JEEPERS CREEPERS follows the worrying trend of substituting alarming "shock" moments (periods of quiet leading up to a sudden, loud noise or burst of movie, in conjunction with something unexpected happening on screen - see WHAT LIES BENEATH for more of this) for real horror, which makes for one lame viewing experience. I've heard this film being over-hyped as one of the scariest made in the last ten years, but this is just nonsense. Now I'm sorry, but the image of this creature is just ludicrous and suited more to a fantasy film, not a horror flick which is trying to be realistic and thus scary.
Initially a genuinely spooky character in slouch hat and ragged clothes, the Creeper eventually reveals itself to be a reptile bird-man, complete with huge flapping wings and sharp, pointed teeth, with which it eats human flesh. Ironically the killer itself is this film's biggest weakness. The basic plot bears resemblance to THE HITCHER, with innocent characters being pursued by unstoppable killers.
Other contrived plot elements involve a female psychic who turns up to offer advice and scares, and the "Jeepers Creepers" song of the title which keeps recurring for no real reason. Just plain dumb, abrupt and badly envisaged. Sure, the ending is downbeat and surprising, not to mention mean-spirited, but scary? Not a chance. Then, after a graphic shock sequence, the film just suddenly ends as though they had run out of film. Our protagonists hole up inside a police station in the middle of nowhere which just happens to be run by a night-shift skeleton staff of about thirty officers! Of course most of them are brutally dispatched by the "Creeper", which then proceeds to kidnap the male lead. Scenes are stretched out with endless waiting, making the agony seem like an eternity, and then comes a finale which is one of the most ludicrous of all. Instead of driving off like a normal person would do, instead they sit and wait for the creature to regrow itself back together and come after them again. Our main characters stop off at a remote house and see a comic relief bad-mouthed old woman (someone evidently saw LAKE PLACID) get killed by the "Creeper", and then manage to run it over repeatedly in their car. From this point the film becomes a road movie which becomes more absurd with each mile. The scene in which the two teens discover that the "Creeper" has been rooting through and sniffing their used laundry is laughable rather than scary, and a gross miscalculation on the film-makers' part.
And from then on, my friends, it all goes downhill pretty quickly, undoing any of the horror of the beginning. Following the male lead's descent into the pit, there are one or two effective shock scenes and a nicely gruesome image involving a room covered in naked human bodies. From then on the film overdoes on atmosphere and brings to mind some of the same fear of the unknown as films like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. In the first half hour, we're offered a brief but tense re-run of the truck attack in DUEL, and a superbly spine-tingling shot of a mysterious figure dumping a body into what looks like a pipe. This teen horror flick looks like it might be a little different from others. Reviewed by Leofwine_draca 2 / 10 Childish shocks throughout Not to mention, that all this has a very cool conclusion (the main idea if you wanna call it that) in the end. It dares to be different and does not give you a bunch of teenagers being hunt down by one guy. I can only speak for myself and say that I liked the fact, that this was made the way it was. But I can understand, that some people did expect different things from it. But still, if you can go through the beginning and bear with it, when it gets pretty action-y towards the end, then you will enjoy it. If you know it, it won't hit you as hard as myself, when it gets revealed at the end. I have to admit, that I wasn't aware of an obvious reference, that the title might have suggested. He had it all planned out (a story element would make this "impossible" to happen).īut I'm not going into detail about that, because I thought the movie was genuinely scary and creepy. Good or bad, the same director will be at helm, who claimed back then, that he wanted to make sure, that there wouldn't be any sequels. Now they plan the 3rd one, which is going to come out in 2011. When I watched this the first time quite a few years ago, it seemed like it would be a one-off.