I've taken a lot of flack from friends and co-workers for liking this movie, I can't seem to figure out why. It's a very effective horror thriller that is a step above other films of it's ilk that have come out in recent years. It has a great setup, the first third of the film is as creepy as it gets, granted it degenerates towards the end, but it doesn't take enough away from the film to keep it from being a good film.
The film opens with a brother and sister driving down a barren Midwest highway, they are on their way home for spring break. Suddenly, am old battered truck comes bearing down on them, and continues on down the road. A little while later they pass an old church where they see the truck's driver dumping what looks like a body down a pipe.
What follows the age old question of whether to go back and look or not. Most normal people would continue on, but this is a movie, not reality, so they go back and take a peek. This detour triggers the start of the end for these two, and tension that builds, reaches a plateau with a lousy plot device, and delves into the familiar survival horror vein before ending in a decidedly un-Hollywood fashion.
The best way to look at this movie is to take it as three separate sections. The first section being the best. This first section encompasses the initial contact with the Creeper truck. We don't get any real good look at our bad guy, but we feel his presence, the speeding truck,, the dumping of the body, the frantic chase down the highway. We watch the two drop deeper into shock and fright as they realize they can't stop the coming horror. The next section brings us face o face with the evil, the Creeper is revealed, and is seen to be something not quite human. We also watch our stars move beyond their initial shock and have a growing determination to stop this thing, with occasionally humorous results. This leads us to the survival horror section with our heroes trapped inside of a police station with the Creeper wreaking havoc. I will not spoil the ending, but it was nice to see something that didn't have that typical Hollywood style ending.
A lot of good things are done well. First off the build up to the reveal of what the Creeper is done well, especially with the use of the truck, and the the long shots. The reveal of his supernatural nature and the rather strange things that he does with his victims, not to mention what he needs them for. The two leads are good, giving us a different dynamic than the usual romantic entanglements, a nor familial connection. A number of gags used throughout is good, the scarecrow, the multiple run over's of our baddie, and the truck's license plate, just to name a few. The design of the Creeper is unique. The one character we didn't need was the psychic, all that was, was a cheap way of giving exposition, and I find it to be a bit of a cheap way to expand the story, lazy writing if you will.
Victor Salva did a good job of bringing this tale to screen, regardless of what you think of him personally. I don't think he should be allowed to work with kids, but that's me. As long as I don't hear about any stories, I can separate the real world person and the talent as a filmmaker.
Video. Presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is a a good transfer, the colors appear a but muted, but it works for the overall tone of the film. The disk also "features" the full frame version, but like every other time, we do not care about this modified ratio, it shouldn't be there.
Audio. Dolby Digital 5.1 is the flavor available here. It is a good track, no crackling or other anomalies. There are also French and Spanish tracks as well.
Extras. This disk has a pretty decent selection of bonus material, the bad thing is that it is on the flipside of a double sided disk, if it didn't bother with the full frame version all of it could have been on one side.
-Deleted and Extended Scenes. There are a few scenes here totaling about 15 minutes including an alternate ending, which I feel is inferior to the one they used.
-Trailer. We get the original theatrical trailer, as well as a few others.
-Behind the Peepers featurettes. This is a collection of 6 featurettes totaling about an hour. It is an interesting look at all aspects of making the movie, from cast to story to design to effects to music.
-Commentary. The track features writer/director Victor Salva. It is an OK track, there is just a little too much back slapping. He talks as if he is made the greatest film of all time, granted he should be happy with his work, but the air he has about him is a little annoying.
Bottomline. This was a very effective horror film. The opening third is very creepy, creating a great atmosphere. It drops a bit during the sequence in the police station where it has a very generic feel, but the non-Hollywood ending saves it. Definitely worth checking out, not to mention a decent DVD set.
Recommended.
Bonus Addendum: Jeepers Creepers 2
I originally wanted to do a full review of this disk as well, but frankly, I haven't got the heart. This film falls into the category of something that is so bad it's funny. I actually paid to see this in the theater, and I then went on to buy a used copy of the DVD. Why you may ask? To be honest, I'm not sure.
Anyway, this movie, should you choose to subject yourself to it, drops all of the creepiness that the first one was built on. Instead it goes for the old survival horror gimmick. All of the potential victims are spam in a can for the Creeper, trapped on a broken down school bus. Also gone is any mystery surrounding the Creeper, he has been relegated to more humorous encounters. He is sort of like Freddy Krueger, with less wit.
For what it's worth, this movie could be fun if you have a lot of alcohol and some friends over. The movie makes a perfect choice for your own version of Mystery Science Theater 3000. You just sit back, laugh, and make fun of what is going on on the screen.
The acting is horrendous, the story is full of holes. It is just a flat out bad movie. There are the in fighting of the teens on the bus, the older guy trying to avenge the death of his son. Not to mention all the bizarre scenes with teen boys taking their shirts off to sun bathe or standing in a row out in a field to relieve themselves. Sort of makes sense when you think about who the director is, but that's another story.
The bottomline is that it is a goofily bad movie and a waste of the setup from the first film.
As for the DVD itself:
Video. The film is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The image looks very good, for a bad movie, it got a nice transfer, the colors are rich, blacks are deep, and detail is good throughout.
Audio. The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and sounds very good. One of the few good things for this movie is the use of sound effects, gooey crunching and such sound deliciously gooey.
Extras. There is a nice selection of extras provided here.
-2 Commentaries. The track features Victor Salva and some of the cast. Not a very fun listen, lots of back slapping, and Salva just doesn't come across as a guy I would want to spend any time with. The second track is The Creeper Jonathan Breck with design members Brad Parker and Brian Penikas. This track is rather on the dull side, some interesting talk of the creature costume and design, but not really worth the time.
-Deleted Scenes. There are a selection of extra scenes that were rightfully cut.
-Featurettes. There are a number of featurettes on all of the stages of production, including a nearly half hour long look at a day on the set.
-Storyboards. There are some storyboards of scenes that weren't filmed, I didn't look at this extra.
-Two Photo Galleries.
-Theatrical Trailer.
Not Recommended (unless for laughs).
Also at Blogcritics.org.
0 comments:
Post a Comment