Jeepers Creepers (2001) Movie Review
Written By: JR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Victor Salva
Producer: Willi Bar, Francis Ford Coppola et al.
Screenwriter: Victor Salva
Date Released: August 31, 2001
Cast:
Gina Philips as Trish
Justin Long as Darry
Jonathan Breck as The Jeepers Creepers
Patricia Belcher as Jezelle
Eileen Brennan as The Cat Lady
Rating = 2.5/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Darry (Justin Long) and his sister, Trish (Gina Philips), are on their way back home for spring break. While they are driving on Pertwilla highway, a speeding truck purposely hits their car again and again. They catch the driver throwing sacks of bodies down the pipe of an abandoned church. After an appalling discovery, their routine road trip home turns into a race for their lives as they are chosen prey by the so-called “Jeepers Creepers.”
Gore Factor
Everyone who is into bogeyman films would find the gore in this film nostalgic. It uses the pop song “Jeepers Creepers” from Going Places, a 1938 American musical comedy, to warn people of their demise. It hunches on children’s fear for captors lurking in the dark of the night and in broad daylight. But instead of kids, they tailored the movie around late teenagers and their excitement for road trips. To such a degree, the gore is mature and tensile with vivid displays of crashed cars, beheaded officers, stitched bodies, and wax-like corpses.
The Grave Review
The first franchise of Jeepers Creepers (2001) is wistful of the countryside while trailing on the creature film genre. It has an intense rural flavor with a diabolical interpretation of Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren’s whimsical song, “Jeepers Creepers.” It puts a chill to classic road trips and late summer air.
Gina Philips and Justin Long are just right for playing characters that ramble about college culture from time to time. Their banters are fun to follow, especially when they break fourth walls to criticize illogical horror films. However, there are band-aid characters that are obviously invented in order for the plot to progress, such as the next door psychic. The film gives you a fair share of favorable humans and not-so-believable ones.
The monster in the film brings more sinister when left unknown than identified. Although this is the case, his nature is quite a refreshing take compared to other man-eating creatures. He regenerates each of his body parts by consuming the same parts from his victims. The funny thing is although he eats only once a year and has grown weak from hunger, he still chooses his prey by the distinctness of its odor. The weird fetish forwards a unique trait, but it is sometimes ridiculous.
The visuals are impressive, considering the time it was produced. The icon it tries to create from a song lyric seems like it comes from a provincial lore. Overall, Jeepers Creepers (2001) is a fun ride, but in the long run, it turns into a carnage carnival en route to inessential flashiness.
Because of the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Jeepers Creepers (2001) two and a half graves out of five graves.
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