Jeepers Creepers [VHS] [2001]

In terms of contemporary horror films, the opening for "Jeepers Creepers" is extremely effective. After all, it takes place in the bright light of day and still manages to creep you out. But then, as Patty notes, we get to the part where the kids in the movie do something stupid that ultimately dooms them to the horrors of the rest of the film. Actually, when Darry discovers the grim truth of what has been going on underneath that old church, this 2001 horror film reaches its high point. At that point "Jeepers Creepers" goes off in a rather unexpected and ultimately unrewarding direction. If you have seen the trailer, then you already know what the payoff is (although why a movie would want to give that much away in the trailer is, as always, beyond me), but I was not only surprised, but rather disappointed.

This is a shame because the performances by the two leads in this film are way above the traditional low bar set in a splatter flick. Phillips and Long do not especially look like siblings, but they fight like them. More importantly, they manage to maintain a sense of realism as the proceedings get more absurd. They are clearly the best thing in this film (Long was nominated for a Saturn Award), along with the truck. But once Darry learns the truth, writer-director Victor Salva throws away the film's powerful momentum to enter the familiar slasher silliness of Freddy and Jason territory. Given the level of tension that is created, I was actually a bit miffed that suddenly the film was invoking humor. The final shot of the film is rather predictable given the premise, but its greater sin is in running counter to the tone of the film's opening.

Admittedly, I might have rated this film higher if I had known what it was really all about because then the payoff would not have been such a disappointment. To be fair, given how strong the opening of "Jeepers Creepers" is it might have been impossible to come up with an ending as good, but I sure would have liked to have seen Salva come up with a better effort. Now there is a sequel to this 2001 film, which just reconfirms another of my working hypotheses, that a really great horror film precludes the possibility of a sequel, whatever the appeal of the box office.

I love the opening scenes; this really doesn't even seem like a movie for the first half hour. You have a very typical brother and sister cruising down a deserted road in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the day. I entered this film with dark aspirations in mind, so the bright, peaceful setting of the opening really grabbed my attention. It may be a lonely stretch of road, but the setting is one of safety and serenity – until, that is, a character in a super-charged old van tries to wreck the car holding our protagonists. For Patricia and Darius Jenner (Gina Philips and Justin Long, respectively), this frightening bit of road rage proves to be only the start of a horrible night. On down the road, the pair catch sight of the evil van parked beside an old, crumbling building; looking closer, they see the driver of the truck tossing a couple of items that certainly look like bodies wrapped in blood-soaked sheets down a big pipe. The bad guy sees the kids pass by and immediately starts out in pursuit, doing all he can to wreck them. Darius eventually has the brilliant idea of going back to the pipe to see if anyone is still alive down there, and his much smarter sister cannot talk him out of this notion. Here marks the upping of the creepiness factor. There are many significant things to be found in the chamber below; finding a way out, though proves to be a challenge as Darius soon discovers. Eventually a shell-shocked Darius and Trish make it to a roadside restaurant and call the police. Things get weirder, though, when an anonymous stranger calls Darius and Trish and explains the things she has been seeing in her visions, warning them that the "thing" will not stop coming after them. This proves to be quite the understatement. The Creeper, whoever or whatever he is, is relentless in his pursuit of the scared youngsters, leading to one exciting confrontation after another in a variety of venues. Things progress quite nicely to an ending that is both good and bad; good in the sense that it does not pull a fairy tale ending out of the hat, but bad in that the final five minutes prove anticlimactic, forced, and generally unsatisfying.

Personally, I have to say I wasn’t that impressed with the costume and special effects of the Creeper; from a distance, or coiled in shadows, he's pretty intimidating, but his visual effect on the viewer decreases as we see more of him. Writer/director Victor Salva envisioned this film as his own "monster movie," but I think that a more human boogeyman would have served this story more effectively. Justin Long has some kind of David Schwimmer thing going on at times, but he is otherwise quite convincing in the role of Darius; he is the one who sees firsthand the handiwork of the Creeper, and the effects of what he has seen are reflected dramatically on his face and spirit. Gina Philips is fantastic; she may well be the sexiest female on the planet, as well. More than just a pretty face, the depth of her commitment and talent are demonstrated quite convincingly in the six featurettes on the making of the movie. These featurettes, by the way, are quite good. The deleted and extended scenes housed on the DVD, though, aren't that impressive; for the life of me, I could hardly find the difference between the alternate and final versions of a few scenes in the movie.

Jeepers Creepers is just a terrific, vastly underrated horror film. Relying more on suspense than blood and gore (although there is a certain amount of gore to be found here), this would make an especially good introduction to the genre for those yet to dip their feet into the deep, dark side of the entertainment pool.