FANTASIA 2003!! Several JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 Reviews Come Screeching IN From Montreal!!

Here’s another take on things:

Hey Harry! Here's a review of Jeepers Creepers 2 for ya. Went to see it at the Fantasia Fest in Montreal last night. Ray Wise was there and he seemed like a nice guy. I couldn't stay for the Q&A session so I missed any comments he said about the film. All in all I had fun though. It's not quite the equal of the first film but it doesn't embarrass itself either.

I was prepared to hate the first Jeepers Creepers because of Victor Salva's run in with the law. I snubbed it at the theatres, ignored articles and reviews online and only ended up renting the thing because I was in a hurry at the video store and thought I got Joy Ride instead. Not exactly my greatest moment of observation.

Well, long story short. I gave it a chance despite misgivings and was surprised at how much I liked the movie. It ended up being one of my favourite rentals of 2001 by far.

No question about it, the guy is a good director. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; and Salva is a talented man. The first Jeepers Creepers had a mounting sense of dread and milked its Creeper for all it's worth. Showing him for what he truly was a little bit at a time, giving you little subtle hints at what might be under that tattered coat. Apart from a somewhat rushed ending it fared quite well by avoiding the worst clichés of the genre. It was an intelligent, tense horror movie that was worth the couple of bucks rental. There was promise there.

The sequel is not quite up to the first one's mantle. It tries very hard to be scary and simply isn't. It's suspenseful, well acted and has a decent enough pace; but I wasn't scared. There wasn't that uncomfortable grip on the armrest that accompanied the descent into the "house of pain" to be found anywhere.

Tension? Sure… but I wasn't scared.

The casting is good. All the younger actors have the right look for the parts they play and there's no blank stare emoting. There's a bit of a Melrose place vibe going on but they're supposed to be a football team so that's fine. The fact that most of them are Jocks or Cheerleaders also explains some of the more glaring bits of "duh" dialogue we get later on.

Ray Wise has a major role in this and I'm rather glad he does, it's kind of neat seeing him in heroic guise and he gave the character a lot more depth than was written for him. Wise is a criminally underused actor with a deep soulful voice and eyes that can project sadness the likes of which no man can understand. He's perfect as the grieving father, and could have done something much more memorable if the dialogue wasn't as stilted.

Which brings us to the most obvious problem with the film. I counted wayyyyyyy too many instances where actors said, "This is bullshit!" Yes, they're jocks, but they're not THAT stupid are they? Maybe it's me, but I don't think I'd be saying, "This can't be happening" when the flying man with razor sharp toenails was trying to claw its way inside the bus to eat me. So, yes… the dialogue could have used just a teensy tiny little itty-bitty bit of work. I wouldn't be so harsh if Salva hadn't avoided with the first film the very mistakes he makes in this one.

The plot is a mix of the old but serviceable "Trapped somewhere while the monster tries to break in" and "Obsessed father wants to avenge the death of his child". It works the way it's supposed to and takes us where it wants to go; but I saw a lot of missed opportunities that were lost amidst a breakneck pace that was just in too much of a hurry to get to the next scare. Case in point: At one moment in the film, the people in the bus realize that the creeper is only after SOME of them, not all of them. One of the characters puts forward the idea that maybe the people the Creeper wants should run out of the bus and try to make it on their own; before the Creeper kills everyone trying to get to those few. Now, think a minute, what would be more interesting? A) Seeing the characters all scream and threaten each other and wallow in their personal grudges for about 3 minutes… or B) Watch as the characters try to rationalize literally throwing some of their friends to the wolves so that some would live for about 10 minutes. Which one would you prefer?

I think you can guess what's in the movie.

However, I'm making all this sound boring. It's not. Like I said before, Salva has talent and he knows how to milk a scene for all it's worth and then some. The film's pace is a bit of a problem and there's some logistics here and there that make no real sense (one of the girls develops ESP in record time) but despite all my bitching the film is a solid bit of entertainment. Certainly capable of giving Freddy VS Jason a run for its money and it's unpretentious to boot. What more can you ask?

I always liked how Salva wrote the Creeper. He's a monster but he has a few believable human quirks. Here though, he seems too powerful and invincible for the movie's good. The human side of him is kind of done away with and he becomes just a killing machine with a sense of humour.

The special effects are impressive and I believe the claim that this film cost twice what part one did. Hell, even the CGI, which I usually don't like in horror films, looks good and works with the story. It's unobtrusive and never calls attention to itself. In short, it's perfect.

Salva has good instincts and he gets props for not making a wussy movie. Like the original, it's harsh in the way it treats the cast. It's not because you're loveable, cute or quirky that you'll live. On the flipside, I think that if he'd tried to cram less "stuff" in there it would have worked better. He has a good flair for characterization but he doesn't give us any time to get to know anyone long enough. We care a little bit about what happens to them, but we don't empathize.

If JP1 was ***1/2 out of **** I'd give this a strong **1/2. Had Salva stretched out a few scenes and explained a few others it'd been an easy ***.

Again... seems like a really fair review. What works manages to work really well, and what doesn’t is frustrating because of how close the film comes as a whole.

