Review - JEEpers CrEEpers

JEEpers CrEEpers, where'd you get those peepers . . .

. . . I will never listen to that song the same way again.

Tonight I caught Jeepers Creepers on SciFi. I thought maybe the second time I watched this film, maybe it wouldn't seem quite so bad to me. Well, I was wrong.

I think that it probably didn’t help too much that the main characters, Trish (Gina Phillips) and Darry Jenner (Justin Long) just had to be about the most annoying main characters I have ever set my own bright blue peepers on. They seemed to be trying to play the whole brother/sister angle up a notch - problem was they played it up about 100 notches which was 99 notches too many. They seemed to get into the silliest of squabbles when they had only moments to do the right thing in order not to be consumed by The Creeper (Jonathan Breck).

The basic story is this: some sort of ancient demon is chasing down two annoying siblings who happened to find his dark place under an abandoned church on their way home from college break. I’d say the kids’ first mistake was in going back to see what it was the crazy man who almost ran them off the road dumped into a drainpipe - but that’s just my opinion. This demon a.k.a. The Creeper, comes out once every 23 years and is allowed to feast for 23 days. On what, you may ask, well that all depends on what it is he needs at the time. He eats lungs to help him breath, hearts so he has many lives to live and yep - you guessed it - peepers so he can see. You’d think that he might eat himself up a cuter face because he has one that even a mother couldn’t love, but I guess there are more important things to The Creeper than this. Oh, and the way he figures out if you’ve got a part he wants is to scare you, then sniff you to gage what part of you he may or may not need.

I’ve got to mention two of the best characters of the story here - the cat lady played by Eileen Brennan played a tough old bird who doesn’t like anyone telling her how many cats she may have and Jezelle Gay Hartman (Patricia Belcher) was the cooky psychic lady who kept trying to get into contact with the kids to try and save them from The Creeper. To me, it was kind of weird the way they had her just pop into the story at one point for the sole purpose of explaining who The Creeper was and what exactly he wanted from Trish and Darry.

Sort of interesting story, a couple of really interesting characters mixed with some extremely bad acting made this a so-so tale of horror at best. I do have to admit though that The Creeper is one bad ass looking demon. I actually think that Jeepers Creepers II might have been a little bit better, but believe you me, that’s not saying a whole heck of a lot.

Directed by
Victor Salva

Writing credits (WGA)
Victor Salva (written by)


Cast (in credits order)verified as complete
Gina Philips .... Trish Jenner
Justin Long .... Darry Jenner
Jonathan Breck .... The Creeper/Bald Cop
Patricia Belcher .... Jezelle Gay Hartman
Eileen Brennan .... The Cat Lady
Brandon Smith .... Sgt. David Tubbs
Peggy Sheffield .... Waitress Beverly
Jeffrey William Evans .... Restaurant Manager
Patrick Cherry .... Binky Plutzker
Jon Beshara .... Officer Robert Gideon
Avis-Marie Barnes .... Officer Natasha Weston
Steve Raulerson .... Cellblock Officer (as Steven Raulerson)
Tom Tarantini .... Austin McCoy
William Haze .... Officer with Hole in Chest
Kim Kahana .... Camper Driver
Chris Shepardson .... Dying Boy

rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tim Phoenix .... Kenny (uncredited)
Victor Salva .... Victim (uncredited)
Clint Wilder .... Police Officer (uncredited)