|
JEEPERS CREEPERS
- 
|
| Rated R
| | Copyright 2001 VCL Communications GmbH
|
Reviewed by Andrew Borntreger on 29 January 2008
|
|
A teenage boy and his sister encounter a supernatural creature that emerges from seclusion every twenty-three years to prey on people. The Creeper drives a big freaking truck and dumps bodies down a chute to its lair under a church. It is also nearly invulnerable, because the siblings attempt to take refuge in a police station and a bunch of officers learn the value of life insurance. Even multiple close encounters with a road and one of those death-dealing machines (the sister's car) that travel on them fails to stop the Creeper, though it reveals its true form: a bat-winged demon.
This film came close to being good. A couple of problems ruined the overall experience for me. The traumatized brother's tendency to "stare, slack-jawed" started to get old quickly. It seems like every time we see him, he is paralyzed with fear. The teenagers' interactions with nearly everyone, including each other, were another sticking point. Something interesting is that many of the scenes take place at night with minimal lighting. That normally drives me up the wall because I cannot see anything. Here, the poorly-lit settings add to the atmosphere.
"Jeepers Creepers" is a film that actually makes my blood run cold, but not for any of the reasons you might expect. To understand why it frightens me, you need to know some background information. The writer/director is Victor Salva, who also directed the movie "Clownhouse" (1989) and sexually molested the twelve-year-old male star of that movie. Salva videotaped the sexual abuse and served time in prison for his crimes. Knowing that, take another look at "Jeepers Creepers." Victor Salva, a child molester, wrote and directed a movie about a demonic creature that pursues a young man (including sniffing the teenager's underwear) and, despite the best efforts of the police, succeeds in taking the terrified boy away to do as he pleases with him. That is frightening.
Oh, and don't forget the dainty little rose tattoo wrapped around the teenage boy's bellybutton. Yet another troubling inclusion when you consider Salva's sexual appetites.
|
| Things I Learned From This Show: | |
|  | Rubbernecking is always a bad idea.
| | | In addition to flashing lights, police cars should be equipped with Claymore mines.
| | | The best way to find an organ donor is by sniffing their dirty laundry.
| | | Psychics experience the Reader's Digest version of the future.
|
|
| | | 9 mins - Are the both of you nine or nineteen?
| | | 42 mins - It is rather obvious that the Creeper has never seen a Vaseline Intensive Care ad in his life.
| | | 62 mins - The more I watch this movie, the more I think the male lead was hired for his vast repertoire of looks of abject terror.
| | | 72 mins - "Everybody look out! We have a bungie-jumping bogey on deck!"
| |
|
|
|
|
