Jeepers Creepers 2

I recently re-watched the first Jeepers Creepers and I don't really get why so many people seem to hate it. Sure, it had quite a disappointing climax and Victor Salva is an infamous figure in Hollywood but his visions did lead to one of the best horror films in the post-Scream era. And the same goes for part two! If you leave logic behind, this is quite an intense and well-elaborated scary movie. Opposite to most directors nowadays, Salva perfectly knows how to create suspenseful situations and emotional devastation. The Creeper (portrayed once again by Jonathan Breck) is a far-fetched new horror icon but it does bring terror in the most isolated outlands of America. This sequel takes place a few days after the original (of which the happenings can be heard on radio-broadcasts all the time) and features a bus full of high school jocks and cheerleaders terrorized by the Creeper. Judging by their fear's smell, he picks out victims to devour and to re-furnish his rotting corpse.

Victor Salva makes great use of the 'surprise element'. All the characters in Jeepers Creepers are equally meaningless so you never really know who will get killed next. Even the most popular jock, the most innocent child or the cutest girl can die at any time and this results in an exiting drop-out race of which you don't want to miss a second. The film is not as gore as you might think and the stress is more laid on tension. Salva and his crew use the remote location to the fullest and the film contains eerie shots of wide cornfields and roads with no chance for shelter. The cast of young and inexperienced kids do a fairly good job. The only familiar face in Jeepers Creepers 2 is Ray Wise (from the cult series 'Twin Peaks'). This film will never be a classic but at least its entertaining horror without much pretension.

Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)

I went to see this movie, expecting a bit less than the first movie, but it ended up to be a bit MORE than the first. Jeepers Creepers 2 starts off with a kid in a cornfield, wiring up scarecrows for his father's farm. I won't tell what happens, but it then cuts to a school bus full of basketball players and cheerleaders, who are on their way home from a championship game. Then, they're tire blows out from a sharp metal object thrown by an unseen presence. They decide to try driving for a bit longer, still with 5 running wheels, and then another blows out, again by a sharp metal object thrown at the bus. Then the body count starts. This attempt to create a sequel succeeded, and the very ending of the film, I won't say what it is, was a neat idea. This movie had less gore, but more action and fun than the one before it. I give it an 8/10.

JEEPERS CREEPERS II

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)

Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS

Stranded in a broken-down bus on a lonely country road, a group of high school jocks and cheerleaders are targeted by the monstrous Creeper (Jonathan Breck) who needs their body parts for the purposes of regeneration. But the Creeper hasn't reckoned on the tenacity of one of its earlier victims (Ray Wise), a grieving father seeking revenge for the loss of his youngest son...

Though crafted with technical precision and performed with gusto by a strong cast of newcomers and veterans, this disappointing sequel sacrifices the heartfelt emotional undertow of its magnificent predecessor JEEPERS CREEPERS (2000) in favor of bigger and splashier set-pieces. While it's as raucous and entertaining as one could hope for, it's also a surprisingly conventional effort from writer-director Victor Salva, whose best work (POWDER, RITES OF PASSAGE, etc.) has always focused on small groups of characters caught up in extreme situations. Here, his attempts to shoehorn deeper issues into what is essentially a popcorn movie seems forced and inconsequential, and he spreads his narrative concerns too thinly over a broad range of interchangeable characters: The elements of homophobia and racism which initially divide the young heroes - until they're forced to overcome their differences in order to survive the Creeper's onslaught - are rendered increasingly meaningless as the movie progresses, until they no longer have any direct influence on the wider storyline.

But Salva is too much of a craftsman for his movie to be a complete washout. The action/horror set-pieces are genuinely spectacular, and Breck camps it up superbly as the hideous Creeper, swooping out of the darkness to carry unsuspecting victims to their doom. Working in scope format for the first time in their respective careers (REAL scope, not that Super 35 rubbish), Salva and cinematographer Don E. FauntLeRoy conjure a series of startling images from the outset, many of them tinged with visual poetry: The golden cornfield in the opening sequence, where the film's first victim suffers an appalling fate (a genuinely horrific set-piece); the point-of-view shots from the Creeper's perspective as it swoops on fleeing prey; and the eerie calm of the closing sequence, which portends sequels to come. Salva's regular composer, Bennett Salvay, delivers a terrific symphonic score, as brassy and frightening as any in recent years, which serves to boost the film's dramatic appeal in no uncertain terms.

Wise, a late addition to the cast, dominates the film as an avenging farmer who is every bit the Creeper's equal in terms of strength and persistence, and he's given strong support by veterans Diane Delano and Thom Gossom Jr. The younger cast members are enthusiastic and talented, and it's a fair bet that some of them (Travis Schiffner, Al Santos, Nicki Aycox, etc.) will figure heavily in various Hunkiest/Sexiest lists during the next few years. Look out for a brief - but welcome - cameo appearance by Justin Long from "JC1". It may not live up to every expectation, but there's still much to enjoy in JEEPERS CREEPERS II.

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.