- Directed by Victor Salva
- Written by Victor Salva
- Stars Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akFUWf5xe6k
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was still really good after a third viewing. It’s got an interesting monster, creepy situations, suspense, and scares. The effects and acting are all very well done—all in all, a big thumbs up.
Synopsis
Trish and her brother Darry are taking a road trip in their classic car. They’re taking the long way through the country, but Trish won’t explain why. As they banter back and forth, a big creepy truck comes up behind them. As the maniac passes, they try to figure out his vanity license plate, “BEATNGU.” Beating You? Trish remembers some people that went missing not too far from here.
They pass the creepy truck and see a guy taking what sorta kinda looks like he takes a body wrapped and tied in a sheet and dumps it in a pipe. The guy sees them seeing him and jumps in the truck to pursue them. He rams them from behind a few times. Darry’s no match for him and soon runs off the road.
The pair talk about that body in the pipe. He wants to go back, but she wants to find a police station. They decide to go back.
The building is an old, boarded-up church covered in crows. They find the big pipe sticking up out of the ground, and Darry goes over to check it out. It smells terrible, but they can’t see anything. Darry hears someone moaning down there. Trish yells, “You know the part in scary movies when someone does something stupid? This is it!” He falls in.
Justin recovers from his fall and finds a body wrapped in a sheet. It’s a still-living boy who has been sewn up after a clumsy surgery. The boy says, “Hide” before dying. Darry looks around and finds numerous other bodies and surgical implements. He looks up and finds the whole ceiling is covered with corpses, two of whom are the people Trish was talking about earlier. He makes it out to the car and the two go looking for help.
They stop at a diner for gas and run into the creepy truck. They get a phone call from a woman who describes them and asks if they have seen the cats yet. She knows all about the Creeper; she’s not sure if it’s a demon or devil or what it is, but she knows it can’t stop. She warns him about the song “Jeepers Creepers.”
The police arrive, and they don’t believe most of the story. Trish also doesn’t quite believe most of it. The policeman says the missing dead people would have decomposed by now, but Darry says they’re preserved somehow. Someone spots a strange man sniffing the laundry from their car.
The police are halfway convinced now and follow the teens to the old church, but the radio reports that the church is on fire. It doesn’t matter anyway since the cops don’t survive the drive. They watch the Creeper pick up the cop’s head and take a bite out of it. Trish and Darry drive away as the Creeper loads the bodies into his truck.
The duo stops at an old house to call for more police. They walk past a weird scarecrow and talk to a cat lady who doesn’t have a phone. She doesn’t like the police because they try to tell her how many cats she can have. Suddenly, the power goes off, and all the cats start growling. Wait— that’s not a scarecrow on that pole. The old woman comes out with a shotgun. She shoots him, but he can fly or leap or something. The Creeper gets into the house and starts messing with her cats, so she charges inside to die.
Trish and Darry finally get a look at the Creeper, and he’s a literal monster, not just a murderer. They run him over with their car, multiple times. They watch the now-legless creature sprout wings and try to fly away. They run over him again.
They make it to the next police station, and Jezelle storms in. She’s the woman who phoned them earlier— she’s a psychic. She knows everything that’s been going on from her dreams. She tells them, “Every 23rd Spring, for 23 days, it gets to eat.” It only eats certain things from certain people. It only eats the body parts that it needs; lungs to breathe, eyes to see. Plus extra to be stronger. She thinks it’s eaten so many hearts that it can’t ever be killed.
We see the Creeper outside the police station limping along on one leg with only one arm. Suddenly, the power goes out. It eats one of the prisoners’ arms and legs. He is whole again!
Jezelle, Darry, and Trish listen as the cops downstairs battle and lose. The Creeper ignores Jezelle, but grabs both Trish and Darry. He sniffs and licks them both very carefully and then chooses Darry. Trish tries to talk the creature into trading for her, but no, the thing sprouts wings, flies out the window with Darry, and vanishes into the night.
The next morning Jezelle talks to Trish. Elsewhere, we see the Creeper in his new lair as “Jeepers Creepers” plays on an old phonograph. There’s lots of screaming as the Creeper makes use of Darry’s eyes.
Commentary
Yes, there’s controversy about the problems with the director, but this is really good. The monster is interesting, the situation is completely believable, the acting is good, and we don’t get much in the way of explanation for any of it. Later films added a lot of lore to the Creeper, but he’s just a mystery here.
This was Justin Long’s first horror film, and he’d only had small roles in a couple of other films before this. The Creeper makeup and prosthetics look really well done, halfway between a man, lizard, and gargoyle.