She told us last issue that she hoped she wouldn’t be the catastrophic Jar Jar Binks of this saucy horrorcom – and Megan Fox can rest easy.
Yes, she’s vapid, unrealistic and she sucks (literally), but that’s the aim of the game. And that knowing twinkle in her eye invites us to go along for the ride as this vehicle takes a decent stab at satirising teen slashers, high school cliques and her own vampy image.
But then, it would be hard to not be deliciously arch with a script by Juno scribe Diablo Cody that’s loaded with gimmicky teen-speak (hot boys are ‘salty morsels’, turned on is ‘getting a wetty’) and one-liners.
So all ‘The Fox’ has to do is show up and play dumb and sexy as high school man-eater Jennifer, who becomes possessed by a flesh-eating demon after a night out at the local fleapit. She’s soon leaving a trail of male victims looking like “lasagne with teeth”.
The only person onto her is best mate Needy (Seyfried), a timid blonde, who we know is a geek because she wears glasses. Overshadowed Needy adores Jennifer but even she won’t stand for an evil BFF…
Though it’s more camp and try-hard than her razor-sharp debut and seems unsure of its barbed message, Cody’s scattergun piss-take of fame-whores, classroom clichés and school yard fantasies is still a superior slice of snarky, entertaining escapism. And hey, it features Fox skinny-dipping, snogging girls and wearing a cheerleading outfit. Ticks enough boxes, right?
While Karyn Kusama’s (Girlfight, Aeon Flux) direction never shifts above workmanlike, her cast certainly have fun with their roles.
The OC’s Adam Brody is a hoot playing an emo band singer in guyliner, JK Simmons rocks an inexplicable prosthetic arm as the dippy school principal and Seyfried is the sweetest foil to Fox’s bad-gal, allowing the raven-haired minx to shine but ultimately walking away with the movie.
It’s all, y’know, pretty salty.
