Writer / director Victor Salva did his part in keeping the monster movie alive with this respectable effort. It's got enough ambiance, suspense, and general all around creepiness going for it to make it worth a viewing for genre fans.
A brother and sister named Darry and Trish (Justin Long and Gina Philips) are driving home during Spring Break and are taking the long, scenic route through the country. Unfortunately, they soon begin to be victimized - over and over and over again - by a mysterious entity that simply won't go away, and has been doing some nasty things to various human victims for a long time.
Now, granted, some fans can - and do - take issue with the way some of the movie is scripted - but God knows horror movies have had plenty of instances of "dumb characters doing dumb things" over the years and what goes on in this movie is far from unique. Also, it's true enough that this movie works best in its first half, when Salva is stressing a mystery element, and we don't know just who or what is stalking these kids. Once the nature of the monster is revealed, it is hard for the movie to not start falling into the clichés of the genre. For one thing, this monster just keeps coming and coming no matter what is done to it.
Still, one has to love some of the odder, WTF moments in "Jeepers Creepers" - including a tongue being pulled out of a severed head - and appreciate the horrific imagery of one of the movie's major set pieces, when Darry is investigating the monster's lair where it has been arranging dead bodies in what he describes as a "psycho version of the Sistine Chapel". The monster design by Brian Penikas is effective once we see it, even if it's not terribly imaginative. The rural location work is excellent, the atmosphere is strong, the music by Bennett Salvay is good, and there's a steadily building amount of tension throughout the whole thing. Salva does have this thing hit the ground running, as the first major scares & action scenes occur within the first five minutes.
The acting is pretty good; Philips and Long are likable and make a pretty convincing pair of siblings, Jonathan Breck is suitably spooky as the monster (and also has a small secondary role as a cop in the police station), Eileen Brennan contributes a memorable turn as a stereotypically nutty cat lover, and Patricia Belcher is fine as our exposition provider, a psychic lady whose head just happens to be filled with details on how the monster operates. Some viewers take issue with the presence of the character, but she didn't really bother me, personally. One element that becomes a character in its own right is the ugly, demonic truck that the Creeper drives; that thing is pretty bad ass.
All things being considered, this is a good if not great movie whose concept at least has shown some durability; one sequel came along two years later and fans are hoping that a proposed third movie sees the light of day.
Seven out of 10.
A brother and sister named Darry and Trish (Justin Long and Gina Philips) are driving home during Spring Break and are taking the long, scenic route through the country. Unfortunately, they soon begin to be victimized - over and over and over again - by a mysterious entity that simply won't go away, and has been doing some nasty things to various human victims for a long time.
Now, granted, some fans can - and do - take issue with the way some of the movie is scripted - but God knows horror movies have had plenty of instances of "dumb characters doing dumb things" over the years and what goes on in this movie is far from unique. Also, it's true enough that this movie works best in its first half, when Salva is stressing a mystery element, and we don't know just who or what is stalking these kids. Once the nature of the monster is revealed, it is hard for the movie to not start falling into the clichés of the genre. For one thing, this monster just keeps coming and coming no matter what is done to it.
Still, one has to love some of the odder, WTF moments in "Jeepers Creepers" - including a tongue being pulled out of a severed head - and appreciate the horrific imagery of one of the movie's major set pieces, when Darry is investigating the monster's lair where it has been arranging dead bodies in what he describes as a "psycho version of the Sistine Chapel". The monster design by Brian Penikas is effective once we see it, even if it's not terribly imaginative. The rural location work is excellent, the atmosphere is strong, the music by Bennett Salvay is good, and there's a steadily building amount of tension throughout the whole thing. Salva does have this thing hit the ground running, as the first major scares & action scenes occur within the first five minutes.
The acting is pretty good; Philips and Long are likable and make a pretty convincing pair of siblings, Jonathan Breck is suitably spooky as the monster (and also has a small secondary role as a cop in the police station), Eileen Brennan contributes a memorable turn as a stereotypically nutty cat lover, and Patricia Belcher is fine as our exposition provider, a psychic lady whose head just happens to be filled with details on how the monster operates. Some viewers take issue with the presence of the character, but she didn't really bother me, personally. One element that becomes a character in its own right is the ugly, demonic truck that the Creeper drives; that thing is pretty bad ass.
All things being considered, this is a good if not great movie whose concept at least has shown some durability; one sequel came along two years later and fans are hoping that a proposed third movie sees the light of day.
Seven out of 10.