Jeepers Creepers, Where Did You Get This Film?

11/28/202205/28/2024 editor

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Horror films taught us that some things would be better if they were not born, and certainly not resurrected. We don’t mean it only in the plot level – Think about “Pet Sematary” for example – but also reflexively. The case of “Jeepers Creepers: Reborn” meets exactly the definition.

You can understand the idea of continuing the “Jeepers Creepers” film series that began in 2001 and introduced the “Creeper” to the world: The same monstrous creature that wakes up once every 23 years for 23 days of corruption, during which it dismembers and eats everyone who comes near (mainly, humans). Then came the other two pawns: “Jeepers Creepers 2” from 2003, which takes place a day after the death of one of the heroes in the first film, was a reasonable continuation. The third film in the series, which was released in 2017 and takes place between the plot of the first film and the second, was already very bad. In between, we also heard about the original third episode, which was supposed to take place 23 years after the first film and present the revenge journey of Trish (Gina Phillips) after her brother’s death, a film that unfortunately did not come to life. Why and How? Read “Jeepers Creepers: Reborn” review from full details.

The Legal Battle Could Have Saved Us

The truth is that there were all the signs that we were facing a cinematic catastrophe, some would say a real curse. The controversial director of the previous three films, Viktor Selva, is no longer in the picture. As you know, Selva was accused in 1988 of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy who starred in his first movie, Clownhouse. He raped the boy and documented it. In total, he was accused of 11 sexual encounters with minors, and to add fuel to the fire, Police later found pedophile material on his computer.

Selva directed the first film in the Jeepers Creepers series about a decade after he was released from prison, where he served only 15 months instead of three years, some would say due to connections he developed in the industry. Many called for a boycott of him and his films, including the Jeepers Creepers trilogy. And you can understand why. Dialogue allegedly supporting child exploitation was supposed to appear in the third Jeepers Creepers movie, and was eventually removed from the screened version. This time the task was taken by the tall Finnish director Timo Varnsola (1.98 meters according to Wikipedia), but the result is very “short’ and missed the target in almost every shot.

The bottom line is that for a long time it was not clear whether the film, produced a few years ago, would even see a cinema or reach home viewing due to a legal dispute. The claim of Myriad Picture, the producer of the two previous films in the franchise, was that one of the production companies of the current film filmed it without her knowledge or involvement – this happened during the Covid-19 period, in several phases. According to the lawsuit, the same company even granted distribution rights to another company without Myriad Picture’s approval. In the end, they released the film. However, with a product like this, it might have been better for all of us if it had stayed on the editing room floor.

Find The Differences, “Jeepers Creepers: Reborn” Edition

The truth is that I came to the current film with zero expectations. I had all the information that should have made me avoid it: a 2.5 (!) out of 10 scores on IMDB, for example, or 0% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Even in the horror groups on Facebook, there were quite a few reports of people who did not survive his first minutes. Still, I decided to give it a chance due to pure masochism or because some movies are so bad that it’s almost enjoyable. “Jeepers Creepers: Reborn” is NOT enjoyable.

From the very first scene, you suspect something is wrong here. The goal was probably to try to recreate the beginning of the first movie, in which two brothers are traveling in a car and notice an old truck with the license plate B-E-A-T-N-G-U, next to it is a strange-looking creature that throws something wrapped in a red sheet into something that looks like a pipe. Afterward, when the same mysterious creature notices their vehicle, he chases it for death. In my opinion, this scene was the most successful in the first film: the acting of the brothers (Justin Long and Gina Phillips), the atmosphere, the editing, the cinematography, everything worked here.

In the current film, the description of the scene on paper is similar, but it is done horribly in every aspect. Starting with the elderly couple who seem to be caught up in the situation, through the bad shots (even the bird’s eye view shots of the passenger vehicle look as if a beginner driving student is driving in it) to the character of the creeper, that something about him is just not convincing. Later we will understand what.

The rest of the film is not much better. This time we accompany a couple in love: Lane (Sydney Craven, who despite her name is not related to the late horror artist Wes Craven) is a biologist or something like that, who becomes pregnant. Chase (Imran Adams) is an avid fan of myths, horror stories, and silly YouTube videos, who of course knows the local legend of the Creeper. Chase, who plans to propose to his girlfriend, decides to take her to a local horror festival in Louisiana because there are no romantic dating experiences than this. Quickly, we understand what the purpose of this festival is and who exactly will come to demonstrate their presence and slaughter innocents to get what they want. Hint: It has to do with the Creeper and that girl.

Jeepers Creepers As Halloween Costume

The truth is that almost nothing works in this movie. The performance of most of the actors is far from convincing, and this even includes the “crows” that accompany the creeper which are probably the result of poor animation work. The dialogues are far from human, the timing of the scenes that are supposed to be tense or scary is problematic, to say the least, and the setting is far from being related to the character. The usage of a green/blue screen stands out in almost every scene in which it’s done, and every appearance of the creeper is accompanied by laughter.

If in the first films Jonathan Breck did a convincing job as the creature, here the heir – an actor named Jarreau Benjamin – looks simply like someone who was dressed in an uninvested mask of the creeper he found online for Halloween. His acting changes from wooden to overacting, mot much related to the plot .

It’s not like the film’s budget, reportedly around $5 million, is astronomical. But here it’s difficult to understand where all the money went and why the result looks so bad. So no, don’t watch “Jeepers Creepers: Reborn” unless you have an inexplicable fondness for bad movies. Ifthis is what the series offers us in its fourth incarnation, perhaps it is better to leave the Creeper in for dead and look for new horror myths for us. Even if we have to wait another 23 years for a proper version.