- Directed by Victor Salva
- Written by Victor Salva
- Stars Stan Shaw, Gabrielle Haugh, Brandon Smith
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgium8mSFM
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was another worthy sequel to the first. It smoothly takes place between the first and second movies. So you could watch them perfectly in the order 1, 3, 2. There’s a little more weapons action and supernatural elements in this one, and it’s still really entertaining like the first two were.
Synopsis
We see someone running from one of the Creeper’s bone shurikens. Just as he’s about to flag down a truck, something grabs him from above and flies away.
Twenty-three years later, the police find the Creeper’s corpse-filled truck left over after the first film ended. Sheriff Dan arrives, and he recognizes the truck. The sergeant fills us in on the deaths at the police station and Darry’s kidnapping at the end of the first film. The truck is filled with all sorts of deadly boobytraps.
While the sheriff checks out the damage at the station, someone tows away the evil truck. Dan knows that this has all happened before. Meanwhile, on the tow truck, the Creeper arrives, and he wants his truck back. The truck drives itself as the Creeper rides away on top. The sheriff knows all about the Creeper; “All we can do is follow the birds. Ravens and crows travel when it does.” He ran into it 23 years ago, and they remember each other.
The next morning, Gaylen Brandon talks to Kenny. He’s her dead son, who warns her, “He’s coming back.” There’s a piece of it buried there. He knows things because “I’m part of it now.” He wants her to leave to save herself and Addison. Addison, meanwhile, watches her crazy grandmother talking to no one out in the field. Gaylen tells Addison she should go away for a few days, just in case.
Sheriff Dan assembles a group of local people who have run into the Creeper in the past. One of the men has a super-charged Gatling gun mounted on his pickup truck. Sgt. Davis needs some convincing that this isn’t all some crazy nonsense.
Addison goes to the Mathers farm to get hay to feed her beloved horse— they haven’t got enough money to pay for it. Beth Mathers says her brother Kirk has a rabbit in his trap but likes to torment the rabbits. They don’t have any hay, so Addison has to see the Hooks. They don’t have any credit left, but Buddy Hooks has a crush on her.
Kirk and his biking friends come across the Creeper’s truck in a field. They know the story about the 23-year thing, and they know the name of the license plate. They’re creeped out but don’t find it that simple when they try to break the windows. The back door opens, and they find bodies. They luckily avoid the door’s booby trap but not the bone harpoon. The Creeper arrives in broad daylight and throws a spear through two of Kirk’s friends.
Buddy catches up with Addison and has some hay for her, bought with his own money from their business against his father’s opinion. They return to Addison’s farm and find old lady Gaylen digging in the field.
Sheriff Dan calls for Gaylen; he knows she was involved 23 years ago as well. Gaylen finds what she’s looking for: a clawed, severed hand. It grabs her hand and lifts her off the ground; her eyes turn white.
Buddy and Addison go to a farm to deliver hay for others, and the people there – those still surviving – are hiding under their vehicles. Something in the air has been attacking them. They soon encounter the monster, who smells them and likes Addison. The Creeper grabs her and flies away with her.
The sheriff and sergeant come to Gaylen’s farm, but she already knows “it” is back. We get a flashback showing us how Kenny got the claw 23 years ago and buried it in the field. When she touched the hand, she understood how it came to be and what it is.
Addison and Kirk wake up in the back of the Creepermobile, and they cut themselves loose of their bindings. Kirk finds another boobytrap the hard way.
The sheriff and his men converge on Gaylen’s farm to deal with the claw. They all hold onto Dan as he touches the claw. His eyes turn white as he has a vision as well. He can’t explain much, but it’s much older and bigger than anyone knew; “It’s ancient.”
Buddy cries to his dad about what happened but then joins the others.
The sheriff and sergeant catch up to the Creeper’s truck. The truck is not only un-shootable, but it drops landmines of a sort. Bullets fired at the truck reflect toward the shooter. Miller, the guy with the Gatling gun, approaches, and we know how that will go. It does exactly what we expect, going badly for him and his driver.
Sheriff Dan mans the crashed truck’s Gatling when the cars all crash. The Creeper, now on foot, approaches the sheriff and the super gun. The gun fills the Creeper full of lead, but that doesn’t stop him from killing the sheriff.
Gaylen buries the claw back on the hill and waits with her gun. Kenny warns her that she can’t stop the Creeper. Buddy shows up and tells what happened to Addison.
The Creeper comes for Addison, and she uses the truck’s boobytraps against him. He loses an eye and a wing but still comes after her. The creature runs out into the highway and gets hit by a semi-truck. Soon, the Creeper has two eyes again, courtesy of the truck driver. The Creeper gets his claw back and screams. The screams make the crows fall from the sky dead. Buddy rescues Addison.
The next morning, Buddy comes to see Addison. Buddy puts on his yellow team jacket and boards the school bus to go to the big game…
In one final scene, Trish, from the first film, swears to be ready for the Creeper when he reappears.
Commentary
This takes place between the first and the second films. Everyone drives antique cars to keep the time period vague, but Kirk and his friends have a cell phone, so this couldn’t be too far back. We see the Creeper outside a lot in the daytime, and we also see him using a police scanner to know what the cops are up to. Actually, we might see too much of the Creeper here; I’m not sure having the majority of the film shot in the daytime was a great idea.
I like that they brought back the creepy truck from the first film. That was an important part of what made that one so good, and this time, they added some magic to the truck. This film, however, didn’t show the Creeper doing as much flying as the second film did, which was a disappointment.
They added a good amount of lore to the Creeper without still giving too much away. We see a lot more supernatural stuff than we did in the first two films, but considering the probably-demonic nature of the Creeper, that’s OK here.