Jeepers Creepers

I must say, I was expecting a lot worse from this film. The whole first half is genuinely scary. Although the brother and sister's rivalry was played up just a bit too much, their characters were still a lot more believable than most modern scare films. Their dialogue was especially natural, and didn't contain a single "oh my god, like, did I just totally see, like, an undead demon, or is it just me?" which I praise the writers for (there's only so many times Buffy the Vampire Slayer can say lines like that before I start doing a little slaying of my own). Despite the constant squabbling the kids do, you can still warm up to them enough to feel empathic about their plight. The cinematography was excellent, my favourite scene being the long pan up the side of the church. The music and sound were cued perfectly and conveyed a true sense of fear, anxiety and isolation.

Unfortunately, the second half of the movie really suffers. Like so many other movies, once the killer/monster is revealed the whole thing goes down hill. It goes from relying on X-files-like suspense to bland gore and a cliché monster suit. Top it off with some overacting "we're not taking any crap" police officers and a poorly acted psychic lady and you turn what could have been a gem of a scary movie into a second rate dud. The biggest disappointment was the end. It was horribly tacked on in a desperate attempt at being a shocker.

Other then the whole second half, the only other complaint I have is regarding the DVD. The menus show clips from the movie which essentially run in sequence, and if you pay attention to them, they spoil just about everything. Where they are, what the monster looks like, etc. I haven't bothered to watch the menus all the way through but with any luck they spoil the ending too (but that's not really so bad in this case).

For all it's worth I thought that Jeepers Creepers was great. A lot of people have critisized this film and just did'nt like it. The only flaw in the film was the reason for them to return to the church where they saw the mysterious man. If that would have been anyone in their right mind they would have drivin as far away as posssable. I thought that Trish should have been knocked out to awaken only to find her brother gone. The only place for her to start looking would have been the church.Other than that the film was a blast. The creature was great and one of the scariest I've seen in a while. Very imagiantive and constantly asking what the hell IS THAT? As in any horror film it is ment to be entertaining. If you watched the whole thing without hitting the eject button then you must have had some intrest in it. Victor has brought back a return to the old style creature feature films that I loved in the day and hope to see him make some more in the future.

While the movie has a few glaringly laughable scenes of characters reacting stupidly (particularly the main actress), it gets off to a great start right away and a consistent feeling of dread, catalyzed by curiosity, which keeps you immersed. Justin Long is excellent in a serious role despite my preference of him being funny, though there is some of that, too. In fact the bits of satire here and there must be appreciated. Certain realisms such as how Justin's character reacts to a horrifying scene in the beginning was depicted really well and laudable especially in the face of other situations portrayed terribly. Effects were pretty good, albeit a bit cringe at times, but the low budget and gritty feel to the flick definitely added an unease to its horror vibe. Moreover, the creativity; this isn't a slasher flick, but a hybrid sort of creature feature. The ending, I really gotta give props for - unexpected, and it made me like it even more. I'd have given it a 7 before the ending.

Jeepers Creepers was a fresh and unique movie when it came out. It was creepy, had some good jump scares and enough gorey horror content to satisfy the youthful audience at the time who demanded to see it. Jeepers Creepers has stood the test of time and gone on to become one of horror's greatest franchises. The movies are often talked about (for the good and the bad) and debated (mostly about the director) but, at the end of the day, this franchise's first entry will be remembered for many years to come.

Every 23 years for 23 days, the creeper gets to feast. It's an interesting concept, and a double-edged sword: it creates an urgency for the creeper as it stalks its prey, but it also causes extreme limitations in terms of sequel planning because the creeper is only around for that limited period of time (it's like Disney with their moratorium program; get it before it's gone for years to come!). The acting in this movie is about what you would expect from a slasher. It's campy, but nobody approaches one of those movies expecting a Shakespearean production. Where Salva's first horror effort, Clownhouse, was boring and fell flat, when Salva approached Jeepers Creepers, he really had his finger on the pulse of America. He knew that people wanted to see, what they were scared of, and what would make for a good movie. A lot of elements in this movie are dated (particularly the effects), but on the whole this movie is still fun to watch and stood up relatively well. I prefer the second one to the original, but this will always be one of the true greats of horror.

I found parts of this movie, mainly the beginning to be very promising. I really thought that it was going to be an 'on the edge of your seat' horror film and the opening had all the tension and weirdness that one needs to set that kind of atmosphere. But as the movie progressed, even though it never sunk to being bad or even mediocre (no Friday the 13th B.S. here), I think it became a little bit of a disappointment because it didn't live up to the promise that it made in the beginning. And although I like to let my mind fill in the blanks, there was a lot that went unexplained that made it so that I wasn't really satisfied by the time it finished. I didn't recognize the names of the actors or the director, and they were neither here nor there for me - that's not to say that I thought the performances were bad, they definitely were fitting and on the mark for the genre. It's just that they didn't really stick out for me.

All of the above being said, if the movie was on cable on a cold winter night, I'd probably relent and watch it again - it's certainly better than most in it's category, but would I recommend it as a 'great' film? No, probably not.