In anticipation for Jeepers Creepers 3 coming out later this year, lets resist the original now 16 years old.
Written and directed by Victor Salva Jeepers Creepers is a straight forward horror film with a demonic antagonist that yields a number of iconic scenes; yet I’ll never forget the opening. Trish Jenner and her brother, Darry are squabbling on a road trip reading license plates, then they see it; a large imposing rust covered dilapidated truck blaring its horn. It’s license plate ‘BEATNGU’ ‘Be eating you’ morbidly clever.
You know the part in scary movies when somebody does something really stupid, and everybody hates them for it? This is it.
I would later find out that Victor Salva was inspired to make that very intro from a case reported by Unsolved Mysteries in 1990.
While a lot of the dialogue and acting can be preposterous Jeepers Creepers combines the visceral fear of being hunted and eaten along with fear of the unknown. The Creeper is a demon without the paranormal and occult elements that is typically entwined within the genre. It holds up well to this day as does the mystery around the creature.