Fall is
the time of year when students return to school, the leaves
fall from the trees, and as sure as the weather changes, we
see a horror films in the local multiplex. There is always
a crop of filmgoers anxious to be scared out of their wits
by the latest Hollywood dealings. Sadly, there have been very
few good horror films released, as most of the efforts have
borrowed heavily from previous film and offered little in
the way of originality.
The teen
horror film had waned in years past as most of the new efforts
had their debut on video rather than in the theaters. That
all changed with the runaway success of "Scream"
and a new batch of horror films was unleashed to capture some
of the new and vibrant horror film box office.
The lure
of horror films is big for film studios as they are generally
cheap to make, and if the film is a modest success, then a
line of sequels is likely to follow ensuring big returns from
video and cable revenue. With this is mind, writer/director
Victor Salva created a new horror film that began to get some
interesting buzz in the horror circles, the film is "Jeepers
Creepers"
The film
is inspired by a real life incident where a couple of motorists
investigated a mysterious situation only to make a shocking
discovery. "Jeepers" tells the tale of a Darry and
Patricia(Justin Long, Gina Philips) who are a brother and
sister on the way home from college for Spring Break. Patricia
wants to take the longer scenic route and the two siblings
are driving down a long desolate highway towards terror.
During
the trip, Darry and Patricia are almost run off the road by
a maniacal truck, which invokes memories of the classic film
"Duel" by Steven Spielberg many years ago. Shaken
but undaunted the two continue on their journey only to pass
the truck later. The truck is now parked next to an abandoned
building, and the two notice a cloaked figure dumping what
appears to be a body wrapped in a sheet down a large drain.
The cloaked figure notices the two driving by, and the chase
begins with the two being run off the road soon after. It
is at this point, that the film loses a good bit of its premise,
as large gaps of reason and common sense seem to be missing
from the title characters. One would think after two close
calls, Darry and Patricia would consider themselves lucky
and get themselves home as fast as they can. Instead, Darry
convinces his sister that they need to return to the old building
and discover what was dropped down the old pipe.
Against
all better judgement, the two go back to the old building
and make a ghastly discovery. What follows is the two trying
to get away from the nightmare that they stumbled into. It
is this situation that makes the movie hard for the audience
to get involved with, as the two siblings keep waiting around
for the police, the investigation, and all manner of mayhem,
instead of letting it go and getting out of the area safely.
There are segments when all manner of ghastly things are unfolding,
and the two sit and watch. Even when his sister says that
they need to leave, the two remain like statues waiting to
see what happens next.
The evil
of the story is said to be a Demon that returns every 23rd
spring to feed. It seems that it scares people in order to
get their scents as only when frightened can it smell if a
person has what it needs to survive. Often this is done by
the demon consuming the person in question.
What could
have been an interesting film, quickly becomes a series of
situations that were inspired by other films. We have the
police station standoff from "The Terminator" the
zany psychic from the "Poltergeist" films, and a
setting that is taken straight |