Jennifer’s body: Jennifer’s real soul was trying to escape.

Theory: Jennifer’s real soul was trying to escape after she was possessed by the succubus.

I have theory about Jennifer’s body that may or may not make sense, but I think it’s interesting. Hear me out.

So in Jennifer’s Body, if someone dies while not being a virgin in the sacrifice, they resurrect as a succubus and must feed on the flesh of humans to live. And the only way to actually release the demon is through a knife to the heart.

“Release the demon.”

This is interesting because in cases like vampires, the only way for them to die is a steak through the heart, which will break the curse, because vampirism is a curse.  However, when they’re undead, still “living” in their body, they still retain their personality, hobbies and interests as they did when they were humans, because they’re undead, just like Jennifer. Jennifer still remains her same personality and behavior as she did in the beginning before the ritual, but now she’s been overtaken by a demonic force. But at times in the movies, it seems like she’s fighting something else that’s internal.

What if Jennifer’s mortal soul is still inside her body and trying to fight with the demon that’s also living inside her?

In the scene with the picture I put up there, Jennifer is putting on makeup and getting ready for the dance, but she’s also crying. You could chalk this up to her being hungry, since the demon gets weaker without flesh, but it seems more symbolic. You could also chalk this up to her insecurity pouring out, and trying to cover it up with her looks, but what if those fears are from the real Jennifer trying to fight off the demon and failing so? What if she’s crying because she’s giving audience a sign the real Jennifer is in there? That her tears are part of her soul leaking out, but the demon is stronger and that’s why she covering them up with makeup, symbolizing the battle between the two and who’s winning, which would be even more interesting because Jennifer uses her looks as a weapon, and the demon knows that she could hold this over Jennifer who is deep down super self conscious, in turn Jennifer’s need to be pretty is stronger than her need to be free, ultimately taking advantage of Jennifer’s vulnerability.

Throughout the movie, as I rewatch there’s multiple times where Jennifer seems to be switching between two people. For example, in the fight scene with Needy, Needy rips off Jennifer’s friendship necklace which causes Jennifer to pause her attack. If Needy didn’t do this, Jennifer would’ve most likely either killed or harmed her, but it’s like Jennifer suddenly snapped out of what trance she was in. In the beginning scene when they’re at each other’s locker, Jennifer is playing with the necklace while talking to Needy. It’s like Needy is a key to her humanity in a way, despite the horrible treatment she put Needy through. The demon knew this, as this will get into my next point, but continuing, when the connection to Needy was ripped off, the real spirit of Jennifer became stronger than the Demon, which is why the demon didn’t seem to fight Needy off when she had the chance, Jennifer was now in control and didn’t want to kill her best friend, she wasn’t going to let it happen like how she didn’t want to kill those boys either.

Into my next point, the demon was mimicking  
Jennifer’s behavior. I notice from the beginning of the film to the end, Jennifer’s personality seemed much more, how can I say it, exaggerated? Yes, from the start we already knew the type of person she was, vain, mean and egotistical. But, there was still that innocence and awkwardness of every teenage girl. In the scene where they’re heading to the bar, Jennifer starts pushing Needy around with some force, they all are laughing but you can tell Needy and Chip seem a bit weirded out by the interaction, while Jennifer is oblivious to the vibe around her, she just keeps laughing and pushing Needy. In the bar scene, she flirts with one of the band members in Low Shoulder, and you’d think from how popular and successful she is with boys, this would be a breeze, but no. She’s super awkward, stuttering over her words, and timid.  She quotes “I can’t wait till I’m old enough to get wasted.” Showing her obvious age and that she still in a way, follows rules. After the ritual, when she gets back to school, she interrupts class, is rude to her teacher and laughs about the fires. While we don’t get any prior scene of how she is in a classroom setting, it seems out of character for her if we reflect on what she said at the bar, she respects authority, which is why she waits till she’s drinking age to get wasted, because that’s the law. We can assume to apply this with authority in school. But with the demon living inside her,  all that seems to change, including her way with boys. That childlike sense is gone, she has much more perceived confidence and snide to her, example is how she flirted with Colin.

We can also apply this to the opposite, with Needy, when Jennifer was alive, she seemed much more crass and harsh with her attitude towards her best friend, there wasn’t really a moment of softness and vulnerability between them before the ritual except for the bar scene when they’re holding hands. After she changes, she has much more “nice” moments, telling Needy about how PMS is sexist, how she could never hurt Needy, the kissing scene etc, and yes, she still treated Needy awfully, I have to wonder was she much more “kinder” after her transformation because she realized how alone she really was, and that she never considered going through such a tragedy obviously, but now that she did, the only person who can really understand and be there for her is her best friend, and in a way she’s sucking up to Needy a bit which is her way of winning over the demon in that aspect, by showing her humanity side.

I really love the ending where she says “my tit.” After being stabbed, it shows that even after such a horrible act, she still cares about her appearance. But one thing I noticed was the way Jennifer looked at Needy as she was being stabbed in the heart. There wasn’t a look or pain or discomfort, and while yes, the demon has high pain tolerance, as shown when it gets stabbed with a pole and continues home normally, I interpret it as Jennifer’s real soul looking through Needy and thanking her, thanking her for releasing this spirit that is controlling her. The look on her face seems to be admiration, which can also be a tale of Jennifer finally seeing how strong Needy has become, something she was scared of in the past, but now thankful, it’s also a factor that the first way Jennifer died, was by men. Boys have always been a detrimental influence on Jennifer, as she craved their validation, yet still ended hurt and used. (That weird cop who was preying on her at the bar, Roman I think his name is.) This situation she was in happened because of men, and now that’s she’s finally let out, it’s by the only person she really trusts, the only person who really saw something in her besides a pretty face, not to mention, Jennifer represents a lot of repressed female homosexuality, so put two and two together.

All in all, I don’t think Jennifer’s mortal soul was gone.

By the way, at the end if you didn’t notice, Jennifer gets her color back when she dies. And something else, the mirror scene when Jennifer burns her tongue, that can be the demon playing with its new fresh body. Just some food for thought!