bladespinner Review of Jeepers Creepers 2

Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)

This is one of the best horror sequels i've viewed in some time.

[30 December 2003]

First I'd like to say that I am baffled that so many people dislike movies such as JC/part 1 & JC/part 2. The movies themselves can stand on their own as being original because the villan is not some rehashed version of freddy/jason/michael meyers/leatherface/pinhead/rawhead rex/pumkinhead/dracula/wolf man rippoff. Granted the creeper exhibits some of the hollywood motivated behavior similar to all the aforementioned creatures but never so much that he does not stand out and shine for his very own original efforts. I guess what i'm trying to say is horror buffs like myself needed the creeper as a refresher. Mostly all the horror icons have faded into some abysmal b movie categorys, and so we rarely get to see a bigger budget supernatural slasher these days with staying power. The fact is Both movies are scary, even though they are not scary as hell. The exorcist when it first came out was scary as hell, but that's because it had a helping hand since it touched on the very real subject of excorsim which links into the very real subjects of religion. As we all know reality(real subjects) bite. The jeepers creepers movies are adequate in it's attempts to only scare but not scare the hell outta you. But hey lets face it, this is as close as it gets. We all know when we go to bed after watching the creeper do his dirt that he's not going to actually jump in after us and have a snack(we are adults and not five year olds). Clearly this is not reality. So i'm sick of reading peoples comments saying the movie is not scary and does not even deserve to be on the big screen. Look at the movie for what it is. Give it credit for what it achieves. The make up and special affects were great(not constant force feeding of CG animation). The creeper was no less scarier in the second installment than in the first although because we are now more familiar with his guise and methods of killing he comes off a little less shocking. Still I cannot wait for the third installment, and i'm happy they had the ending with the stupid farmer and his son, because we at least know they will give us another sequel. My only gripe is with the directors decision not to give us some more background info on exactly what the creeper is. If you watch the DVD of JC 2 he says that he does not think the creeper is a demon(demons tie into religion), but more likely is what was once a human who had been cursed. Sounds like the story of golem/smeagel to me. I guess that origin could work, but i'm not entirely feeling it. If the creeper was a man at one point, why then did he go an entire two movies without speaking one whole sentence? The fact that he might have been human just raises so many more questions, and the creeper is already too damned mysterious to begin with. He's not a movie villain that you can get intimate with since his origin is foggy. It would be different if the creeper himself was also just as clueless as we are and was on a personal journey to find his beginnings as well(kind of like wolverine).