Peeping Tom (Jeepers Creepers (DVD))

Member Name: 3rd Rock Satan

Product:	Jeepers Creepers (DVD)
Date:	22/11/04 (183 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Starts off well, Likeable lead roles, Quite fun

Disadvantages: Tails off, Creeper revealed too soon..., ...and it isn't scary

Creepers caused a big stir when it was first released with many people hailing it one of the greatest horror movies of recent years. Using the tried and trusted mythical monster story line that horror movies seem to have forgotten in favour of a few guys in masks and knives, Creepers brought new blood back into the genre.

Don’t you just hate inconsiderate drivers? Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry Jenner (Justin Long) are driving back home from college and are about to encounter one of the most inconsiderate drivers in the world. Not wanting to get home fast Trish has requested they take the long way round so their journey has been a quiet, boring and uneventful one. Their sibling bickering are put on the back boiler all of a sudden when an ominous bulk of a truck suddenly drives up behind them seemingly intent on forcing them off the roads. After a tense few minutes the truck finally overtakes them and speeds off into the distance. However they see the truck again soon after as well as a man in a trench coat throwing what looks suspiciously like bundled-up bodies in sacks down a pipe next to an old church. This being a horror movie they don’t do the sane thing and drive for help and this being a horror movie their cell phone is dead so what could they possibly do other then check out what the man has been dumping in the pipe? They discover a horrifying crypt like lair and, unfortunately, that same thing that lives in there is after them, ready for a new kill. Driving to get help proves fruitless however because Trish and Darry are up against something from their wildest nightmares.

Certainly this doesn’t sound overly different to a whole bunch of other horror movies that we’ve been treated to over the years. However Creepers managed to gain a lot of praise with some people heralding it a new age in horror movies. Does it go that far? No, but there are some great moments in the film. As many people have said the first half of the film is a definite high point. The Duel-like confrontation of the truck and their little car on the old country road is very entertaining stuff. The fact that the first portion of the film is also filmed in sunlight bucks to trend of everything happening in the dark to add ‘atmosphere’ to the film. As it is in daylight the truck encounters are just as good thanks to the desolate location. The scenes of the Creepers lair are chilling, creepy and very tense. The fear factor is notched up more and more throughout the film slowly as we get to see yet more grisly sights. All this happens with little shock value, no big jumps in the music and no silly things popping out of the dark, it’s all about a slow build up to a bigger menace. That’s when the Creeper comes into the picture a bit more.

From then on the film loses its way somewhat and, after a nice enough start, falls into the all-too predictable routine of hide and seek in the dark. The film tries to be different and it also does the trick of knowing it’s a film yet even though Trish exclaims that ‘this is the part of the film where someone does something stupid and everyone hates them for it’ they still do all the stupid things you’d expect them to do in a horror movie. They don’t drive off, they keep trying to confront the Creeper and then, to top it all off, they are then ‘trapped’ inside a police station and then the power goes off. All very predictable and unfortunately not done with as much style as the first part of the film.

Is the Creeper scary? Well, not really. It’s very hard to be scared about something when it’s all too apparent it’s just some fancy make up. Obviously if I was faced with the Creeper I wouldn’t be too happy and I doubt my nose would either but the fact is, on screen, it just looks like any other monster you would see in an episode of Buffy. A big problem with this film, I found, was the fact that the Creeper is unveiled far too early in the film. As a hooded figure he commanded some form of menace because what you don’t see your imagination makes it up for you. This is the best rule of horror movies; never reveal the threat to the audience too quickly because soon the effect wears off once seen, especially as it isn’t that great. As an unstoppable monster he is just another horror movie cliché. It isn’t just the Creeper that doesn’t pack a punch. With the latter half of the film merely content with giving shocks in short, sharp and annoying loud music type bursts the atmosphere the film was building up is shattered. We get to see yet more people making those ‘something stupid’ mistakes that are all too frequent in films except this time there’s no self-knowing wink about it all.

While the horror subsides over the course of the film the cast manage to do a nice job throughout all of it. As the film pretty much has Trish and Darry in every single shot it would be beneficial to get people who are up to the job and people that we didn’t actually want to see die in a horrible death because, lets face it, the vast majority of horror movies have those kind of kids. Luckily Philips and Long do a play their roles well. Their relationship as brother and sister is believable enough, they argue and wind each other up but you can easily see they love each other and care about each other deep down. Long goes through the motions of the typically annoying know-it-all younger brother to scared little boy as the film goes on and Philips manages to portray fear without ear splitting screams all the time or her getting on your nerves acting like a dumb bitch. While the latter half of the film mainly consists of them running and their mouths open wide with shock the fact is that I wanted them to get out alive thanks to their performances early on which can only be a good thing. By contrast the adults in the film do not fair as well. They are often bumbling fools with little going for them, which isn’t surprising seeing as the film has a tight focus on the two younger characters. However it would have been nice to have a slight balance of power between them and Trish and Darry rather than them being introduced and killed off far too quickly.

Despite its shortcomings the film doesn’t quite belong on the big pile of sub-standard horror. As said the beginning of the film is nicely done and, even though the middle act is disappointing, it’s still enjoyable enough though without any flare. It is nice to see that, when the cops are involved, they don’t dismiss them as kids who are lying/high/mad, which saves the audience the hassle of groaning when the cops dismiss their tales and then getting killed themselves. It is also good enough for a laugh and that’s what horror movies are there to do if they don’t scare you they can be oddly amusing and this can be, at times, tongue in cheek. The ending of the film is where it really did pick up again. Without wanting to give too much away this is where Creepers redeems itself slightly by giving us a somewhat different twist to the ending of horror movies that we are used to seeing though it still does, as ever, cry ‘sequel’.

Jeepers Creepers is a competent horror movie. You may get a few scares and it can be, at times, unsettling. However it does seem to promise that little bit more and certainly isn’t the second coming of horror movies that a lot of critics will have you believe. It is, though, for the most part an entertaining little flick, which manages to stand out from the horror dross we normally tend to get. It is certainly not the pinnacle of the genre but one worthy of some attention.


JEEPERS CREEPERS IS

Fun and entertaining
Different enough at first
Complete with two likeable leads

JEEPERS CREEPERS IS NOT

Best cast for adults
Something radically new
Going to keep you awake at night

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