Director: Victor Salva
Pigeonhole: Horror / Suspense / Monster movie
The Basics: A college aged brother (Justin Long) and sister (Gina Philips) who are driving home for spring break on a country road encounter a monster, whom then begins to pursue them, literally stopping at nothing. This is a nice little 90 minute horror/thriller that has carved a place for itself in the genre. The film is very basic, resembling an almost 50's-like monster movie, with nothing “new” or groundbreaking, but the acting was believable (which is very high marks), the dialogue was good, the intensity held throughout, and the ending was great.
Recommendation: While there are some horror movie clichés that come out in this film, it moves at a good pace, and there several scenes that make this memorable – so give it a once over. But, a must see for horror fans.
My Take: **possible spoiler alert** Slow starts and bad endings can be movie killers for me. Jeepers Creepers has neither, and that is one of the reasons why I like it above many other similar films.
Trish (Philips) and Darry (Long), on this drive home witness what appears to be someone throwing several bodies from the back of an old van into a large vent pipe next to an abandoned church. That "someone" sees Trish and Darry rubbernecking at his activities and begins to pursue them in his vehicle, running them off the road, but continuing on. Trish and Darry go back to the church (one of the cliché moments) and discover something quite horrifying. They leave, with Darry in borderline shock.
The remaining body (haha) of the movie is pretty much cat and mouse games, with the monster in pursuit, and somehow a random psychic involving herself with a prophetic reveal.
The ending is the proverbial “cherry on top” for me. In horror, so called Hollywood endings usually are lame, and Jeepers Creepers is definitely not a Hollywood ending. I will leave you hanging on that one…
Final Thought/Extras/For Fun: Philips’ and Long’s actions, and reactions hold very well through the movie – you believe that they are scared. Salva did a great job of not letting them get outlandish, which tends to happen in many horror films. You can empathize, almost. (The fact that neither of them were big name stars at the time may have aided this.) Salva also did an excellent job of hiding the monster’s appearance. You see different parts of him throughout, literally until the end… This is the first of two filmed Jeepers Creepers movies, with the third reportedly in pre-production, but not fully cast, and no dates set…
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