True horror requires a delicate balance of subtlety and full-on terror. Latter-day slasher films are pretty much unable to pull it off, but an old-fashioned monster movie like "Jeepers Creepers" stood a chance at being a truly great horror film.
Unfortunately, it just misses the mark. Still, the filmmakers deserve endless credit for playing their terrors with a straight face. Ninety-nine percent of today's alleged "horror" films play everything for laughs or stupidity, but the "Jeepers" crew goes straight for the throat with minimal comic interference.
The story is fairly simple and stripped-down. Brother and sister Trish (Gina Philips) and Daryl (Justin Long) are driving home from college for Spring Break. They make the unfortunate decision of taking a country back road home and end up in a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious hunter billed as the Creeper (Jonathan Breck), who drives a monstrous mini-truck.
As the two young adults try to unravel the mystery of what is going on, they end up in deeper and deeper trouble. Dark surprises come fast and furious, and suspense and terror build effectively.
Then, halfway through the movie, it all self-destructs. The Creeper is shown briefly - his attacks and chases are vicious and taut. Simple scenes showing him standing by an abandoned building or sitting behind the wheel from a distance are enough to electrify viewers. But at the movie's midpoint, he is given way too much screen time, and the mystery and viewer involvement both collapse.
His appearances just aren't scary anymore; he becomes too familiar. There are also a few scenes that veer dangerously into "root for the villain" territory. That approach works sometimes, but not when it's with such a silent, mysterious, malicious and inhuman monster.
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Another problem with the Creeper, and this is a glaring flaw, considering how original the idea behind it is: The monster looks way too much like the Djinn in the "Wishmaster" films. From the facial features down to the structure of his costume, the similarities are too obvious to ignore.
The performances by the two leads also take a bit of the impact away. Early in the film, they are given a surprising amount of depth and become identifiable. But in some scenes they become so irritating that they leave the viewer wishing for the monster to come out and wreak some mayhem.
But when crunch time comes, Philips and Long both redeem the limpness of their early dialogue by reacting very believably to the terrible things that happen, and their conviction helps a lot of the "jump" scares work.
Simple scares are what make "Jeepers" old-fashioned. Its effects are likewise mostly low-tech latex and model work with almost no computer enhancement. This is vitally refreshing in our computer age and works in giving the Creeper a much more organic feel.
Although its MPAA rating description promises "terror violence/gore," the movie is actually pretty tame in that department. The bloodshed is mostly implied after the fact, and what minimal onscreen violence the movie shows is used to emphasize the danger of the Creeper rather than juvenile gross-out value.
It's surprising that a movie named after (and centered around) a goofy old song like "Jeepers Creepers" would be so abrasive, joke-free and intense. "Scream" this ain't. Although the film's connection with the song seems tenuous, it works in a twisted way.
The last great horror film was "Requiem for a Dream." Nothing since has matched its terror, intensity, the believability of its performances or the viciousness of its monster (addiction). "Jeepers" had the potential to be its successor, but it just gets too wrapped up in its monster. In the end, the film trips over its own excesses.
All nitpicking aside, "Jeepers" is just plain anticlimactic. The movie rollicks along, building momentum, but then it just... ends. There's no catharsis, and its events feel drastically unresolved. The viewer is left wondering if he or she missed something because the ending is so abrupt. If it was designed this way to leave room for a sequel, shame on director Victor Salva and the whole "Jeepers" crew.
Flawed as it is, this is straight, no-chaser horror. Though it is ultimately not as effective as it could be, its first half is far better than what most films have to offer in their entirety. Worth a look, as long as one doesn't go in expecting a classic.
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