On a substantive level, Jennifer’s Body makes sense. It’s a horror film (well, horror-comedy) that’s both written and directed by a woman in a genre typically dominated by men, and it stars two young women as both hero and villain. For this, Jennifer’s Body should be lauded for more than just Megan Fox’s physical attractiveness, as well as the fact that the brunette bombshell is given something she’s never really had before: a character. A brazen combination of high school conventions, subversive comedy and Diablo Cody’s unique skill with dialogue, Jennifer’s Body will definitely get tongues wagging… and get your mind of out the gutter.

But first, a disclaimer. Now I know that Cody’s writing style is not to everyone the cat’s pyjamas. The former exotic dancer collected an Oscar for her first screenplay, Juno, and whether you liked such cutesy phraseology like “Honest to blog” one can’t deny that her characters were imbued with a kind of charm and wit you don’t usually get in a lot of high school movies or high school movie characters. In Jennifer’s Body, we get the blog line’s upgrade as cheerleader Jennifer (Fox) writes off her best friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) with a well placed “Move on dot org” in reference to the progressive political website. Call me crazy, but I rather take this than have to listen to people use the F-bomb 70 times a piece through the course of a film.

So we’ve established that the movie is, perhaps unnecessarily, wordy. But Cody’s style does serve her well in the blending of horror and comedy as it did in the clash of teen-turns-grown up worries in Juno. Jennifer becomes the unwitting victim of an attempted human sacrifice by a musical band of emo kids looking for their big break through Satanism. Unfortunately, what they don’t realize is that Jennifer hasn’t been a virgin in a while and that she’s even “taken it in the back door,” and what they’ve done is merely open the door to the sexiest demon possession in the history of demon possession. Feeding on the blood of boys brings Jennifer’s sexy back, and only Needy seems able to pick up on the clues that her BFF is evil and not just high school evil.

Fox is able to portray that fairly well, and while this movie won’t win her an Academy Award, it does prove she’s capable of more than giving a film its recommended boost of T&A while running from giant, evil robots. Seyfried only barely manages to convince that she’s frumpy in the way Needy needs to be, but it’s not too far from the truth to say that a lot of the comedic timing and exposition is dependent on her. Returning for a new engagement in the Diablo-verse is J.K. Simmons as a high school science teacher who might be one of the most sympathetic and endearing teachers put to any recent high school set comedy; he’s certainly no Bueller-seeking Ben Stein fortunately. Newcomer Johnny Simmons should be sufficiently cute enough to give the females in the audience some eye candy of their own as Needy’s boyfriend and next name on Jennifer’s hit list.

But despite having all this going for itself, it felt like the movie wasn’t pushing the envelope far enough. Sure you’ve got ridiculous bits of titillation with Fox and Seyfried making out or Fox skinny dipping in a lake though edited to avoid any actual nudity, and the gore factor is oddly staid given the heady list of horror influences director Karyn Kusama mentioned at a Toronto Film Festival Q&A. It’s the disappointment of expectations, they could have done a lot more with the concept, but the film, at times, almost seems like more like merely Juno: The Horror Version. I will say though that there’s an undeniable fun factor to Jennifer’s Body, and at least they use what they have to make something enjoyable at the very least. Jennifer’s Body may be fantastic, but the movie is merely so-so.