New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

I love a good horror movie. Unfortunately, a good horror movie is an oxymoron in today’s film climate. For every step taken forward in this genre (Insidious – see it, see it, see it!), two steps are taken backwards (almost every horror movie released last year). While semi-competent director David R. Ellis is going to make teens scream this Labor Day weekend with Shark Night 3D (ever notice how every scene in the trailers so far has been during the daytime?), ten years ago this same weekend, another villain was seeking out the taste of teenage blood in Jeepers Creepers.

With a catchy title and a well-cut, atmospheric trailer, Jeepers Creepers had the biggest Labor Day opening weekend at the time (a spot that is now held by another horror movie, the Halloween remake). Never having seen the movie before, and knowing it had mediocre reviews, I was not expecting much.

While the first 20 minutes had exceeded my expectations, the next 70 minutes put them back in place due to stupidity, stupidity, and stupidity.

Jeepers opens with a bickering brother (Justin Long in one of his first roles) and sister (Gina Phillips in her first and last big role) driving home the scenic country route from college for spring break. The first few minutes of the car ride are full of entertaining banter that seems less strained for cheap laughs and more natural. Both of the actors work well off each other, and if it wasn’t for the man-eating Creeper, this might have been a tender, coming-of-age road trip movie. Alas, a creepy old truck nearly rams our two siblings off the road in a tensely terrifying sequence.

The siblings are funny and smart and deal with the incident as realistically as possible when it comes to horror movie world. Unfortunately, they later see the truck further up the road parked in front of an abandoned old church (that can never be good), dumping what looks a body down a drainpipe.

Remember, that smart road trip movie I was hoping for? Not going to happen.

Jeepers Creepers quickly escalates into an average horror movie with characters that have below-average IQs. Our collegiate siblings must have had someone else take their SATs for them, because one move is dumber than the next.

The intriguing daytime road rage sequence is the closest thing we get to horrified throughout the film. The rest is a nighttime slaughter-fest that is more concerned with being more icky than ghostly.

The Creeper’s design is unique enough for the movie to stand-apart, yet utterly absurd. Why does he wear a trench jacket? No clue. What’s the deal with the wings? Your guess is as good as mine. When does he have the time to preserve his victims? A better question would be “What’s the point?”

The motives of the Creeper being some sort of demon that gets unleashed every 23 years to feed off humans for 23 days has barely enough substance to it to work.

Continued:       1       2