Jeepers Creepers 2

Not since the early days of Wes Craven thrillers have we had a really good fright flick to scare us in true Halloween fashion. This one does the trick thanks to some extra good CGI effects and some scary situations in the middle of a deserted countryside where teens find themselves menaced by a winged creature determined to make them his flesh-eating victims.

In the only adult role, RAY WISE does a convincing job of making it all look reasonable enough to swallow--and it owes a lot of its punch to the imaginative tales of authors like Stephen King. There are no standout performances among the various teens, but all of them look incredibly afraid of the winged creature--with good reason. The make-up job here is marvelously chilling.

The story is the stuff dreams are made of--or rather, nightmares. And it's all done with extremely clever build-up of suspense as the teens, one by one, become divisive and challenge each other in ways that only undermine their vulnerability. A few of the scenes are very graphic in depicting the creature's stranglehold on his victims and not for the squeamish--or the young and impressionable.

Recommended as a good fright flick, nothing more. But credit must be given to director Victor Salva for keeping the whole tale tense and taut with visual excitement.

Summing up: An above average thriller of its kind. Jonathan Breck makes one scary Creeper.

Sequel to the terrific 2001 horror film is a wildly fun ride, even if it doesn't quite live up to the chilling original.

On the final evening of his annual feeding, the Creeper terrorizes a bus load of students, while a local farmer is looking for some revenge.

While it may lack some of the unique elements of the original film (like the Creeper's truck, the title song, etc.) this sequel is still a highly-energized and occasionally spooky thriller. There's plenty of action, impressive makeup FX, moments of gruesome humor, and tightening suspense to drive it. Once again Salva delivers good directorial touches and an entertaining story.

The cast, headed by veteran actor Ray Wise, is good. Especially good are the relatively unknown young stars Nenninger, Aycox, Schiffner, Brown, Hammond, and Delfino. Breck returns as the Creeper and is creepier than ever.

While Jeepers Creepers 2 is never as scary as its predecessor it is a very entertaining sequel.

*** out of ****

Decent follow-up to Jeepers Creepers takes place just days after the original. The story focuses on a group of athletic high school kids (a varsity team along with their coaches and cheerleaders), who are on their way home when they get stranded in parts unknown after their bus abruptly breaks down. They soon come to the terrifying realization that it wasn't an accident, and that they're now all being hunted by a meticulous monster who's in the midst of a timely feeding frenzy. At times exciting, with more than enough violence and effective scares make this good fun if you're willing to pardon all of the annoyingly one-note characters and banal dialogue. **½

More elaborate sequel to the effective monster movie of 2001, "Jeepers Creepers II" is more about action than anything else. It's definitely not as creepy (although it does have its spooky moments) and since we now know a fair bit about the Creeper, the mystery element is gone. This story takes place on the last day of the Creeper's feeding cycle, a few days after the events of the first film. A basketball team is returning from a championship game, and the Creeper, after snatching a kid away from his farmer father, tails the teams' bus, crippling it by ruining the tires with something akin to a ninja's throwing stars. It proceeds to decimate the coaching staff & the bus driver, and then terrorize the teens, making sure they can't escape. It's true enough that there are many points in the script with which a viewer can take issue - even yours truly had a hard time buying some of them, and he's a pretty forgiving person. Things tend to get particularly muddled when it comes to the big climax as the teens finally leave the bus, and we wonder where they all get to from scene to scene. It does take a lot of suspension of disbelief to enjoy this movie, but if one can accomplish this, "Jeepers Creepers II" does reward us with some exciting moments and some extremely amusing money shots. For one thing, it's a total hoot to see the Creeper forced to regenerate certain body parts. It gets a LOT more damage done to it this time around; it's good to see various assorted characters be able to fight back. Particularly interesting is the vengeance-obsessed farmer Jack Taggart (veteran character actor Ray Wise ("RoboCop", 'Twin Peaks') getting a rare case of top billing), who fashions some killing implements using his post puncher. Naturally, due to there being a greater number of characters this time around, they don't get fleshed out too much, although writer / director Victor Salva tries to give the material some meat by introducing an element of racism. Overall, this suffers the same fate as many sequels, lacking the originals' freshness and in truth it doesn't give the viewer too many people for whom they can really root. At least it allows Justin Long to reprise his Darry character from the first film, appearing in ghostly form to offer warnings and information to one of the characters here. Nothing especially good, but not bad either; fortunately, one thing it's not is boring. Seven out of 10.

2 years after the surprising success of "Jeepers Creepers", Victor Salva returns with a sequel that continues where the original left. Although at first reluctant to making a sequel, Salva crafts a competent horror film that continues exploring the formula of the supernatural hunter in the desolated rural setting. Despite having the obvious flaws of a minor sequel, "Jeepers Creepers II" is a worthy follow up that has its own share of tricks to keep the fans happy.

The plot of the film follows a school bus of a local high school that just won the championship and are on their way back home. To their misfortune, the Creeper (Jonathan Breck) is one the loose as he is on the final day of his 23 days eating cycle, so this ruthless hunter will do whatever is necessary to find food before his time runs out. But the Creeper has another problem, he is being hunted down by Jack Taggart (Ray Wise) the father of one of his victims who is looking for revenge.

While it lacks the originality of the first one, "Jeepers creepers II" has a more focused and consistent plot due to the fact that the Creeper is now an identifiable villain. Victor Salva's new tale of rural horror is now a full-fledged supernatural horror in the vein of Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street", where typical elements of Americana become sources of horror. Having most of the movie set inside of the school bus with the cast's fears and personalities clashing makes a good source for classic suspense and tension between characters.

Visually, the film is a step forward and showcases that deep down the obvious commercial intentions of this film, Salva is still an artist that has a great eye for visual compositions. His camera-work does miracles both in and out of the school bus (the movie's main location) and he captures the lovely and scary things about rural North America. The visual effects of the film are not as good as in the first one, but they are still effective and the CGI is not that dominant.

The young cast does a fine job and the overall performance is not as poor as one could expect. However, they are nothing spectacular and some seem to had been chosen based more on looks rather than talent. The two veterans of the movie are where talent is. Jonathan Breck and Ray Wise give the film soul as the opposite forces who are destined to clash. Breck is quite good as the Creeper and looks more comfortable in the role now; Wise on the other hand, is a scene stealer and he owns the film every time he is on screen.

"Jeepers Creepers II" has a lot of what's good about modern horror movies, but sadly, it carries also some of the worst. The fast packed action at times gets distracting and contrasts badly with Salva's honest attempts to create suspense and atmosphere. There is an apparent effort in developing characters and while in some cases it works, in others it terribly fails (due mostly to the actor's lack of talent). also, it is fair to point out that the movie lacks the scares of the first one as it has more in common with the final part of it. It is great fun and entertainment, but if scares are what you are looking, better look elsewhere.

To summarize, the film is an entertaining and very well-directed scary movie that makes a worthy sequel to the original one. Victor Salva's second part of the series is a good addition if you liked the first one, otherwise it will be just another teen horror movie. Personally I liked it, but it would be wiser to rent it first. 6.5/10