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Mike Van Ess’ Film Review

Director Victor Salva’s movie named Jeepers creepers is about a creature that awoke after spending 25 years away and in order to survive he feasts on human body parts. The film involves two teenage kids named Darry and Trish who are on a road trip back from college. They seem to lose track of anything in their lives when a mysterious creature continues to haunt them through out the movie, which causes total havoc in their lives.

The movie shows its strength as a horror does to the fact that you never actually know what the creature is. The whole movie you are uncomfortable because of its mysterious presence. The fact that you never actually see him in his natural strikes you as quite alarming.

Another supporting factor to this horror movie is the song that is played along with the monsters presence. The song “Jeepers Creepers” tells you that something is about to happen which puts you on the edge of your seat, and keeps your eyes stuck on the screen. The whole calm song with a devastating character really throws off the mood, so you aren’t comfortable.

Another characteristic is its heart stopping scenes. This film contains at least three parts where you skip a beat and lose your breath because of the unexpectedness. This film had the ability to turn me away because of not wanting that feeling anymore.

This movie not only contains horror through out the film but unlike many other films sends you off on a disturbing taste in your mouth as well. This movie sets up for a future movie to continue it but lets you down and almost makes you upset at what happens in the last scene.

The movie Jeepers Creepers displayed many aspects of what I think is a great horror film and added many more aspects that I’ve never seen before. So overall I rate jeepers creepers a 4 out of 5 stars for the great supporting points of a horror film.

Jeepers Creepers
Golly Durn Willickers
Where’d You Get That
Death Mobile

The good old monster movie, there’s not been one around for a while. There was a time when there was always a monster movie to look forward too. And for a time a certain degree of quality was attained.

John Carpenter was a successful contributor to the horror genre with “Halloween” and “The Thing”. Tobe Hooper with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Poltergeist”. And there have been a smattering of well-done werewolf and vampire movies ranging from “The Howling”, “American Werewolf in London”, to “The Lost Boys” and “Interview With The Vampire”.

Unfortunately we’ve been inundated with the fare of “Scream”, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” countless “Friday The 13th” installments as well as the “Nightmare On Elm Street” series.

So as you can see there’s a huge variable in quality in those movies. And for most of us, who love a great monster horror flick we look with great anticipation when something new comes along that may have the potential and originality to tickle that bone of ours that loves to be scared.

So “Jeepers Creepers” comes along with a certain amount of pre-hype on the Internet. Granted nothing like “The Blair Witch Project”, but nonetheless I was intrigued.

The movie begins and has that look of an old style teenagers-encounter-a-monster look to it, that’s reminiscent of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. And like TCM makes use of a brother and sister characters as well. Though neither of them are confined to a wheelchair.

Trish, played by Gina Philips, and her brother Darryl, Justin Long, is driving home from college for summer vacation. On the way they discuss the urban legend of what had happen to people who have traveled the remote stretch of road their on.

Apparently people have disappeared or have been involved in some dismembering quality car wrecks on this stretch of road, and the tales have grown quite tall, as to the extent of dismemberment.

The beginning allows a chance to get to know Trish and Darryl, a typical brother and sister who banter back and forth. Though they have disagreements there is the undertone of a real sibling care. I thought that Gina Philips and Justin Long played the beginning very well and there was no over the top Hollywood histrionics to blow character credibility out the window.

Shortly Justin sees in his rear view mirror a wild looking junky truck swiftly closing in on them from behind. This truck looked to me like a morgue delivery truck that makes only one stop and that’s in hell.

This truck looked like that last thing you would ever want to see on a lonely road, with a license plate that read “BEATINGU”. You can read that two ways, and as you would imagine Justin reads it the other way, which is not a good omen either.

The truck nearly runs them off the road, playing highway cat and mouse. Then finally the truck passes them and is off in the distance.

Shortly they see the offending truck and observe the driver dumping, what are obviously, bodies wrapped in sheets, which are stained with blood, down a pipe next to an abandoned church.

Next thing they know the driver sees Trish and Darryl and gets back in his hell wagon pulls out in pursuit. Trish and Darryl understandably go into panic mode and attempt calling 911 on Darryl’s cell phone that of course has a dead battery. Then the death mobile catches them and starts ramming them from behind. Then after much screaming and tire screeching Trish and Darryl are run off the road, and the hell truck is gone.

After jerry-rigging their damaged trunk, Darryl appeals to Trish’s “Good Samaritan” sentimentalities by asking her what would she want someone to do if she was, still alive, and one of those persons wrapped in a sheet at the bottom of that pipe. Darryl mentions how she would feel if they found out later they could of saved someone if they had acted.

I could have gone both ways, had I been in Trish and Darryl’s position. Darryl’s argument was fairly compelling, and I would have been in quandary, if I had to make a choice. So it worked well enough for this movie that Trish and Darryl went back to the abandoned church to investigate what had been thrown down the pipe.

Things were working really well up to this point as the suspense was intensifying. During their investigation of the pipe Darryl, as well as the entire audience, is startled by the appearance of some rats. This results in Darryl slipping down the pipe where he makes a rather horrific discovery.

And now the suspense almost attains a palpable dread for what happens next. Darryl tells Trish to go back to the road and flag down some help, but also to keep an eye out for the death mobile.

Darryl had reasoned that this pit is connected to the basement of the abandoned church and plans to find a way back. Then Darryl encounters a gruesome scene of prolific proportions.

The movie doesn’t entirely fall apart at once. However it does start to slowly unravel as the introduction of a psychic, who attempts to warn Trish and Darryl, only muddles up an important detail.

And in all fairness many movies in the horror/monster genre have a tendency to either unravel or have a shuttle explosion. “Jeepers Creepers” does manage to avoid the shuttle explosion, yet once it begins to fall apart the story continues to ignore some critical loose ends that may have saved this movie, at least for me.

I did enjoy the ending as it had a very dark novel quality to it. So for at least two thirds of the movie “Jeepers Creepers” is a great ride. The final act is too open and undefined, but predictably there’s an opening the size of semi that’ll allow the obligatory sequel.