Jennifer’s Body, written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) is due in theaters on September 18th. One of the contributers to the blog Feministing has these thoughts on the lead up to the film:
The lingering question is, were Cody and Kusama really able to subvert some of these cliches in order to make smart, feminist commentary on them, or will they just play like good ol’ fashioned objectification and sexism (think all the homophobes laughing their asses off at Bruno)? Cody, who called the script a “crazy, chaotic homage” to the horror films of her youth, told the Times: “The tricky thing is if you’re going to subvert those tropes, they have to be there. We were constantly bobbing and weaving. Karyn and I talk about the film as a kind of Trojan horse. We wanted to package our beliefs in a way that’s appealing to a mainstream audience.”
The Trojan horse technique is a hard pill to hustle; it requires a degree of stealth and misdirection that sometimes works, especially in horror (see Night of the Living Dead), but often falls flat on its face.