Jeeper Creepers, I should have taken my Peepers elsewhere (Jeepers Creepers (DVD))

Member Name: Bridgend boy

Product:	Jeepers Creepers (DVD)
Date:	08/11/01 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ok to while away an evening if theres nothing better to watch

Disadvantages: Not scary

I was looking forward to this film. The trailer was nicely dark and creepy. The hype machine was well oiled and the reviews were good. The best American horror movie for ten years they said. Well, I'm sorry, but that's not the case.

It starts off well. Two irritating teenagers arguing in a clapped out old car while driving along a deserted road in the backwaters of America.

The tension starts to build whena large, rusty truck appears behind them and scares them half to death while trying to get past. They later notice the truck in a run down old church yard, while it's owner looks to be dumping bodies down a pipe. Unfortunately for them, it notices that it's been spotted and jumps back in the truck for a spot of bumper cars, eventually driving the teenagers off the road into a field.

Up until now there's nothing wrong with the movie. However, it's at this point that the film loses it's grip on things. Instead of racing away as far as possible and finding the police, the boy decides it's far more nobel to investigate the pipe. Now, I'm sorry, but any normal person would have been away from that place as fast as their clapped out old car could take them. They certainly wouldn't be sliding down the pipe to investigate.

From there, the film gets worse and worse. The kids have an incredibly annoying habit of standing around watching everything, when all normal people would be running as fast as they could. In addition, when the wierd old man, turns out to be some kind of monster, the film loses it's sense of reality, which is what makes the best horror films scary in the first place. To imagine that there really is this headcase roaming around killing people and then dumping them in a hide away can be quite unnerving. Then to spoil it all by uncovering some weird creature from another world kind of lets the audience down. The best horror is built on fear of real situations going bad, which is
what this film starts to do. When monsters and demons etc. are introduced halfway through a film, it slips into the realms of fantasy, rather than horror.

The film would have been better had it decided from the word go what it wanted to be, instead of changing it's mind halfway through.

All in all, an average horror film, which isn't scary and only provides one jumpy moment. As for being the best horror film of the past ten years. No way. Scream was superior as was Elm Street. (Although that's probably more than ten years old).

Summary: