Jeepers Creepers

Siblings Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry (Justin Long) are driving home from college for the holidays. Taking the scenic route, they head along a deserted road cutting through the countryside, where they are nearly run off the road by a maniac driving a huge, rusty truck with the loudest horn in history. Left shaken by the encounter, they later spot him disposing of what looks like a body. Upon further investigation, they find that his gruesome subterranean lair is filled with corpses, eviscerated and stitched to the ceiling. The overly inquisitive pair soon find themselves wishing they had minded their own business as they become the killer's latest targets. An inhuman monster known as the Creeper (Jonathan Breck), he sets out every 23 years to gorge himself on the flesh of those unlucky enough to be travelling on his stretch of the road...

Jeepers Creepers arrived at a time when the market for Scream rip-offs had hit saturation point. The film was marketed (and described by many reviewers) as a return to the lean and mean days before the horror genre became all ironic and post-modernist. In a sense, they weren't wrong. The characters in Jeepers Creepers, for the most part, don't spew witty one-liners and remark about how the situation they are in is just like being in a horror movie (with one glaring exception). The problem is, though, that, like it or not, Scream happened, and once the clichés of the genre have been laid bare in such a brazen manner, it becomes difficult (and probably futile) to return to the days before audiences were so aware. Claiming a return to the good old days may be enough to sell tickets, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee a good movie. In the case of Jeepers Creepers, for all writer/director Victor Salva's intentions, the end result simply isn't all that impressive.


In its defence, the movie begins with a brilliant opening sequence. Obviously taking a number of cues from Steven Spielberg's Duel, it does a brilliant job of setting the stakes appropriately high as Trish and Darry are terrorised by the Creeper in his truck. It comes out of nowhere, hitting full force before the film has even reached the 5-minute mark, and then, for the next half-hour, the scares come thick and fast. True, they are mostly of the "jump" variety, relying on surprising the audience rather than genuinely frightening them, but they are carried out effectively and Salva proves himself to be quite proficient at milking the suspense factor (even if composer Bennett Salvay's score is extremely intrusive). It also helps that both leads are quite effective - especially Gina Philips, since Justin Long, while reasonably good, does have a habit of wearing the same shell-shocked/constipated expression for long stretches of time - and both their interplay and the dialogue are good enough that it's easy to believe that they are brother and sister.

After the killer opening, however, the film falls apart rather abruptly. One of the age-old rules of the genre is that, with very few exceptions, horror works best when the protagonist (or, in this case, protagonists) is kept in isolation. Only a handful of directors can achieve horror in a crowded space. Alfred Hitchcock is one; Victor Salva, however, is no Hitchcock. Therefore, as soon as our two heroes enter a diner to get help, the film promptly falls flat on its face. The reason for isolating the protagonists of horror movies, I suspect, is twofold: first, our fear of being along is very palpable; second, it is simply too much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that the hero is in any danger when surrounded by other people. This age-old tenet definitely applies in Jeepers Creepers: whenever Trish and Darry are alone, the film picks up steam and becomes fairly effective. When they are with other people - as in the diner, and later the police station - the scare factor dials down, and the fairly simplistic narrative is not enough to sustain our interest on its own.


It doesn't help that Salva populates the film with annoying side characters. These range from the unimaginative - slack-jawed yokels who act hostile for no reason other than the fact that the movie calls for some tension - to the infuriating - a psychic (Patricia Belcher) who serves up cryptic exposition whenever she appears, and a crazy old lady (Eileen Brennan) who keeps a lot of cats. Not only are these characters complete cardboard cut-outs, they absolutely kill the film's pacing and distract from the matter at hand. The biggest mistake Salva makes, however, is giving the Creeper an identity and letting us see him for extended stretches of time. When Trish and Darry are on their own and he is nothing more than a fleetingly glimpsed shadow or an unseen menace driving a beat-up truck, he is a force to be reckoned with. Once his back-story is explained, however, and we actually get to see his face, he suddenly becomes less menacing. The make-up effects are quite good, in all fairness, but his appearance is so over the top (he even sprouts wings at one point) that he just stops being believable. "Less is more" is a lesson that Salva could really do with learning.

Jeepers Creepers was reasonably effective the first time I saw it at the cinema, back in 2001, because I didn't really know what to expect and got caught up in its proficient opening act. Subsequent viewings, however, have simply made its faults all the more apparent, and while I still like to watch it from time to time, I almost always find myself rapidly losing interest after the opening 30 minutes. It's far from a complete disaster, but neither is it, as Clive Barker claims it to be, "the most scary, stylish horror movie... in years".


DVD Presentation

Jeepers Creepers arrived on DVD at the very beginning of 2002, a point at which MGM had instigated an infuriating trend of delivering films on double-sided discs, housing separate widescreen and fullscreen versions in an attempt to cater to both movie enthusiasts and the WalMart crowd with the same release. For Jeepers Creepers both versions of the film are contains on one (dual layer) side, while the majority of the extras are found on the reverse (single layer) surface.

The widescreen transfer is reasonably good, but it's not great either. The image looks quite grainy, far more so than the theatrical presentation I saw, which leads me to suspect that this is an unintentional side effect of some fairly strong edge enhancement, amplifying the natural texture of the film stock and making the end result noisier than it should be. Certainly, haloes are quite often visible around actors' heads, and the overall look of the transfer is one that has been digitally manipulated to a fairly high level. It also looks overly dark at times, which limits visibility, especially in the second half of the film. Again, this is something I don't remember from when I saw it at the cinema.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is decent, and any flaws in it (the overbearing score, for example) are probably faults of the original mix rather than this DVD. The dialogue remains clear, although it does have a tendency to distort slightly whenever the actors shout (this is most noticeable when Trish and Darry are menaced by the Creeper's truck for the first time). French and Spanish dubs are also provided, as well as subtitles in all three languages (although not, alas, for the extras).


Extras

The principal extra on Side A is an audio commentary by Victor Salva. It's well-rehearsed and thorough, although he never really says anything earth-shattering. His constant praise of everyone involved wears a bit thin after a while, though. Cast and crew filmographies are also included on this side.

Side B kicks off with Behind the Peepers, a thorough documentary covering various aspects of the production. With an overall running time of just under 70 minutes, it is handily split into six different sub-sections, each of which focuses on a different aspect of the film: casting the two leads, designing the Creeper, the use of vehicles, the locations, night shoots, and the score. It's all very thorough and is accompanied by liberal doses of cast and crew interviews and on-set footage, but obviously how much you enjoy the film itself will determine whether or not you can be bothered sittin through more than an hours' worth of behind the scenes material.

Ten deleted and extended scenes follow. None of them are particularly earth-shattering, and seem to have been cut simply to improve the pacing. In total, there is a little under 17 minutes' worth of material here, although because a number of the scenes are comprised of extensions of what is included in the final cut, not all of it is new footage.

Last Looks is an 8-minute animated slide show featuring various promotional and behind the scenes photographs. All of this is set to Bennett Salvay's bombastic score, so be prepared to put your "Mute" button to good effect.

The film's original theatrical trailer, as well as trailers for Hannibal, The Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator and Carrie, complete the package.


Overall

It's undeniably a step above the likes of Urban Legends and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, but saying that is merely damning Jeepers Creepers with faint praise. A missed opportunity, it fails to live up to the promise of its opening scenes and as a result is probably best suited to a rental. The audio-visual presentation is adequate and the extras, while a bit plodding, are mostly informative. Overall, a nice package, but given the film hardly an essential purchase.