How I wanted to love this film.

On paper it sounds great - written by Diablo Cody in the same year she penned teen comedy hit Juno.

Starring Amanda Seyfried who, while admittedly cheesy in Mamma Mia!, was pure brilliance in Mean Girls.

Megan Fox is either sending herself up, or being sent up by someone else - never mind which - as the sexy airhead high school bitch.

The "frenemy" plot should make for some great comedy dialogue.

And somehow Adam Brody actually really works in the role of band frontman with an occult obsession.

But throw all these elements together and it falls a bit flat.

Jennifer's Body sees BFFs Jennifer (Fox) and Needy (Seyfried) escape miraculously unharmed from a burning bar where Nikolai's (Brody) struggling rock band are playing.

Half of Devil's Kettle, the town where they live, are killed in the fire, but worse is to come for the survivors - Nikolai has taken a shine to Jennifer after hearing Needy's lie that her friend is a virgin, and drives her off into the night in the band's van.

Needy, ever the geeky and unattractive friend, heads home to her nice guy boyfriend Chip (Simmons), while Jennifer realises the band are up to no good as they drive her into the woods.

It turns out Nikolai believes the only way for his band to break out of the ranks of samey outfits is to sacrifice a virgin - only Jennifer has lied about her virginity, so instead she turns into a boy-eating zombie.

While the rest of Devil's Kettle grieves the fire victims and the boys who are being picked off one by one, Nikolai and his band are becoming huge stars with their tribute song to the Devil's Kettle fire.

Meanwhile, Needy has realised something is up with Jennifer - mainly because her friend has started appearing out of nowhere covered in blood and vomiting black spiky stuff. But Chip, who thinks his nerdy girlfriend and the high school It Girl are badly matched anyway, thinks it's nothing but a good opportunity to cut loose from Jennifer.

No one heeds Needy's warnings until the climactic prom horror when Jennifer goes boy crazy in a completely different way to her classmates.

Megan Fox is deliciously hateable as best friend from hell Jennifer, and Amanda Seyfried is back on top comedy form as the geeky, overlooked sidekick.

The opening scenes promise a much better film than what we actually get. While it's not awful, it's a disappointing experience to constantly be expecting this to turn into either a really hilarious comedy or a really terrifying horror, and being rewarded with neither.

What a great premise for a film. What a great disappointment it didn't manage to rise above the ordinary.

Film Facts

Rating: 3 stars

Cert: 15

Genre: Comedy Horror

Director: Karyn Kusama

Starring: Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!), Megan Fox (Transformers), Johnny Simmons (Hotel For Dogs), Adam Brody (The O.C.)

Memorable lines: "Jennifer's actually evil. Not high school evil"

Did you know? The film title comes from the song Jennifer's Body by Courtney Love's band Hole

Verdict: A bit flat