Jeepers Creepers : Le Chant du diable

Putting aside the not terribly good title, this is a most effective horror movie with an urban legend kind of plot. Very natural and realistic performances by the two leads, Justin Long & Gina Philips, help a lot, and the director knows what he is doing. They portray a brother and sister who are on a long drive home at the wrong time. Long is a very likeable fellow to watch and has done a lot of things since this, but I've never liked him better than here. Many very frightening scenes and some are quite cringe worthy. This may sound odd considering the gore involved, but this is a fun movie to watch. However, if you get weak in the knees at horror films, maybe not. Quite a bit above average.

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.

When I watched this the first time quite a few years ago, it seemed like it would be a one-off. Now they plan the 3rd one, which is going to come out in 2011. 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. He had it all planned out (a story element would make this "impossible" to happen).

But I'm not going into detail about that, because I thought the movie was genuinely scary and creepy. I have to admit, that I wasn't aware of an obvious reference, that the title might have suggested. If you know it, it won't hit you as hard as myself, when it gets revealed at the end. 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. I know I did. But I can understand, that some people did expect different things from it. I can only speak for myself and say that I liked the fact, that this was made the way it was. It dares to be different and does not give you a bunch of teenagers being hunt down by one guy ... Not to mention, that all this has a very cool conclusion (the main idea if you wanna call it that) in the end.

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.

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.