Diablo Cody, the now-celebrated ex-stripper who wrote “Juno,” is here at Toronto with “Jennifer’s Body,” starring Megan Fox, who of course has inspired paparazzi fever at the festival. It’s sort of a “Twilight” for boys, with Fox in the Robert Pattinson role, except that Pattinson was shirtless and to the dismay of her fans Fox is not. Cody’s character Juno has undergone is a 180-degree reversal, with the heroine now transformed into a fiend who eats the flesh of teenage boys. Can you imagine Juno’s poor boyfriend, Michael Cera, covered with steak sauce?

Fox did her career a lot of good with the two “Transformer” movies, but this is her first chance to really act, and you know what? She comes through. She has your obligatory projectile vomiting scene and somehow survives it, she plays the role straight, and she looks convincing in a blood-drenched dress with her hair all straggly.

The film is directed by Karen Kusama, who in the splendid “Girlfight” (2000) introduced Michelle Rodriguez. She handles this material efficiently and with a certain relish. It’s not art, it’s not “Juno,” it’s not “Girlfight” for that matter, but as a movie about a flesh-eating cheerleader, it’s better than it has to be.

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