Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Directed by Victor Salva
The early 2000s had only a few decent horror movies, I mean let’s be real here…the 2000s was a crappy time for horror especially the early 2000s. There was a wave of remakes of Japanese horror movies like The Ring and The Grudge along with some crappy attempts at bringing the slasher genre back, too many to name! Jeepers Creepers I remember being a better movie from this era and watched it more than once, but I haven’t seen it in a good 10 years or so. Since it was on hulu, I gave it a rewatch the other day.
Victor Salva (shudders) is the director of this somewhat slasher somewhat backwoods somewhat supernatural horror movie. Salva, if you remember directed Clownhouse…and all the shit that went along with that, ugh. If you need to know more, read my most popular review of all time right here (https://31horrormovies.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/clownhouse-1989/). Man I wish I knew why that was my most read review lol, but hey thanks for the reads! Any way Jeepers Creepers stars Justin Long in an early role for him, along with his on-screen sister Gina Philips, traveling home from college for Spring Break. The two come are nearly ran off the road by a rusty old truck. The truck passes but seems to keep showing up and bugging them throughout the film. They soon realize the truck is more than meets the eye, when they see it stopped at an old church and the person driving drops what seems to be a body down a hole. Of course, the siblings check things out, only to find a half dead teenager in a body bag down in the hole. Shit hits the fan and the siblings are now in a fight for their lives against a supernatural creature referred to as “the Creeper” by fans.
The special effects are decent, kind of dated CGI stuff but not as bad as other stuff I’ve seen from the same era. The kills are somewhat minimal but they are effective and gruesome at times. The scene where the Creeper rips the tongue out of the mouth of the cop was rather gross and made my wife cringe haha. The cinematography is pretty good as well, you get some cool shots throughout, but nothing too creative.
Both Gina Philips and Justin Long do a good job acting in this movie, Justin Long I feel like is very versatile and underrated as an actor. He tends to be type casted but man when he gets outside of his comfort zone he can show that he is a good actor. Gina Philips I’m not familiar with outside of this movie, she’s pretty and a solid actress but I haven’t really heard of her, I see she returned for the third Jeepers Creepers though. The Creeper is a cool looking villain, kind of a demon with big bat wings.
The atmosphere is decent but some of the scenes are just kinda goofy. The scene in the jail with the psychic was a little over the top, and that woman was really irritating to me. The movie seems really cliché at first, but really redeems itself with having the antagonist as a demon creature. At first I remember thinking, oh it is just some old hillbilly or something that hates city people, but then the big wings come up and it really changed my mind.
All in all Jeepers Creepers is a decent movie, especially for the early 2000s, parts of it dragged on, while other parts were just rushed to me. I enjoyed it now 10 years after I watched it last and 18 years after it’s release. Crazy to think that this movie would be a college freshman this year, ugh I’m getting old! While it isn’t amazing or an instant classic, it does have its cult of fans, obvious by the third installment coming out last year. I give this a good B-, it is fun but not something I’d watch a lot.
