Thank you for all your lovely comments. I'm taking an extended break from Ciao due to pressures from...
Thank you for all your lovely comments. I'm taking an extended break from Ciao due to pressures from work and home. Feel free to drop me from your COT if you're feeling neglected. You're all great writers and I'm gonna miss you! xxxx
Member since:14.05.2003
Reviews:54
Members who trust:25
You know you're in for something dire when the plot synopsis of a movie contains the words 'corn field', 'pretty teenagers' 'creeper' and 'stranded in the middle of nowhere'. So why did I go and see this film? Possibly because the average reviews of it - in comparison to the appalling review of Jeepers Creepers 1 - seemed kinda promising, and because, being a bit of a gore whore, I wanted to see some carnage. I got carnage alright, but not in the way that I was hoping.
For the sake of curiosity, I'll outline the plot, as much to see myself just how and where this perfectly acceptable franchise idea went so badly wrong, as for your information.
This film is set a few days after the gore of the first film, which is unsurprising, as the creeper only comes down every 23 years, and having a straightforward horror flick set 23 years in the future would probably have streached director Victor Salva a little too much. After siblings Darry and Trisha have been murdered by the creeper in the first film (now I've spoiled that for you, perhaps it will put you off watching it) its day 22 of his 23 day "feast" - the "food" being human flesh. Drumroll,
please. Well, anyway, its the 22nd day and farmer Jack Taggart(Ray Wise) and his young son are putting up scarecrows. Taggart leaves his son Billy (Shaun Fleming) to finish off the job. Alone in the corn, Billy notices something not quite right about the first scarecrow. Namely, its head is moving and it has claws. Like an idiot, Billy slowly walks towards it, setting the standard of intelligence for the rest of the characters throughout the whole film. Needless to say, it kills him, much to the dismay and anger of his father and brother (Luke Edwards). The scene cuts to a group of macho American football players on a bus coming home from a big game which they've just won. A freak accident involving a couple of the creeper's home-made body-part weapons (a belly-button belonging to Darry out of the first flick, we later learn from a cheerleader's dream) later, and they're stranded. The creeper quickly kills off the three adults, leaving a bus-full of very scared, very paranoid and very edible teens. Ooh, what COULD happen?
To say this film is predictable is an understatement. Director Salva uses tried-and-tested methods of scaring us (lots of blood, gore, screaming and pretty girls) which have been used a lot more effectively many times before. It also seems like an insult to young americans if these dozen teenagers are the standard intelligence. If you could see their (very slow) thought processes, it would go something like this: 'oh look, a huge big whole in the roof that that scary slobbering monster made! He must be outside! Why don't I just stick my head out and have a look?' Stupid lines like, 'Dude, you were the one it gave tongue action to!' and 'It just tore its own head off!' make this flick seem even more implausible. Because there are so many characters, you can't get close to any one of them, so it is hard to care when they die. If we could identify with any of these people, without them falling into obvious stereotypes (token black guy, homophobic jock, huge glasses toting geek, airhead screaming cheerleader) and ending up underdeveloped and boring, this might have been scarier. Its hard to feel a chill when someone's head is ripped off if you couldn't really give a shit about him.
The acting is probably one of the better aspects of the film. Using virtually unknown stars is probably Salva's saving grace, because a crappy horror film like this could be the springboard for any future Hollywood star, which will at least put this film in the history books for one positive thing. I'm sure that in years to come people will say, 'Eric Nenninger (sexy hunk Scott Braddock) started his career in Jeepers Creepers 2' or 'Nicki Lynn Aycox's (premonition-dreaming cheerleader Minxie Hayes) acting in Jeepers Creepers 2 started her on the way to great things'. Ray Wise is good as angry cliched farmer, hell-bent on revenge for his son's death, just about saving his character from the ruts that most of the rest of them fell into. The aforementioned Nicki Lynn Aycox is probably the standout teen thanks to her fitfull dreams and fainting fits.
And then there's the creeper. Looking slightly reminiscent of X-men 2's Nightcrawler - something that made him really hard to take seriously - he is standard horror fare. He has pointed teeth, he dribbles, he eats people, he has a virtual orgasm when he sees the busload of scrummy teens, he flies with huge veined wings and he has clawed feet. Yawn! I can't really comment on Jonathan Breck's acting because all he really has to do as the creeper is shake the bus, fly a lot and grunt. The hours in make-up turning him into this blue monstrosity who breathes through a whole in his head (or possibly his chin, anyway a huge fleshy hole) render him virtually unrecognisable and so he doesn't really have to do many oscar-worthy facial expressions.
There is little else to say about this film. Although it was only 2 hours long it felt like the whole 23 days of the creeper's feast all packed into one afternoon. I had to struggle with myself not to walk out there and then. The plot is juvinile, the characters weak, the acting only satisfactory, the directing poor, the horror almost unnoticed within the minefield of flaws....all in all I have no qualms with giving this film one star only. And even that is too generous.
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Despite the usual symptoms of sequelitis,Jeepers Creepers 2delivers the goods for those ... more
who enjoyed the 2001 original. While establishing the flesh-eating "Creeper" as a new horror icon with frantic action and more elaborate special effects, writer-dir...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Every 23rd Spring, for 23 Days, it gets to eat. Today is the last day of a horrific ... more
feeding frenzy, and the Creeper is still hungry for more!On a deserted highway, a school bus is carrying a basketball team and its cheerleaders back from a triumphant g...
Despite the usual symptoms of sequelitis,Jeepers Creepers 2delivers the goods for those ... more
who enjoyed the 2001 original. While establishing the flesh-eating "Creeper" as a new horror icon with frantic action and more elaborate special effects, writer-dir...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: some cute chicks; reasonably entertaining Disadvantages: in a rather dumb, shallow and uninvolving way; everything is spoon-fed to the audience; some threads left hanging
adamsputnik 08.02.2004 (08.02.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Jeepers Creepers 2 (DVD)
![Jeepers Creepers 2 [DVD] [2003]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78502740.jpg "Jeepers Creepers 2 [DVD] [2003]")
Sep 4th, 2003
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