Jeepers Creepers | GRIM 'CREEPERS' The flesh-eating monster has a crush on Justin Long
Image credit: Jeepers Creepers: Gene Page
GRIM 'CREEPERS' The flesh-eating monster has a crush on Justin Long
Review

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

EW's GRADE
C-

Details Release Date: Aug 31, 2001; Rated: R; Length: 98 Minutes; Genre: Horror; With: Justin Long and Gina Philips; Distributor: United Artists (MGM)

The first half hour taps a mood that can only be described as ''Texas Chain Saw'' nostalgia. A solitary car on a lonely country road. A couple of pretty young people in the car (in this case, a brother and sister who wage combat by talking dirty). The rural banality broken by an unsettling image, glimpsed in long shot: a figure who looks vaguely like a scarecrow tossing what appear to be live wrapped bodies down a rusty silo.

So far, so creepy. Moments later, the brother accidentally falls down the silo (don't even ask), landing in a cavernous dungeon pit full of surgically mangled and resewn corpses. At this point, Jeepers Creepers forfeits any pretense to suggestive horror; it turns into a grab-bag freak show as desperate as it is arbitrary. The ominous atmosphere of redneck Americana gives way to yet another hyperbolic slasher cartoon, featuring a flesh-eating killer who looks like a rather sorry cross between Alien, Leprechaun, Freddy Krueger, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. He's about as scary as a rubber action toy.

Originally posted Aug 29, 2001

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