Review of Jeepers Creepers (1939) by Ben L — 28 Mar 2012

This is a really impressive horror movie for the most part. It is gritty, tense and genuinely scary (there are only three or four jump scares which I counted throughout the film; the rest simply come from the atmosphere of the film and the slow realisation of what is happening and how it could be a threat).

The two main actors seem to share a real family bond with each other, which makes their characters more sympathic when either one or both of them are put in harm's way. The antagonist is truly frightening, mainly because of how he looks and his eerie silence (except for one chilling scream near the end).

The film builds quickly and efficiently, leading to one of the most disturbing endings to a horror movie I have ever seen. The only real problem I have with it is that the two main characters often tend to linger too long when they should be running or driving away from obvious danger.

Then again, that's something which niggles me about most horror films, and at least they acknowledge at one point that they're making some pretty stupid decisions. That was a refreshing little moment which made me connect with the characters; I felt more like they were making these bad decisions because they were simply human and acting under stress, not because a screenwriter was just writing it because they couldn't think of anything better to type.

Overall, this is a brutal, nasty horror film which genuinely works. It's got the character and suspense to back it up, and in the case of the ending, a startling and unsettling conclusion which in no way backs down from the hinted brutality throughout.

Overall, this is a really strong horror. film, and I highly recommend it.