Jennifer’s Body has been one of my favourite movies since I first watched it as a teenager. In fact, I tried to rewatch it last Christmas Eve, but tragically, it wasn’t on any streaming services in my country.
The movie was a box office bomb, largely due to its awful marketing that mostly targeted young men who wanted to see Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried make out. The horror comedy has largely been critically reevaluated in the last two decades and is now considered a feminist cult classic, one that’s queer and transgressive in its portrayal of female friendship and horror.
I’m thinking about Jennifer’s Body today because Amanda Seyfried has told GQ that she’s “looking forward to a sequel” and “they’re working on it”. Just the idea of a sequel is cool – while nobody can be sure what this would look like, it would be incredibly interesting to see how it could play on Fox’s now established status as a sex symbol and bisexual icon, as well as dissect the way the media has ripped apart her image, made fun of her cosmetic work, and used her relationships as media fodder. Why not? That all sounds pretty horrifying to me.
Jennifer’s Body Deserves A Video Game
But that’s going to be a long way out, if it does even ever get made. Screenwriter Diablo Cody did recently pen Lisa Frankenstein, a movie in the same universe as Jennifer’s Body, and she’s explicitly said she wants to make a sequel, so it’s not out of the realm of imagination. I’d love to see it, as would countless fans of the film around the world, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
You know what else may never materialise? A Jennifer’s Body video game. That’s a segue if I’ve ever written one. I’m not the only one who’s been wanting to see the film’s characters in the gaming world. A quick search revealed that several people have posted to the Dead by Daylight subreddit about wanting to see Needy and Jennifer in the game, and have even shared full concepts for what those characters might look like.
For the uninitiated, Jennifer’s Body is about two best friends, Anita ‘Needy’ Lesnicki and Jennifer Check. Jennifer is popular and beautiful, Needy is nerdy and smart. Jennifer takes Needy to a dive bar to watch an indie rock band, where a fire breaks out and kills several people. Jennifer dips with the band, then shows up in Needy’s kitchen later that night, covered in blood. Basically, she’s been possessed due to a botched virgin sacrifice – she was very much not a virgin. She then spends most of the movie killing and eating teenage boys.
Related
Nichijou’s Absurdist Comedy Spirit Lives On In City: The Animation
From the creators of Nichijou comes yet another gorgeous anime comedy.
What Would A Jennifer’s Body Video Game Look Like?
Obviously, this pairing is ripe for Dead by Daylight-style gameplay – Needy as the survivor, Jennifer as the killer. But what about a standalone game? For some reason, I can’t help but think about Alan Wake 2. Needy would put together clues to piece together what’s happened to her best friend, as she does in the occult section of the library in the film. The combat would come in the scenes where Needy and Jennifer fight.
But that only works if you don’t know how the movie goes, so it’s a bad idea. How about a The Last of Us Part 2 type deal, where one protagonist is putting things together, and the other is cannibalising teenage boys? How about a prequel exploring how Jennifer and Needy became friends at all and why Jennifer is so clearly in love with her?
Look, there’s a reason I don’t make games, I just write about them. But I want a game that’s about being gay and the tumult of female adolescence, except it’s not Life is Strange, it’s horror, and you disembowel teenage boys who treat you badly. I don’t think it’s that much to ask.
Next
The Split Fiction Movie Is Guaranteed To Be Bad
It’s a fun game, but there’s basically no plot to it.