Rated R - Running Time: 1:27 - Released 8/31/01
JEEPERS CREEPERS
Rated R - Running Time: 1:27 - Released 8/31/01
Note to self: never get in a road rage battle against a large,
rusty 1950s vintage truck with a demonic-sounding horn and no
driver. This is the way the horror starts for two college-age
siblings in Victor Salva's Jeepers Creepers, a flawed but
suitably chilling slasher movie whose script (also by Salva) blends
blood, mystery, mysticism, and a touch of humor with the inevitable
complement of red herrings. With a refreshing simplicity of premise
and good performances by its two main players, it alternates between
moments of sheer terror and ridiculously cheesy effects, taking
a great beginning and moving inevitably toward a rather standard
and vaguely disappointing final product.
We first meet Trish (Gina Philips) and her brother Darius (Justin
Long) as they are driving home from school along a lonely stretch
of highway, bickering about everything from the slowness of local
drivers to the irritating qualities of each other's personalities.
But when they are viciously pursued by a nondescript old truck
which almost runs them off the road, they are united in fear.
Then they witness something that really bugs them: the driver
of the truck stops at an old church and dumps what appear to be
shrouded bodies down a large pipe in the ground. When he leaves,
they investigate and find a number of corpses stored in what appears
to be the church's basement. Horrified, they contact the local
authorities, but this only gets them a reserved place located
squarely in the killer's sights.
This film starts out very well, with Philips and Long handling
the only two speaking parts for the first half hour. The scenes
on the road and at the church are freaky and chilling, but when
other characters start getting involved, things begin to deteriorate.
First there's a psychic (Patricia Belcher) who attempts to help
the couple with bizarre rantings about old hit songs. Then there's
an old woman (Eileen Brennan), whose insistence on sitting in
the dark is just slightly less creepy than the number of cats
she owns. (I mean, the smell alone would kill you.) Finally there's
the killer himself, who seems to get more silly every time we
see him. I like the "crazed inbred local malcontent in the
Jed Clampett hat" premise much more than what he actually
turns out to be.
Even with its faults, Jeepers Creepers is slightly more effective than its only competitor so far in the 2001 horror season, Alejandro Amenábar's beautifully stylistic yawnfest The Others. The work of Jeepers's two main players usually counterbalances the schlock, edging it just above the mediocre level for its genre. ***½