Well, within just a few weeks of the release of “The Others” along came another horror film that rises above the usual dreck of its genre. However, this is not the type of horror film that “The Others” succeeded at being. That film was trying to be a scary film without the cheap ‘jumping out of scary things from off camera’ that normally plagues horror films aimed at horny teenagers. Instead, “Jeepers Creepers” is probably aiming at the horny teenager demographic, but still managed to avoid the standard horror movie cliches.

Jeepers works well and definitely has enough good things going for it, that I consider it to be a very good horror film. It has lots of scary moments simply by what it shows us, and what it doesn’t. There is very little setup, demand for realism, or desire to be more than what it is: a scary evening at the movies.

Early in the film we see a brother and a sister driving home for the holidays. The first sign that the writer/director knows about this type of road trip is the fact that the brother has all his laundry in the back seat to wash at home. The brother and sister are probably very different people, with the sister being popular, and the brother much less so. They probably don’t have a lot in common but act like distant friends when together for family events.

This is actually one of the first unique things with the film that separates it from others in the same genre. No messy sexual relationships here. Did “Scream” stop the trend of first the virgin has sex, and then she and everyone else in the house get murdered? I was also impressed with the fact that the somewhat diminutive girl, played by Gina Philips, does a great job of being very strong and powerful when it comes to protecting her brother.

While driving along, we see in a very long shot a large strange looking vehicle gaining ground on them from behind. As it finally begins to fill up the view from the back window, we hear a strange sound, and it appears that the vehicle wants to run them off of the road. The kids are scared, and eventually go off the road into a field while the truck continues on.

Not too much further down the road, they see the same truck stopped by what looks like an abandoned church take something blatantly ‘body sized’ and throw it down a large pipe next to the church. Having been seen by the large driver who is covered with tattered clothing and a big hat hiding his features, they end up being pursued, before finally running off the road again. Facing a moral dilemma, they soon find themselves back at the church with the brother going down the tube to see if it is a body, and if anyone is alive and in need of help.

What he finds is one of the scarier sets I’ve seen in a long time. At the bottom of the hole are several wrapped bodies, with large scars as if major organs had been removed. A hole in the wall leads to a room that is dome shaped, and completely covered across the walls and ceiling with partially mummified bodies.

We still don’t know much about the creature itself, but we soon learn that this must be more than just a large man. The movie helps keep up the suspense by slowly letting us know how much more powerful and supernatural this demon is as the movie goes along. It could have played all of its trump cards in the beginning, but it doesn’t. We learn more and more about its abilities as the film goes along.

Unfortunately the movie lost its chance of being considered a truly great film, instead of just a very good horror film by making several missteps. There are some great scenes, but the horror worked better in the beginning of the film, and lessened the more we learn about the Demon. The story also became riddled with more inconsistencies as it progressed.

Like most horror films, the demon could have made this a ten minute film if he had done what he was determined to do to the leads in the beginning of the film. There was no reason to let them escape on at least three or four different occasions. It worked well, showing us how much more powerful this enemy is as the movie progressed, but if you think about it, he shouldn’t have been so easy to escape in many of the earlier scenes.

The demon’s truck we heard in the beginning is like no sound I’ve heard before. I wasn’t sure what the sound was, be it a horn, a creature, or just part of the soundtrack. Why wouldn’t the cat lady be killed when he seemed so willing to harm so many police officers?

In his basement lair, the brother sees a ring on a victim’s hand telling him that he knew these people who had disappeared. Later we find out that they disappeared twenty years earlier. How would he know them, much less recognize their ring when he is probably only twenty years old himself?

A near finale towards the end has what must be the largest police station for rural America I’ve ever seen. I imagine there must have been almost thirty cops fighting the monster, and the whole section of film just didn’t fit with the rest. Previously this was a movie of scary things in deep shadows and from a distance. Not an action film. Why would it kill so many cops, when he had let other passerby’s live, even those attacking it? Especially when the cops couldn’t even really hurt him.

The other problem with having a shoot out with so many police officers is that now the demon has been seen by a dozen people. This made the final scene with the sister also not work for me. The whole town, police force, and everyone else involved were acting pretty casual considering what sort of devil spawn so many of them had seen. There was definitely an attitude of “Oh well, I guess it got away.” that shouldn’t have been there.

I saw the ending and importance of the title song “Jeepers Creepers” early on, so I can’t say I was shocked by the film’s conclusion, but members in my audience did shriek a little at the last image of the film. It was a clever visual shot, but certainly easily foreseen.

In the first half of the movie when we aren’t quite sure what the villain is, the movie is tense, scary, creepy, and it works well. In the second half of the film, when most of the cards are on the table, the director’s skill fails, and he isn’t able to create the right ‘feel’ that the film needs to continue in the new direction.

Overall, it’s a good film, but you may not realize it right away because the ending makes you feel like it wasn’t.

Note: On my own web page, I gave the film 3½ stars.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older