Director: Victor Salva
91 minutes (15) 2001
101 Films Blu-ray region B
[Released 26th October]
Rating: 7/10
Review by Christopher Geary
This highly praised teen-horror, from the maker of the underrated Powder (1995), starts out as a road movie, then turns into psycho-chiller, before revealing its bizarre creature and entering the subgenre of monster movies.
Trish and Darry (excellent performances from leads Gina Philips and Justin Long) are a casually bickering sister and brother, driving home from college on a term break when they are caught up in a noisy road rage incident against a manically-driven, rusty old lorry. The youngsters also spot the same vehicle parked next to a disused church, and are witnesses to the driver’s extraordinarily suspicious behaviour, apparently dumping bodies into a cellar. When the young heroes decide to go back and investigate, Darry makes a shocking discovery...
The first sequence is admittedly inspired by Spielberg’s Duel (1971), and is only the first in a handful of borrowings cleverly woven into a fairly unpredictable rural-horror legend. Much to his credit, director Victor Salva is mindful of what he takes from other works, such as Bill Norton’s cult TV movie Gargoyles (1972), and how he uses it. So this, and similarly notable references, are likely to win viewers’ appreciation, not our scorn - as genre homage, not random theft.
Basically, this small-town shocker is a variation on modern vampire horrors, with a weird fiend - the Creeper, plenty of headlong action sequences in the wake of a suspenseful first half, and a purposely cheerless ending. The choice of tragedy for the emotionally-charged finale, instead of the typically spectacular but happy closure we might have been expecting, is commendably brave, and it pays off handsomely with great psychologically wrenching moments that are more believable than any safer option.
However, what makes Jeepers Creepers so worthwhile is Salva’s expert balancing of gallows humour and traditional horror movie conventions. There’s a grisly ‘house of pain’ - with fleshy décor that reminds us of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and the graphic ‘artistry’ of Clive Barker’s evil Cenobites in the Hellraiser series, but there’s also originality by design in the displays of curiously preserved bodies, and particularly their rationale within the main plot. Although there are a number of ghastly fright scenes, this horror is definitely not about pointless blood and guts just for the sake of satisfying fans of gore.
Shot in central Florida, the notion of ancient evil, seemingly derived from tribal folklore, lurking on this American peninsula is powerfully evoked, and the movie’s use of an often-recorded song from 1938 helps to generate an appealing air of sinister but witty fun that haunts the whole picture. Other things in the film, such as the attempted intervention by a psychic (Patricia Belcher) during the siege at a police station, and a superb cameo by character-actress Eileen Brennan in a fine mid-story scene (“That’s not my scarecrow”), attach myth-building elements to the narrative, and the attraction of the sort of quality supporting roles that are typically required nowadays to support any movie series. Unsurprisingly, Salva made two sequels, Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), and Jeepers Creepers III (2017).
Blu-ray disc extras:
- Director’s commentary, plus another track by Salva, Philips, and Long
- Retro featurette - Jeepers Creepers: Then & Now (36 minutes)
- From Critters To Creepers (19 minutes)
- Town Psychic - Patricia Belcher interview (16 minutes)
- Gallery, deleted scenes, trailers.
