Jappers Crappers (Jeepers Creepers (DVD))

Member Name: clissoldjones

Product:	Jeepers Creepers (DVD)
Date:	28/10/01 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: first half hour sets it up very nicely

Disadvantages: rest of the film, stupid demon

I'm usually very careful when deciding which film to catch at the cinema, due to many £6 being wasted during the summer (thanks Mummy Returns etc). However two weeks ago I made two foolish errors:
1) I let my friend decide the film we were going to see
2) I went to see it

It was...Jeepers Creepers. I had seen the trailer on tv, heard the voice-over saying something like 'one of the best American horror films of the last ten years', and thought that this would be a decent film to see, and for the first half an hour or so, it seemed like it would be.

PLOT
----
Brother and sister Darryl and Patricia Jenner are returning home via a long road trip through the near deserted countryside. They are suddenly almost driven off the road by a large truck and only just manage not crashing the car. As Darryl swerves the car to a stop, the mysterioud truck thunders off into the distance, and the siblings, although a little shocked, continue their journey home.

Presently they drive past an old chapel, where they spot the truck parked at the side of the road. Not only that, but they see a figure dressed in black and with his face obscured by a large hat, dumping something looking worryingly humanlike into an old pipe. For some reason Darryl (played by Justin Long) wants to investigate as the figure drives off in the old truck, but his sister (played by Gina Philips) wants to get home.

Eventually Darryl persuades Gina and they park next to the chapel and Darryl takes a look down the pipe. For yet another reason Darryl wants a closer look and climbs into the pipe, his sister holding his feet. Before you can say 'watch it mate...' hes flying down the pipe and landing with a painful bump at the bottom, soon to find some very gruesome and strange things down in the chapel's basement.

WELL?
----- At this point in the film I was generally hooked. The director, Victor Salva had set things up very nic
ely. Letting us know the two main protagonists, giving us a few shocks, and a bit of a mystery thrown in as well. I was expecting a lot...

SOME MORE PLOT (spoilers included)
--------------
Unfortunatley at this point the film became not only completley unbelievable but also downhill in terms of storyline, scares and common sense. Darryl finds lots of bodies stuck to the wall of the basement ('its like a pyscho version of the Sistine Chapel') and after a phone call from a woman who knows exactly what they have been through due to her dreams, find that the figure is infact a demon that is going around eating people. Not only that, but when he does eat something of someones, it then becomes part of him.

For the rest of the film we see this demon wandering around, chopping people's heads off, nibbling on someone's leg and generally causing a nuisance of himself. Justin Long, as Darryl, is the expert at opening his mouth and looking petrified/gormless, Gina Philips as his sister spends the rest of the movie trying to understand what this woman who dreams the future is on about, and by the end I was bored and wishing I had my £6 back.

PROBLEMS WITH FILM (once again with spoilers, don't say we don't spoil you on dooyoo)
---------
1) The demon looked like something off Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not only was this totally unrealistic, but not scary at all and a complete let down. We were expected to think that this thing wandered around eating lots of people and no one realised apart from...

2) Dream woman. This woman appeared at the end saying she saw everything in her dreams although she could do nothing to help. Unnessecary (can't spell dammit) and the only of her was to explain the stupid demon.

3) The demon was basically invincible therefore removing any tension, suspense and once again believability in the process. It also had huge wings so maybe it had eaten a large pigeon
<
br>4) The only two characters that were fleshed out in any way were the two teenagers, who were not likeable enough to care about anyway.

SO...?
------

If you are dragged along to see this, only watch the first half hour. The rest is complete tosh lacking in ideas and anything in the way of a decent storyling and tension. One of the biggest disappointments I have ever seen.

Summary: