Jeepers Creepers - 09.01.2001

Don't get me wrong, there was some neat stuff in there... some stuff that could have made this an incredible horror film... but in the end (especially the end)... I was let down something awful.

In Manhattan, it costs $10.00 per ticket. Now, this year I've only seen 1 real movie that was worth $10.00... and that was Ghosts of Mars. This movie should have been free... with Francis Ford Coppola apologizing to everyone afterwards.

From what I've come to understand Zoetrope has yet to produce a script from their site... a wealth of material. Instead, they decide to produce Victor Salva's film, who wrote and directed.

Salva's been writing and directing his own work since 1988. He also directed the semi-popular film Powder, in 1995. From there, it was all down hill.

The only real problem with this film is the writing. Specifically the plot. The characters, the big-bad creature... the idea... they're all sound. But, where the film goes is just unacceptable. There's no direction. There's no twists or turns. It's straight horror for the sake of creating a creature and having some protagonists... but no reason. Why does the creature do what it does? Where did it come from? I won't ruin the plot or the idea behing this story, since you should see it to know exactly what kind of crap Hollywood is producing... but jesus...

The acting.

Gina Philips and Justin Long do decent jobs in this film, though I'm getting tired of the 20 something kids in trouble. Long, you will remember, was the great Galaxy Quest geek in the film Galaxy Quest. He was fantastic in that roll... and he was pretty decent here... though I was disappointed that he'd act in such a threadbare film. Gina Philips... she hasn't been in anything too thought provoking or interesting, save The Devil's Advocate... and that wasn't such a great film... just had big stars. She did an ok job here, but should have known not to get involved in a teen horror film...

One of the things that bothers me about the film are the excuses made to explain things happening in the film. For one, the psychic, played by Patricia Belcher... a sad excuse to explain things, by bringing in a psychic. It's a cop-out, the way she was used.

I honestly don't know what else to say about this film. There's nothing good about it except for the creature, who was underused. It was also strangly similar to Coppola's Dracula creature.

I would not recommend this film to anyone. It's too bad that people don't recognize problems with scripts, with writers, with directors... outright. The film is a mish-mosh of crappy angles, bad cinematography and some terribly cheesy dialog.

Sorry for the threadbare review, but this one left a terrible taste in my mouth.