The Popkorn Junkie :: Jeepers Creepers

Director Victor Salva's last film was fan appreciated/critic loathed "Powder", the story of an albino who had been underexposed to the world all his life, only to be awakened one day and eventually burst into a lightning bolt at the end of the film. Bizarre, eh? After the release of "Powder", Salva was arrested for and convicted of the molestation of a 12 year old boy. After serving his sentence, he emerged to direct "Jeepers Creepers", one of the first horror movies of the Halloween season.

The film centers around two central characters, Darry and Trish, who are on a road trip from college to home when they are almost ran down by a mysterious old brown truck. Later on, they see the truck next to an old church, and the driver is tossing something down a rusty pipe--something in a white sheet, wrapped in rope, and covered in red stains? Hmmmm...what could be going on here? The old truck chases them down again, only to make Darry curious ("Let's go see what that crazy psychopath threw down the pipe--they could be alive?". So, they go to the church and Darry looks down the pipe. What they find is something so monstrous, it almost seems bizarre later on in the film when "Jeepers Creepers" turns into a comedy.

Alas, the film does have many comedic scenes. In fact, the killer is almost comical in appearance and is very humorous in its actions. Being chased by the killer, the two siblings encounter an old lady with a lot of cats (Eileen Brennan) and an old black lady with psychic powers. The chase boils down into a scene at the police station and I won't spoil the ending, but it definitely sets up a sequel.

"Jeepers Creepers" is a good movie. It is the first actual horror movie to be released in a while and it borrows heavily from the demonic horror films from the late 70's and early 80's. Director Victor Salva delivers several heart-stopping scenes and manages to keep us ultimately interested with the injection of some comedy. Also, the song Jeepers Creepers is a great song and will send chills down your spine every time you hear it. Most people left the theater disappointed because they expected to see the same kind of teen kill'em all as seen in "Scream" and "Urban Legend". However, what they got was an artistic and very creative horror film that is quite different from the rest of the genre. It is evident from the first scenes, when the camera views a car from a distance and watches it from the same location as it makes it's way towards the camera.

"Jeepers Creepers" is a classic horror film with a modern touch and it is truly worth watching again and again for those same shock values that you get from watching "The Exorcist" and "Evil Dead". Not just a Scooby Doo saying anymore, "Jeepers Creepers" is a new age in horror.

-- Billy Ray ( 3 out of 4 pops )

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Other Junkie's opinions.....

Patsy ( 1/2 out of 4 pops )

"Jeepers Creepers" is the one of the stupidest horror movies I've ever seen-- it's not even stupid in a good or campy way like "Scream" or even the lowly "Dr. Giggles". Just to be sure you don't waste any money renting this stinker let me give you my mini version of the plot: The movie opens with a pointless 5 minute shot of a car driving down a road-- no music or talking-- just a car driving down a country road. Finally we meet the 2 main characters, a brother and sister who are on there way home from college. They talk about some random things because it's a movie and they have to kill time-- we don't really get any interesting information out of any of their conversations. A weird car starts honking and tailgating them. Instead of pulling over like normal people they speed up and start screaming at each other and the driver until they drive off of the road. They start to drive again. They have an other meaningless conversation about nothing. They pull over to take a pee on the side of the road-- they see the crazy truck drive by again. They start driving again. They see the crazy truck parked by a church and see a man throw something wrapped in a sheet down a pipe. For some reason they think it was a body so they decide to drive back and check it out. Some stupid things happen and the brother eventually falls down the pipe and discovers bodies everywhere. They go to a dinner and call the cops. The cops follow the kids to the church but a monster rips off the cops' heads and eats them. The monster starts chasing the kids. We realize the monster is the guy in the truck-- he happens to have a vanity license plate that says "B-EATING-U". The kids find out from some random psychic lady that the monster eats for 23 days every 23 years and it's got the scent of one of the kids and wants to eat one of them-- why-- who knows. The kids try to get more cops to help them but those cops get killed and eventually one of the kids gets killed. The movie ends with the carcass of one of the kids hanging in the monsters den with the song "Jeepers Creepers" playing in the background. This movie was utter crap, do yourself a favor and pass this one over.