Cast: Gina Phillips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher, Eileen Brennan
Director: Victor Salva
U.S. Distribution: United Artists
U.S. Release Date: 8/31/01
Running Time: 1:40
MPAA Rating: R
Whether you end up kind of liking Jeepers Creepers or hating it, you will have seen a disturbing horror film which is a bit of a groaner. You would have surely screamed "GET OUT OF THERE!" at least a couple of times and wished that this had been an episode of "Tales From the Darkside" (and not something you had spent your money on).
Just as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre proved many years earlier, rural America can be a very scary place. This time around, Justin Long and Gina Philips are a brother and sister (sound familiar?) who take the wrong way home. Their haunted road trip includes a gruesome discovery in the basement of an abandoned church which all but explains the disappearance of several hundred motorists along this stretch of hellish black top.
Without giving away too many of the gory details, I will say that "The Creeper" is nightmarish and most definitely not human. Prepare yourself for a freak show with mostly cheap thrills and at least as much blah as it has bite.
Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman describes the villain as "a rather sorry cross between Alien, Leprechaun, Freddy Krueger, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. He's about as scary as a rubber action toy."
Ken Fox of TV Guide Online has a somewhat differing opinion. "The film is full of gruesome moments, and the ending is an unexpectedly wicked stab that defies genre conventions while leaving the door open for the inevitable - and not entirely unwelcome - sequel."
© 2001, Delton Perrodin