After writing "Juno," which Diablo Cody describes as a warm, sweet, life-affirming movie, she wanted to venture into darker territory. "I wanted to write something that was about my fears, something that was a little edgy and eerie, but also funny," Cody notes. "So I started thinking about what's scary to me, and I decided that girls are scary!"

As in "Juno," Cody uses an offbeat writing voice marked by whip-smart dialogue and pop-culture savvy, to mine the precipitous terrain of adolescence. "I don't know why teenagers are my muses...they just are!" she says. "Teenagers inspire me. I'm fascinated with teen speak...with youth culture. I love adolescents because they're in a kind of purgatory. They're not kids anymore, and at the same time they don't have adult responsibilities. So they're just experiencing life, but with all these heightened emotions."

"It was in the midst of all the 'Juno' madness during awards season that I read JENNIFER'S BODY for the first time," Jason Reitman recalls. "I was really excited to read it because I knew Diablo was an enormous fan of the horror genre, and I go see every horror film that comes out. I see more horror films than I see comedies. I was just floored by the JENNIFER'S BODY screenplay because it really scared me, and at the same time, really made me laugh."

Horror and humor may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but Reitman takes a different view. "They are very close siblings. I think they're more related than other film genres," he says. "Both horror and comedy require a storyteller who wants to manipulate the audience. You can sit back and watch a drama, and it'll just kind of wash over you. The person who wants to tell a horror or comedy story is someone who wants to reach in and force the audience to do something, either to laugh or to be scared."

Cody admits that even though there wasn't a specific Jennifer in her life, she has certainly encountered her fair share of girls who cannibalized the people around them. "I think back-biting is a very accurate term, and in this case, it's literal," she quips. "This movie is a commentary on girl-on-girl hatred, sexuality, the death of innocence, and also politics in the way the town responds to the tragedies [of the bloody deaths of several young men]. Any person who dares to respond in an unconventional way is branded a traitor. It's also just about fun - I wanted to write a really entertaining popcorn movie."

"At some point in the process I realized that every type of boy gets it in this film," says Reitman. "The jock gets it. The sweet nerd gets it. The Goth kid gets it. This may just be Diablo's revenge on every type of boy she's ever met. If 'Juno' is the film that speaks to her need for love, JENNIFER'S BODY is the film that speaks to her need for revenge."

Check out 10 images from the film in IESB's JENNIFER'S BODY gallery by clicking on the image below!

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