Review of Jeepers Creepers (2001) by Ilhm — 31 Jan 2013

"You know the part in scary movies when somebody does something really stupid, and everybody hates them for it? This is it." Trish and Darry are stalked by a terrifying man-eating creature while on their way home for spring break in 2001's JEEPERS CREEPERS! Victor Salva directs from his own original screenplay, which is lazy, messy, and misguided from the very start.

JEEPERS CREEPERS opens as a suspenseful thriller, before revealing that the killer creature is actually rooted in the supernatural. Whenever the action lulls or our interest in the characters begins to fade, Salva throws in some desperate new gimmick to try and gain back his lost momentum without ever actually attempting to improve upon the story itself.

The creature goes from being an axe-wielding maniac to being a cannibalistic ghoul to then tranforming into a cannibalistic ghoul with wings and mandibles which serve no other purpose than to show off the flashy special effects.

At one point, Salva writes himself into a corner when attempting to explain the creature's origin or why it only eats certain people and parts of the body, and hence "Jezelle the Psychic" is born out of convenience and necessity.

If we are to believe that the creature can only replenish its limbs and vital organs by eating the flesh of its victims, just how is it supposed to grow back those wings, anyway? As annoying as they often can be, Justin Long and Gina Phillips are goofy enough to keep us entertained as the unfortunate brother and sister team, while Jonathan Breck adds a frightening new villain to the modern Slasher genre.