Penned by Oscar-winning script scribbler Diablo Cody, this smart-mouthed screamfest puts her razor wire writing in less capable hands.

Humdrum direction and perfunctory performances make it a disappointing follow-up to Juno, but there's enough scabrous teen spite to keep Jennifer's Body from going completely rotten.

High schoolers Anita 'Needy' Lesnicki (Seyfried) and Jennifer Check (Fox) have been best buddies since they were tiny, but adolescence threatens to weaken their bond.

While Needy has grown up to be shy, plain and quick witted, Jennifer has become a supremely confident stunner with all the depth of a puddle in Dubai.

Dragged along by Jen to see sinister indie band Low Shoulder, Needy narrowly escapes death when the venue bursts into flames.

Her best mate, meanwhile, takes off with the group only to arrive at Needy's house a few hours later, puking black blood and looking like she's been hit by a truck.

Making a miraculous recovery the next day, it soon becomes clear that something is very wrong with Jennifer, her predatory pursuit of the local boys taking a sinister turn when she begins tearing them open and chomping on their guts.

With her boyfriend all set to become the next victim, Needy must fight to prevent her former BFF from making another horribly mangled conquest.

A deliciously trashy concept and some decent one-liners get swallowed up in this messy comedy horror that's not funny or scary enough to honour either genre.

Seyfried and the much-hyped Fox fumble gold-plated dialogue that Juno's Ellen Page would have smacked you across the face with, and while Fox exudes a formidable sensuality, her stilted line readings are a real turn off.

Although some of the writing seems acerbic for the sake of it - as if Cody is trying too hard to introduce hip new phrases into the lexicon – there's nevertheless an infectious sense of throwaway fun at the heart of Jennifer's Body.

Unfortunately, Girlfight director Kusama never quite gets the tone right, the catty Heathers-like adolescent angst sitting uncomfortably with the half-baked supernatural horror elements.

Bad pacing and an interminable finale don't help matters but that doesn't mean that Jennifer's Body is an entirely lifeless corpse.

Likely to strike a chord with the turbulent teens Cody captures so well, this vividly lurid tale has cult movie written all over it and may well enjoy a healthy afterlife if it stiffs at the cinema.

Chris Prince