Jack Taggart: Ray Wise
The Creeper: Jonathan Breck
Izzy Bohen: Travis Schiffner
Scott Braddock: Eric Nenninger
Minxie Hayes: Nicki Lynn Aycox
Jonny Young: Drew Tyler Bell
Coach Charlie Hannah: Thom Gossom Jr.
Rhonda Truitt: Marieh Delfino
Jack Taggart Jr.: Luke Edwards
The search for the first decent American horror movie of
the 21st century continues apace.
A quick glance at the recent parade of hopelessness reveals the dire state of
the genre, with the likes of Halloween: Resurrection, Darkness Falls and
Wrong Turn unable to muster a single scare between them, and only the
opening sequence of Ghost Ship showing anything like a hint of wit or
imagination, before going quickly downhill like the rest of them.
I was possibly somewhat premature last week when I observed that
Tomb Raider 2
was the most unwanted sequel of the summer - I'd forgotten that we had yet
to face the return of what some critics had astonishingly branded "the
greatest horror film of our generation". Jeepers Creepers was one third
of a very good horror movie and two thirds utter bollocks, which is probably
more frustrating than if the whole thing had been rubbish. We were treated to
maybe half an hour of cracking Duel-like tension as an unknown force
terrorised a young brother and sister on a remote stretch of road, before
the revelation that it was just a big flying bat creature that wanted to eat
them.
The story goes that every 23 years The Creeper gets to feed (i.e. harvest
body parts) for 23 days before going back into hibernation. Now it's the
22nd day and The Creeper has just snatched a young farm boy from right in
front of his father. Day 23 begins with a group of high school footballers
or basketballers or some such on a bus on the way back from a game. A blown
tyre or two later and they're being picked off one by one by the monster as
the vengeful farmer tries to reach them in time, all the while gleefully
sharpening his homemade harpoon.
One of the biggest problems with a group of stupid, generic teens is that we
couldn't care less who gets killed next. Basically, we want them to die,
especially as The Creeper has this time been given a personality and is more
fun than all the kids put together, with his winking and window licking and
pointing at the ones he's going to kill next. Add to this such treasures as
the girl who suddenly becomes psychic so she can explain the plot to
everyone else, the fact that several of the characters simply disappear for
long stretches, and the almost criminal lack of splattery gore, and you're
left with a rather flat affair that's only enlivened by a better than
average monster and Wise's crackpot turn.
Maybe I'm just expecting too much. Maybe I've got it all wrong with my
outlandish desire for characterisation, logic, tension, atmosphere and
style. Maybe if I were an American teenager, I would consider Jeepers
Creepers 2 the pinnacle of modern filmmaking because, as I write this, it's
galloping to the top of the U.S. box office. Maybe we're getting what we
deserve.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
