Jeepers Creepers is an example of a movie that starts out strong and concludes by barely limping across the finish line. Where at one point there is tension, suspense and clever set-ups, it reverts to staid horror flick contrivances and cheats itself out of being one of the more troubling releases of recent years. Perhaps they were trying too hard to set it up for sequels and forgot the interesting premise that precedes it.
That premise stems from a combination of characters we don't see all that often in scary movies -- a brother and a sister. Trish Jenner (Gina Philips) and Darry Jenner (Justin Long) are on their way home to their family, driving in one of those used cars that just doesn't seem to start for them when it really counts the most. After a Duel-like chase by an old car, the siblings spot the driver dumping wrapped-up bodies down an old pipe, and soon they are being chased again by the mysterious figure. After they spin off the road, Trish and Darry turn back to see if the bodies were still alive. Once at the bottom of the pipe, Darry sees a troubling sight, with a tapestry of body parts and corpses stitched together and suspended from the ceiling.
The heroes try to get out of dodge, but they are soon pursued (and, at key points where it is frustratingly impossible to figure out why, not pursued) by an unscary-looking beast that wears a trenchcoat and hat, who also has wings and derives its energy from fear... and also needs human body parts as well. Then the stereotypical townspeople start to come out of the woodwork. You've got your dubious cops who will obviously regret the day they doubted the heroes' story, the crazy old cat lady who's afraid of nothing, and then there's the misunderstood psychic who speaks in conveniently obtuse phrases but simply has to warn the heroes about the nightmarish visions she's had about the monster.
The further into the proceedings we go, the zanier the plot points become. One character ominously tells Trish and Darry that bad things will happen when they hear the specific song "Jeepers Creepers", which implies the garish ghoul has some kind of supernatural power over the radio airwaves. We also see the winged monster fly very fast and scale walls with no problem, but it seems happy to walk slower than a braindead zombie whenever it needs to be chasing the siblings. Although not shown onscreen, we're meant to assume it bothers to drive old beat-up cars when there isn't a single practical reason for it to do so. There's also a silly moment when the explanation for the gruesome stitchings is shown and it comes off as preposterous at a moment when it should be spooky.
I have to admit, I was hooked for the first portion of Jeepers Creepers. It keeps throwing curveballs and has some surprisingly naturalistic dialogue between the two leads. Gina Philips and Justin Long ensure they don't come across as stock characters, and for a while it plays like a top-notch suspense and thriller movie. Ironically, it is the introduction of the answers to the mysterious goings-on that takes the wind out of the film's sails.
The movie is directed by Victor Salva, who uses some scary techniques to layer the tension quite well at the onset. My guess is, as writer, he got stuck with having penned an interesting exposition and then found himself having to explain everything away only after he started the shooting the picture and threw in as much info as he could after the fact. Above all though, in a creature feature it is the creature itself which needs to stimulate fear, and ironically all the scary stuff happens before the stalker's identity is ever established. It just goes to show that sometimes what remains unseen can potentially generate the most tension and yield the strongest dividends. Victor Salva: Jeepers Creepers, why'd you cause those sighs.
