffy has a few moments where she does something more than just the usual bubble-brained cheerleader trope. We also have to give a shout-out to Carla Gugino, a terrific actor who is given a thankless task here as the stereotypical cruel stepmom. Gugino understands the assignment as always, but is again hampered by the one-dimensional aspect of her shrill character and deserves better.
Aside from the appeal of both Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse – who are both severely hampered by the direction and writing – we can find little else to recommend about ‘Lisa Frankenstein.’ Diablo Cody’s script recycles elements of her work that she’s touched on before, but seems unpolished and unfinished. Director Zelda Williams, meanwhile, needs to focus less on clever imagery and more on making the characters and story come to life onscreen. This is a ‘Frankenstein’ monster that should be dispatched quickly and mercifully.
‘Lisa Frankenstein’ receives 3 out of 10 stars.
cn6M2Hmn9IbqtbqB9770U3
What is the Plot of ‘Lisa Frankenstein’?
In 1989, a misunderstood teenage goth girl named Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) reanimates a handsome corpse (Cole Sprouse) from the Victorian era during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams by using a broken tanning machine in her garage. After going through a playfully horrific transformation, the romantic duo embarks on a murderous journey to find true love, happiness, and a few missing body parts along the way.
