I’ve seen some good reviews about this movie on the internet, but I have also seen a LOT of reviews ripping into it as well.
I have been a fan of horror since I was a kid. I started watching them at around twelve, but, that wasn’t the first time I had seen one. Just the first time I started enjoying them. This 2009 movie is the last modern one that I have seen and enjoyed.
The movie is a campy, raunchy, dark comedy throwback to the 70s – 80s horror movie. It is done very well, the acting is better than the throwbacks that it makes me recall, and of course the special effects are better.
To sum up the plot a popular small town girl is mistakenly thought to be a virgin by a big city band as they look for a sacrifice in order to cheat their way to stardom by making a pact with evil. Because the girl wasn’t pure she was possessed by a demon instead of just killed. Her close bond with her best friend compelled her to come back to the small town where she proceeds to kill multiple teenage boys in order to keep herself powered up and looking perfect. The best friend figures out that she is evil and starts to try to defeat her but not before the popular girl kills her boyfriend.
There is a undertone to the movie that makes me believe that the movie plot can be seen in multiple different ways. The writer and director talk about girl power, and other themes in the film that I just don’t see when I watch it. You can listen to their commentary on the DVD. I like to do that once I watched a film at least once.
For me it seems to be a coming of age, sexual confusion undertone. Jennifer and Needy seem to have this weird emotionally co-dependent and slightly romantic nature to their friendship. When Jennifer comes back possessed she decides not to eat Needy even though everything in her was telling her to do it. Two of her targets are boys that made her jealous or angry because of the attention they gave to Needy or that Needy gave to them. The demon because of Jennifer’s psyche chose to revolve around Needy. I fully think that had Needy not decided to kill her that the demon would never have hurt her physically. Though she also would have continued to isolate, mentally/emotionally abuse, and use Needy because the demon enhanced the worst traits of Jennifer who also did a softer version of that before hand.
There are scenes in the film that showcase how confused Needy is about her emotional and romantic responses to Jennifer even from the beginning of the film. Jennifer however seems to know what is going on and uses it to manipulate Needy ever so slightly. Though the demons actions ultimately show that under the surface Jennifer cared more for Needy than she cared to show or even tell Needy. In the final scene when Needy eventually rips the BFF necklace off her and throws it the floor the demon just stops fighting as if realizing that it had pushed too far or like a small portion of Jennifer was still in there and forced the demon to allow Needy to kill her especially after it was able to bite her to transfer some of itself to Needy to continue the mayhem. With the passion and revenge that Needy has within her the demon HAD to know that she would go after the evil band Low Shoulder who had benefited from corrupting her BFF and all the death that surrounded the demon the way she had gone after it for the death of the boyfriend.
Ultimately I think that people watching this movie that decided to call it crap, bad acting, etc. just went in with too much expectation. Even when I first saw a trailer I knew it was going to be a campy fun horror movie not some award winning artistic film. If you like things that will make you laugh, give you some hot girl/girl vibes, and not take itself too seriously I really do think you need to watch this movie. I didn’t give everything away above and in order to really appreciate the movie you need to watch it with all the awesome dialogue in it.
Derek's Mindscape 