Why Rock Band Paramore Turned Down Writing The End Credits Song Of This Horror Cult Classic
The 2009 horror-comedy "Jennifer's Body" received mixed-to-negative reviews upon its release, but it's now a cult classic. The movie arrived in theaters following a marketing campaign that played up the slasher angle and star Megan Fox's sex appeal, but it's really more like "Heathers" with a horror twist.
Amanda Seyfried stars in the film as Needy, a high school girl who's best friends with popular-girl Jennifer (Fox). The local, unremarkable band Low Shoulder then kidnaps Jennifer and sacrifices her in a ritual to give them fame and fortune. Since she isn't a virgin, however, the ritual turns her into a boy-eating succubus instead.
Without the shadow of the marketing's false impression, "Jennifer's Body" has been reclaimed and become surprisingly influential. Screenwriter Diablo Cody has since written a companion piece (2024's "Lisa Frankenstein"), while director Karyn Kusama has gone on to produce and direct on the thriller series "Yellowjackets." The relationship between Jackie (Ella Purnell) and Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is a toxic friendship right out of "Jennifer's Body," except there, the sidekick is the jealous and cannibalistic one.
The "Jennifer's Body" soundtrack mixes the vintage with the new, including "Teenagers" by Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams. "Teenagers" isn't listed as a Paramore song, but the band was almost featured in the movie.
While promoting her (excellent) solo album "Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party" on the New York Times' "Popcast," Williams revealed that she "turned down the end credits [song] of 'Jennifer's Body'" as a favor to Paramore's former guitarist, Josh Farro. "I guess growing up fundamental Christian, [the movie] didn't agree [with him]," Williams explained, which explains why "Teenagers" is a Williams solo, not a Paramore song. After all, "Jennifer's Body" is, as the "Popcast" hosts put it, a "demonic film." ("It's the best kind [of film]," Williams smiled.)
Jennifer's Body was too demonic for Paramore's Josh Farro
Paramore was founded in 2004 in Tennessee by Williams, Farro and his drummer brother Zac, guitarist Jason Bynum, and bassist Jeremy Davis. Williams and the Farros were all raised Christian and met through a homeschooling program, so Christianity is inseparable from Paramore's origins.
After their first two albums ("All We Know Is Falling" and "Riot!"), Paramore contributed to the "Twilight" soundtrack in 2008 with two songs: lead single "Decode" and "I Caught Myself." "Twilight" attracted a similar audience as "Jennifer's Body," so it makes sense that the makers of "Jennifer's Body" offered Paramore their end credits song. Apparently, vampires weren't a bridge too far for Farro, but Satanic possession was.
The end credits song of "Jennifer's Body" was instead self-referential. The movie shares a title with a song from Hole's 1994 album "Live Through This." The end credits of "Jennifer's Body" plays the opening "Live Through This" track, "Violet."
It's just as fitting a choice as "Jennifer's Body" itself would be. "Violet" is about a toxic relationship about to implode from resentment and how men sap women's life. (The chorus features lead singer Courtney Love shouting: "Go on, take everything!") It's a song that reflects Jennifer's relationship with Needy but also how Low Shoulder exploited her.
As for Paramore, Josh Farro left the band in 2010, releasing a lengthy blog post that criticized Williams and cited his faith as a reason to leave. He's since attracted criticism, including from many Paramore fans, for homophobia, like calling homosexuality a "perversion" and equivalent to pedophilia.
Williams herself called Farro "an ass" on "Popcast" and previously wrote in 2020 (on her now-deactivated Twitter account), "There's a reason there are only 3 people left in [Paramore]. Surprise, haters, it ain't cause of me."
Hayley Williams has grown into the artist we need
Williams has said before that she "doesn't think [faith is] a conversation that should be had in blanket statements." Even so, there's a clear contrast between her admittedly conservative upbringing and her current progressivism. Williams speaks her values and welcomes all also-welcoming fans into the Paramore flock. (Take how Paramore has a large following in the Black community.)
You can see Williams "deconstructing [her] faith" as early as Paramore's 2009 album, "Brand New Eyes." (Farro even cited some of the album's lyrics in his reason for leaving.) True to its title, the album is about coming to see once accepted things with new disillusionment: The Guillermo del Toro-flavored "Brick by Boring Brick" is a song about needing to stop living in childhood fantasies, while the opening line of "Turn It Off" is "I scraped my knees while I was praying."
Circling back to "Ego Death," one of its standout songs is "True Believer," which Williams performed on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." Williams sings of how places full of memories in her hometown Nashville are vanishing due to gentrification ("Kill the soul, turn a profit") and hypocritical evangelicalism of supposed true believers. "True Believer" also name-drops "Strange Fruit," an anti-lynching protest song, and says to "Till the roots, Southern Gotham." Williams has confirmed that "Till" refers to Emmett Till, a Black boy murdered in a hate crime in 1955 Mississippi.
As for "Gotham," Williams said she became "obsessed with 'The Penguin'" due to its portrayal of urban corruption and was tributing Nashville's "Batman building." Paramore missed out on the "Jennifer's Body" end credits song, but maybe they can get on "The Batman Part II" soundtrack. It wouldn't be the first time they've made a song for a Robert Pattinson movie.