Main cast: Gina Philips (Trish Jenner), Justin Long (Darius Darry Jenner), Jonathan Breck (The Creeper), Patricia Belcher (Jezelle Gay Hartman), Brandon Smith (Sergeant Davis Tubbs), and Eileen Brennan (The Cat Lady)
Director: Victor Salva
Ah, it’s been a long time since I watch a decent, scary ghost movie. Jeepers Creepers isn’t exactly great, but for an hour and some spare minutes of non-stop thrills and chills, it is just it.
There’s not much of a plot as much as a “Oops, I stumbled into a horror movie!” premise. Darry and Trish are brother and sister on a long, long drive through a middle-of-nowhere countryside. They are first almost knocked down by a crazy old truck bearing the plate BEATINGU (“be eating you”, get it?). Later, they pass an old church where they see Mr Be-Eating-U throw what seem like dead bodies wrapped up in blood-soaked sheets down the pipe of a deserted church.
All horror movies usually have the characters doing something so stupid that it makes me root for their painful death. Here, Darry has the brilliant idea of climbing down the pipe into inky darkness. Die!
What he finds will soon plunge he and his sister into a nightmarish scenario, as a man-eating demon won’t stop until he has one of them in his clutches. A babbling psychic Jezelle acts as the Cassandra nobody listens to.
The first half hour of this movie is pure horror movie genius. I am at the edge of my seat. Then they reveal the monster’s face, and out goes the horror, in comes the annoying gore and firepower nonsense that are usually the sign of a bankruptcy of ideas.
They call this the best horror film in the last ten years? Well… not really, but this one does chill and thrill, but in the end, it is just another monster movie. A solid monster movie, but way over-hyped nonetheless.
Love the ending though, heh heh heh. Stupid guy gets his just desserts – I love that!