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Extra Salty: Jennifer’s Body
Megan Fox, a diabolic indie rock band, toxic friendship, fluid sexuality, feminist reckoning, and a literal man-eater in the body of a high school Jennifer’s Body has it all
Featuring an original interview with director Karyn Kusama
What would be an easy sell in 2021 — women at the helm (screenwriter Diablo Cody, director Karyn Kusama), a bankable cast (Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried), and a deceptively complex skewering of gender politics — was a box office flop in 2009. In Extra Salty, Frederick Blichert flips the script on how Jennifer’s Body was labeled a failure to celebrate all that is scrumptious (as Jennifer would say) about supernatural horror, dark comedy, queer love, and a nuanced handling of gendered violence. The movie could have been to the aughts what Heathers was to the eighties, and it’s finally getting its due — whether in the flood of tenth-anniversary praise, the parade of Jennifer Halloween costumes, or Halsey’s nod to it (“Killing Boys”) on her platinum-selling album.
With insight into the genre’s cinematic tropes, our current cultural reckoning with misogyny, and an original interview with director Karyn Kusama, Extra Salty solidifies the status of Jennifer’s Body as a cult classic.
Featuring an original interview with director Karyn Kusama
What would be an easy sell in 2021 — women at the helm (screenwriter Diablo Cody, director Karyn Kusama), a bankable cast (Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried), and a deceptively complex skewering of gender politics — was a box office flop in 2009. In Extra Salty, Frederick Blichert flips the script on how Jennifer’s Body was labeled a failure to celebrate all that is scrumptious (as Jennifer would say) about supernatural horror, dark comedy, queer love, and a nuanced handling of gendered violence. The movie could have been to the aughts what Heathers was to the eighties, and it’s finally getting its due — whether in the flood of tenth-anniversary praise, the parade of Jennifer Halloween costumes, or Halsey’s nod to it (“Killing Boys”) on her platinum-selling album.
With insight into the genre’s cinematic tropes, our current cultural reckoning with misogyny, and an original interview with director Karyn Kusama, Extra Salty solidifies the status of Jennifer’s Body as a cult classic.
94 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 5, 2021
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 28, 2025
Finally, some good Jennifer’s Body discourse.
This weird little movie has been a masterpiece since its release in 2009 but only now is the world finally waking up to that fact.
Saying the film was “ahead of its time” feels trite, yet somehow inescapable.
How else do you talk about a bloody, self-aware, horror comedy starring, written, and directed by women? A film dealing with topics like bodily autonomy, ineffectual community responses to trauma, and messy codependent queer love? And all of that for a movie that came out in 2009 in an era before #MeToo and when people like Harvey Weinstein were still running around being powerful creeps?
From the excellent acting to the nuanced script to the snappy dialogue (a little cheesy at times but that’s part of the charm) this book details all the ways Jennifer’s Body is an overlooked classic in desperate need of reappraisal. It offers context, insight and interpretation in a way that feels at once accessible and profound. Extra Salty also benefits from direct quotes based on interviews with the director Karyn Kusama and writer Diablo Cody.
I’ve seen the movie a few times and still learned a lot ,this volume would serve as an excellent introduction or companion to the film.
This weird little movie has been a masterpiece since its release in 2009 but only now is the world finally waking up to that fact.
Saying the film was “ahead of its time” feels trite, yet somehow inescapable.
How else do you talk about a bloody, self-aware, horror comedy starring, written, and directed by women? A film dealing with topics like bodily autonomy, ineffectual community responses to trauma, and messy codependent queer love? And all of that for a movie that came out in 2009 in an era before #MeToo and when people like Harvey Weinstein were still running around being powerful creeps?
From the excellent acting to the nuanced script to the snappy dialogue (a little cheesy at times but that’s part of the charm) this book details all the ways Jennifer’s Body is an overlooked classic in desperate need of reappraisal. It offers context, insight and interpretation in a way that feels at once accessible and profound. Extra Salty also benefits from direct quotes based on interviews with the director Karyn Kusama and writer Diablo Cody.
I’ve seen the movie a few times and still learned a lot ,this volume would serve as an excellent introduction or companion to the film.
Displaying 1 of 1 review