Jeepers Creepers is mostly a pleasant surprise, I thought the idea of a horror movie scaring the shit out of you was out of fashion. But here it is, courtesy of producer Francis Ford Coppola. It's obvious that director Victor Salva (Clownhouse) loves the genre. The dedication and care put into the details, right down to the clever use of music, is admirable. The film is also gorgeously shot, dark and murky and slow, with a taut nailbiting pant-grabbing atmosphere which takes no prisoners whatsoever. This is not a comedy. This is a horror movie done like they used to make them once. Unfortunately the script itself is uneven and almost episodic. It's mainly a predictable if well-cooked stew of plot elements already familiar through other movies and genres (imagine a mixture of Duel, The Hills Have Eyes, Scarecrows and a teen-slasher of free choice) and in the end it leaves us with so many questions unanswered that it feels as if you have only watched half the film. Like what's the deal with this "creeper" guy? His origin is never explained fully, only that he likes the smell of fear and that "maybe he's some hungry demon from some dark place in history". Neither do we ever learn why he is always surrounded by black birds or why he have clothes (black trenchcoat and high hat) and drives around in a truck like an ordinary hillbilly dude in the first half of the film, then decides to crawl around naked. But he is a monster and I guess movie monsters don't need to tell (probably a union thing). Though the "swallowing" sound he does when he is sucking food is one of the creepiest and most disgusting sounds I've ever heard. The ending is downright laugably also at first, love conquerors all evil (or at least it tries good), but then comes a cool twist to it which almost makes up for much. Don't expect any happy ending here.

Jeepers Creepers works also because of the convincing young leads, with Gina Philips hamming up some of the strongest scream-queening in recent memory. Definitely a star soon to be born (if she isn't already). Justin Long is good as well, his reaction when he sees the creeper's nest the first time is priceless. At last someone who reacts like a normal human would have reacted when confronted by such unimaginable horror. Talk about being stunned by chock. If you don't mind a constant feeling of deja-vu (and why should you), Jeepers Creepers still delivers the scares.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.