REVIEW: Jeepers Creepers

Jeepers Creepers – 3/10
Low budget horror film- presented by Francis Ford Coppola. The guy behind the Godfather. The Godfather people! It’s got to be good if Coppola has got his seal of approval. Oh wait, Coppola was also behind Jack. Jack, the one where Robin Williams is a 10 year old boy with a growth defect. Oh well, no one will remember that and hopefully people will not see the ‘presents’ and assume we mean directed. Well it isn’t and you can tell Coppola isn’t behind this mess.
Beautiful Gina Gershon and not so beautiful Justin Long are brother and sister are going on some car journey; however, some faceless creep is chasing them. Trouble is a brewing every time a certain creepy song plays on the stereo (Jeepers Creepers), what is this creep after? Obviously influenced by Spielberg’s Duel, this slow building horror shows great potential. A genuinely affecting opening 30 minutes, littered with boo moments, disturbing imagery and slow burning tension quickly descends into chaos as the story doesn’t know what to do with itself to keep itself inventive and twists are revealed, leaving a tangled web of mess muddled with horror clichés - Old lady with cats. Cops who don’t believe the teens ‘oh let’s take the long way back in the dark and not listen to your warnings’. Female sacrifice. Old local loony who really knows what is going on. You get the idea.
After the thing happens, Jeepers Creepers becomes a laugh riot, the creep that is after the brother and sister is not frightening and borderline ludicrous. Still, kudos for the song choice and a greatly dark and twisted ending, that nearly redeems itself, however, still doesn’t. It is such a shame as the opening is so strong, one expected better.