Jennifer's Body Discussion Questions

1) What parallels do you see between the horrors in Jennifer's Body and those in Rosemary's Baby? Use specific examples from both narratives in your response.

2) What is horrifying about Jennifer's Body? Why do you think the director chose that as the title of the film?

3) What cultural conditions or real life horrors lead to the imagined horrors in Jennifer's Body?
             Consider: (location + time period 2009

4) The devil or the demonic is often used in horror narratives as a point of inversion. What normal aspects of the laws of nature, gender norms or other norms does Jennifer as a succubus demon invert, and to what ends?

5) Apply the same logic to Rosemary's Baby--how does the devil or the idea of a demon seed invert norms of motherhood, or other cultural norms in the story?

5) In almost all critical writings on the horror film, woman is conceptualised only as victim. In The Monstrous-Feminine Barbara Creed challenges this patriarchal view by arguing that the prototype of all definitions of the monstrous is the female reproductive body. The seven faces of the monstrous feminine are the archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother and castrator. Her argument is that man fears woman as castrator. How does Jennifer exemplify the monstrous feminine? Is she simply a victim? Why or why not?

6) Jennifer plays with a few common tropes in horror movies, including that of the "hot girl." How is "the hot girl" usually viewed in horror films? How does the director complicate Jennifer, making her more than just a "hot girl"? What does she reveal about the burdens or vulnerabilities of a "hot girl"? Also, in what ways is Jennifer unlikeable or repugnant as a character? Why do you think this is important?

6) The film opens with this statement: "hell is a teenage girl." What do you think that means, in context of the film and its horrors?




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