Let’s wrap this up with one last review:

Hey Harry, I recently attended Jeepers Creepers 2's world premiere at Fantasia, and I've written down my impressions. Ray Wise (the hero of the film) was there to watch it with us - a very funny guy. Oh, and just a quick note on behalf of Ray, he said his absolute dream project would be to star as Dracula in a movie adaptation 100% true to the book. He quickly won the audience over with his praise for the types of movies showing at Fantasia. Anyway, here's a rundown of the movie:

I was amazed at the separation in opinion about the first Jeepers Creepers movie. Your first group (myself included) loved it for what it was, a quirky horror film with a bizarre antagonist and very effective directing. The second group thought it was garbage, a lot of the complaints centering around the second half of the movie (which was certainly weaker) and the shock ending. The third group refused to see it entirely because of the controversy surrounding director Victor Salva. I am sure the same phenomenon will plague Jeepers Creepers 2. Those who didn't like Salva will still refuse to participate in his little story, those who disliked Salva's directing will criticize the sequel even more, and those who loved the first one are in for a worthy sequel. Unfortunately, however, the Creeper's world just feels a little bit more "Hollywood" this time around...

The Plot: Every 23 years, for 23 days, it gets to feed. On the 23rd day, the Creeper is on a feeding frenzy, plucking its meals from a long stretch of highway. Luckily, food is delivering itself this time, in the form of a school bus filled with testosterone-inflated basketball players who are returning from a victory game. Just when dinner seems guaranteed, a real threat to the "bat out of hell" makes his way towards the struggle. An old farmer, desperate for revenge, now hunts the creature with his low-tech weaponry. The kids also have another defense against the Creeper, a psychically tuned cheerleader who can communicate with past victims. Sound cheesy? Yeah...read on...

My Praises: For me, the best part of the first movie was its extreme "what the fuck?" factor. On the surface it was another hip teenagers-in-trouble movie, but as soon as the Creeper makes his presence known, it becomes something more. Scenes like the laundry sniffing (and enjoying it), the romantic (?) interlude with the severed head, and of course, the first time you see a wing pop out of the creatures back, were classic. Does Jeepers Creepers 2 have similar moments? Absolutely! The dark humor is still there, in fact, Jonathan Breck has managed to pull off some amazing expressions with his full costume on. He remains an intensely intimidating villain, but at the same time, he's got all kinds of charisma. Watching him toy with the jocks before attacking them will appease the high school geek in all of us. To the jocks - sorry, but this movie doesn't have any tits in it; it's not for you. The Creeper's abilities are much stranger than we've seen before, and for those who didn't like the winged gargoyle aspect of the first one, they may just make it up to you with how effective it is in this movie. Gore you ask? There are certainly a few moments of onscreen carnage but I think the Creeper takes his whippings more than any of the victims and that's quite alright. You know he's going to get back up with more on his menu (chop off a limb and he'll have to eat yours to replace it).

Then there is the Jack the farmer, played by Ray Wise. He is a simple man, with simple thought processes. Monster attacks his family, monster must die. His role in the movie will have everyone thinking Ahab, and we found out this was completely intentional. Ray was at the world premiere with us to see his movie for the first time and afterwards confirmed Salva's wish for the Creeper to be his white wale. It works. Usually the best horror hero is the simple guy. Ash and Reggie are certainly receiving some kin this year, with Undead's Marion and now Jeepers Creepers 2's Jack. And as expected in his line of work (monster hunting), Jack is able to MacGuyver himself some nifty homemade weapons to fight evil. Did I mention the Creeper has some homemade toys of his own? When the camera does an extreme close up, look carefully, I think there is an identifiable feature on one of them that a lot of people missed.

The ending, while not as abrupt as its predecessor's, leaves the series wide open for a sequel. Although I don't rate it as high as the original, I am eager to see what Salva and crew pull off in the future.

My Gripes: Why, oh why, did they have to put a bus full of stereotypical teenagers into the series? You've got your obnoxious jocks, a lot of them shirtless and sometimes even sunbathing on top of the bus, often yelling or singing horrible team spirit songs. You've got three female cheerleaders who don't offer any more to the film than the guys do, not even the psychic one, "Minxie." And what would a school bus full of jocks be without a stereotypical nerd or homosexual to pick on? But by far the worst of the character design is the hate- mongering white boy basketball player who doesn't get enough time on the court because he's "the wrong color for the team." He goes on to get in people's faces for being black, for being gay, hell, any chance they get they have him do something to make the audience hate him. Maybe they created all of these cardboard characters to bring out Jack and the Creeper...who knows? In the original, Darry and Trish were believable, emotional characters, and that's part of what made it work. These kids are nothing, with the exception of one or two who have their moments, but in the end...who cares what happens to them? As I understand it, this movie was given twice the budget as the original. Does that mean they had to conform to the Hollywood stereotype checklist in order to receive it?

Ringmaster Bent

Thanks, guys. I’ll try to write my own piece about the film in my next RUMBLINGS, due sometime early next week. Until then...

"Moriarty" out.