Jeepers Creepers II (2003)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Victor Salva

Writers (WGA):

Victor Salva (characters)
Victor Salva (written by)

Release Date:

29 August 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

He can taste your fear.

Plot:

Set a few days after the original, a championship basketball team's bus is attacked by The Creeper, the winged, flesh-eating terror, on the last day of his 23-day feeding frenzy.

Plot Keywords:

Cheerleader | Bus | Fear | High School Basketball | High School

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Ray Wise	...	Jack Taggart, Sr.
Jonathan Breck	...	The Creeper
Garikayi Mutambirwa	...	Deaundre 'Double D' Davis
Eric Nenninger	...	Scott 'Scotty' Braddock
Nicki Aycox	...	Minxie Hayes
Marieh Delfino	...	Rhonda Truitt
Diane Delano	...	Bus Driver Betty Borman
Thom Gossom Jr.	...	Coach Charlie Hanna
Billy Aaron Brown	...	Andy 'Bucky' Buck
Lena Cardwell	...	Chelsea Farmer
Al Santos	...	Dante Belasco
Travis Schiffner	...	Izzy Bohen
Kasan Butcher	...	Kimball 'Big K' Ward
Josh Hammond	...	Jake Spencer
Tom Tarantini	...	Coach Dwayne Barnes

Also Known As:

Jeepers Creepers 2 (USA) (trailer title)
Jeepers Creepers 2: The Second Night (USA) (working title)
Like Hell: Jeepers Creepers 2 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence and language.

Runtime:

USA:104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Ontario) | Canada:18A (British Columbia/Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Sweden:15 | Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18SG | Finland:K-15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:R | Brazil:14 | Canada:18A | Chile:TE | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Philippines:R-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #39321)

Filming Locations:

Long Beach, California, USA

Company:

United Artists

Trivia:

The song 'Jeepers Creepers' which played into the original film a lot is only referenced once in this film. Its tune can be subtly heard in Bennett Salvay's music score during the final image of the film.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Creeper is supposed to hunt every spring. In the opening scenes, the cornfields all show full stalks of corn. Cornstalks are not that full until late summer or fall. In the spring, they are just being planted.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Taggert: [yelling out to Billy, who's putting up scarecrows] Billy! Get number three up now. Don't come in to eat before you do. And check the other two! Make sure they're wired up good. I don't want them blowing over again the first big wind.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Day in Hell: On the Set of 'Jeepers Creepers II' (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Jeepers Creepers

Underperforming sequel

Back in 2001, audiences were introduced to a creature which we came to understand fed every 23 years for 23 days. Why? Well, let's not worry about that.

The movie was Jeepers Creepers, and I have to admit that I gave the first installment a mild thumbs up as there were some genuine frights and a villain that was as uniquely interesting as the first time Freddy Krueger reached from under Johnny Depp's bed. It wasn't a movie that I would tell friends and family to fork over $13 bucks for to see on the big screen, but for a late, rainy Saturday evening, one could do worse.

Well, skip ahead two years, and the moderate success of the first installment brought back writer/director, Victor Salva to continue the story of the feeding creature in the crops.

I imagined Victor sitting at his word processor and thinking aloud to himself, `Hmmm. Ok… The creature feeds every 23 years and it has only been two since the last movie, so we better not dwell too much on that topic. Ok… For a sequel we need a bigger body count and sexier stars so lets have a full school bus of ballplayers and cheerleaders stranded and being picked off one by one. Ok…. We need to recognize the first film and show continuity so lets have the main actor from Jeepers Creepers I appear in the sequel. Oh wait… I killed him off. Ok…. Let's have him back in a dream sequence. Yeah! That'll work! Ok…. Last thing to worry about is trying to give the creature new characteristics while still making him vulnerable. I got it! Let's have him lose his head in one scene and replace it with one of the heads of the school children. Excellent. And then let's top off the thrills with having a vengeful father who creates a weapon that will ultimately destroy the creature. Got it! Good to go!'

I doubt I am going verbatim with what might have been thought or said while trying to shop Jeepers Creepers 2, but I don't think I am straying too far from the truthful facts either.

Jeepers Creepers 2 does offer more victims a la every horror sequel and most of the male characters are unbelievable brats that like to get their screen time without their shirts on. They run around uttering such ridiculous dialogue as `We have just dropped a notch on the food chain, man' while showing no signs of protecting he females they lust after so much within their own group.

Jeepers Creepers 2 had double the budget as did the first, so it is not surprising that the creature gets more computer generated close-ups or scenes where he flies around picking off his victims at will (Didn't he drive a truck in the first one?). However, instead of this developing the evil being, it desensitizes us and quite frankly, I was as bored of him as I was of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees after their second kick at the can.

For horror fans, I still expect that this film was a bit of a disappointment. The characters were so annoying that you found yourself routing for the creature and as far as beatings go, the creature was stabbed, decapitated, speared, impaled and thrown through a windshield all to no avail. Where is the tension therefore if a creature is virtually indestructible?

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