Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Directed by Victor Salva [Other horror films: Clownhouse (1989), The Nature of the Beast (1995), Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), Rosewood Lane (2011), Haunted (2014), Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017)]

I’m not quite sure what it is about Jeepers Creepers that consistently works for me, I just know that it consistently does.

Certainly the first forty minutes or so are insanely tense, and that scene in which Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry (Justin Long) are driving past the Creeper as he’s throwing a body down a pipe is perfection. There’s a lot of suspense in the first half of the film, and they did a great job with it.

When the film moves to a more fantastic creature-feature type route, I still think the movie keeps things moderately decent, though it’s also fair to say that the latter half of the film isn’t always as interesting as the first half. The good thing, though, is that the movie is well-paced, and it really feels like it flies by, making the movie all the more digestible.

It’s also a decently original plot. The idea of some inhuman creature stalking people in order to eat parts of their body isn’t something you hear about every Sunday. The whole “every 23rd spring in every 23 years” thing could be a reference to Pennywise from It (and hey, the main lead even has the name “Darry,” which is close to “Derry”), and I imagine many would compare the beginning of the film with Duel, but for the most part, Jeepers Creepers tends to have an original feeling.

I also think that is was a great idea to feature siblings as the main characters. I can’t begin to tell you how utterly sick I am of every other movie having some romantic stuff thrown in, sometimes under the most ridiculous circumstances, so focusing instead on a brother and sister was great, and I really buy that relationship insofar as their performances go.

Justin Long (Drag Me to Hell, Barbarian) was pretty good here. Again, I bought his relationship with Gina Philips. Philips (The Sickhouse, Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare, Ring Around the Rosie, Jennifer’s Shadow) herself had a lot of emotional material to contend with, and she did well too. I wish we learned a bit more about Patricia Belcher’s character, but she was fun, and Jonathan Breck’s portrayal of the Creeper was the stuff of dreams.

There are a few grisly moments in the movie, but this is all really pretty tame. The suspense is what keeps things going throughout, and though there is some violence at times, that’s never really the point. Late in the film, we even have a somewhat action-packed showdown at a police station, which was a nice sequence.

Worth mentioning also are those fade-to-black cuts. They happened throughout the movie, and felt out of place. Honestly, I thought it felt like something you’d see in a TV movie, and not a feature film like this one. It didn’t hurt the movie or anything so drastic, but it was notable, and just seemed odd to me.

Naturally, I’ve seen Jeepers Creepers before, though I admit it’s been a hell of a long time. It’s a movie that I’ve enjoyed plenty of times in the past, and I imagine I’ll enjoy plenty more times in the future. It’s not a perfect movie, nor is it really a game-changer, but it does feel unique, and I can see why it’s largely lauded as a quality film in the horror community.

8/10