Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) – Review

A little while ago, I attempted the rather delicate task of trying to review the 2001 horror film Jeeper Creepers as fairly as I could despite the truly disturbing fact that it’s director, Victor Salva, had previous served a prison sentence for an utterly reprehensible crime. In my defence, I had seen the first movie way before I’d found out about the filmmaker’s past and thus found it tough to shake how much I liked the film and its “urban legend gone batshit crazy” tone. However, when Salva was allow to make Jeepers Creepers 2 after the success of the original, my ability to separate the art from the artist started to understandably wane.
Despite the Creeper getting much more to do, an expanded budget and many more prospective victims to harvest in a follow up with way more action, I just can’t watch the thing without getting a bad taste in my mouth – which is all the more frustrating considering some of Jeepers Creepers 2 annoyingly kicks ass.

As the legend goes, for every 23 spring, for 23 days, he gets to eat. He, of course, is the Creeper, a winged demon of some sort who prowls the highways of his hunting ground, barely disguised in ragged coat and hat, feasting on the body parts of compatible victims in order to replenish it’s various organs and bits. It’s been 3 days since we witnessed him harvest a brand new set of peepers from the luckless Darry Jenner but time is running out for the monstrous creature as its 23 days is nearly up and if he wants to grab himself a new gall bladder or some fresh kneecaps or something, he’d better get a move on. The Creeper’s first move is to carry away and eat the son of distraught farmer Jack Taggert, who is so consumed by grief, he immediately goes full captain Ahab and enlist his older Don into hunting this creature down no matter what the cost.
Meanwhile, a school bus laden with football players and cheerleaders experiences a highly suspicious blowout of one of their tyres and as the coach, driver and a supervising teacher investigates, they discover that the cause is some sort of ungodly throwing star that’s been fashioned out of bone. While the adults puzzle about what could have happened (carnivorous flesh demon somehow never occurs to them), the students on the bus go through their own personal drama, blissfully unaware that some of their number are being sized up for parts. The only one who has any clue is cheerleader Minxie Hayes, who has a worrying premonition about the hulking creature stalking them in a dream, but is essentially drowned out by the noise of her colleagues who deal with the fact that a flying monster is treating them like a takeout meal by succumbing to homophobia and racism. However, help (or something approaching it) is on the way in the form of the vengeful Taggart, who has vowed to take the Creeper down before it’s diabolical feeding clock runs out.

So before the unfortunate reality of the whole Jeepers Creepers situation understandably wipes all positive thought off the table, for the most part, Jeepers Creepers 2 has a lot going for it in terms of a sequel that ups the stakes. For a start, while the filmmakers opted to tell the first story as a continuously evolving campfire tale that goes from highway stalker flick to full-on creature feature, now that the Creeper has now been fully introduced and the fact that the “killer” is a gargoyle looking motherfucker with mahoosive bat wings, the powers that be has instead taken the tone into the realm of James Caneron’s Aliens. This means, of course, that the pace has increased, the action has become more spectacular and the movie gets to use the Creeper in progressively more ambitious ways as an increased budget and more confidence means he’s much more of a direct presence this time round.
In fact, the evolution of Jonathan Breck’s flesh eating villain is one of the sequel’s most enjoyable point; having ditched his trademark, rusted truck for a more claws-on approach, this Creeper is only a day away from another 23 year slumber, so he hasn’t got the time to piss around with all the flamboyant stuff he dallied with before. Simply put, if the first movie was play to this strangely clued-up creature, the sequel is him at work, racking up victims a-plenty to carry him through to his hibernation – but Breck still manages to give his character that sardonic, sadistic sense of humour, be it flicking a fruity wink at the owner of a particularly tasty scent, or even giving another one the old finger-gun point to really shit them up.

Another aspect of the movie that legitimately fucking rules is the addition of Twin Peaks’ Ray Wise as the recently bereaved father whose quest to take the Creeper down means that the final third of the film suddenly turns into the last act of Jaws. With Wise going full Robert Shaw and blasting his inhuman quarry with harpoons launched from the back of his truck, the CGI sometimes struggles to keep up, but the setpieces involving the Creeper flying and soaring as his unexpected nemesis tries to get a bead on him is genuinely exciting. However, with the increased action, it’s a relief that the movie hasn’t ditched its memorably perky scare moments; with an early scene seeing the Creeper disguised as a scarecrow scoring big – as does the truly alarming sight of the beastie zipping out of the sky and plucking someone clean off the ground while people chat in thr foreground. However, here’s where we stumble into some unavoidable problems, and it’s far more serious than the fact that the majority of the teen cast are utterly forgettable and, at times, prove to be fairly annoying.
Yes, the movie expands the Creeper lore in leaps and bounds, awarding him new weapons, bizarre new abilities (a third nostril?) and neat trick that allows him to bounce back from getting his skull fucked up, but while I was far more forgiving of the first film because of my ignorance, seeing the second after being aware of the whole story was an entirely different kettle of fish. You see, watching a movie about a predatory monster stalk and predominantly prey on young men becomes fairly an unsavory prospect when you take into account that Salva did time for sexual abuse and every time one of his male cast takes of their shirt, you can’t help feel a blast of nausea. As a result, regardless of the rating I’ve given the movie (based entirely on the merit of the movie alone), if you haven’t seen Jeepers Creepers 2, I’d probably suggest it’s best that you skip it entirely.

Moments of legitimate, nail biting tension and some cracking set pieces mean that the Creeper manages to get an appropriately stylish follow up. However, if you have no wish to make the attempt of separating the art from the artist (which proves especially tough here), then I suggest that you wait 23 Springs, then 23 days, and then go watch something else.
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