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Overall Rating
 Awesome: 13.36%
Worth A Look: 22.12%
Average: 29.49%
Pretty Bad: 11.06%
Total Crap: 23.96%
10 reviews, 157 user ratings
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| Jeepers Creepers |
by Scott Weinberg
"Jeeeepers Creeeepers - Where'd you get...that AWFUL ENDING?"
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It's annoying when a movie shows just enough flashes of brilliance to make you like it, while still displaying just enough unoriginality, cliché and predictability to make you angry. Such is the case in Victor Salva's Jeepers Creepers. If ever there were a horror movie that starts out strongly and slowly loses steam before limping to a pointlessly abrupt finale, this is it.Bickering college age siblings Trish and Derry are driving through the bleak countryside when they are attacked by a spooky gray van. After managing to bore their attacker, the pair then witness the van's occupant dumping large body-shaped somethings into a big drain pipe. Ignoring every bit of logic and sense that most human beings inherit from their parents, these two decide to go take a look-see.
Derry discovers some rather unsettling artifacts after plummeting into the huge pipe and upon his escape, the pair high-tail it for the next little town.
Everything I've just described is the better part of Jeepers Creepers. Because once all these hicks and cops get involved, things go from mildly creepy to completely familiar.
Obviously inspired by movies like The Hitcher, Duel and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, writer/director Victor Salva obviously has no idea where to steer this ship. While the first half manages to build up some tension and a sense of dread, the rest of the film looks like any other horror movie. And despite the fact that I adore horror films, most of them these days pretty much suck.
While it was somewhat of a disappointment, Jeepers Creepers most assuredly does not "suck". That the third act steadily devolves into formula may simply be because there's no new way for what is essentially a slasher flick to go. Points for trying new stuff, though. Instead of an insane serial killer, our antagonist here is some sort of backwoods cannibal gargoyle thingie who dines on the specific organs he may be lacking at that particular point. (Personally, I was impressed with the fluid way the monster managed to get around while being so 'organ-free'.)
If one component drags this movie down, it's the schizophrenic screenplay. Derry's unfortunate visit into the creature's lair sets up some potentially gruesome ideas, yet those concepts are dropped entirely when we hear over a police radio that the whole area "has been burned to the ground".
Another detriment is the haphazard style of editing employed throughout. Plot threads and character motivations seem to transform or vanish entirely, and much of the pacing is scattershot at best. I'm guessing this one was cut quite a bit, and I'd be quite interested to see if there may be a Director's Cut some time in the future.Given the sorry state of the modern horror movie, there's no way I could thrash a relatively entertaining shocker like Jeepers Creepers. But given the fantastic set-up in Act I, the resulting payoffs should have been much more satisfying. Aside from a delightfully gory (yet painfully abrupt) ending, the second half of the film is something horror fans have already seen dozens of times over.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=5511&reviewer=128
originally posted: 10/10/01 12:33:50
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 ScreamFest L.A. Horror Festival. For more in the 2004 ScreamFest L.A. series, click here.
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USA
31-Aug-2001 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
17-Jan-2002
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