Jeepers Creepers

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.

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.

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.

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).

The plot of the movie was very interesting and I was so hyped about that movie. I have to admit that I didn't had high expectations about that movie. Eventually, it was an amazing movie. The storyline was well-written. The characters were very interesting and very likeable. Also, I really admire that the 2 main characters weren't a couple. The brother-sister relationship they had, was so good, amazingly developed and totally realistic. The kills were nice. However, I expected something better. It was a very intense movie, most scenes were unexpectedly shocking. Also, there were some scary and creepy scenes. The whole vibe of the movie was very creepy and intense. The ending scene was totally unexpected. The casting was very good. Last but not least, the monster's appearance was very well edited.