Jeepers Creepers 2 **** (2003, Jonathan Breck, Ray Wise, Eric Nenninger, Nicki Aycox) – Classic Movie Review 353

This time, the winged, flesh-eating monster called The Creeper (Jonathan Breck) attacks a high school championship basketball-team bus in Jeepers Creepers 2, this brilliantly scary 2003 sequel to the 2001 horror monster movie hit Jeepers Creepers. Ray Wise and Luke Edwards star as farmer Jack Taggart Senior and his son Jack Junior, who set out on a mission to hunt the Creeper down.

The new terror starts a few days after the original, on the last day of 23-day feeding frenzy of The Creeper, a flesh-eating ancient beast that resurfaces on Earth every 23 years to feed. The bus is stranded on a lonely road, and the players, their coaches and cheerleaders must try to defend themselves from the Creeper.

With even more terrifying, imaginatively staged set pieces than before, it’s another nail-biting, edge-of-seat fright ride, helped by a bigger budget and an effectively and chillingly enhanced monster that sends big chills down the spine.

Apart from The Creeper, there is little direct connection with the original, although Justin Long, Darry in part one, puts in a cameo appearance.

Again written and directed by Victor Salva, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola for his production company American Zoetrope, this is more brio chiller stuff, at least up to the high standard of the original, managing a Gothic atmosphere, eerie mood, plenty of big scares and a thrilling climax. It looks very smart in the photography of Don E FauntLeRoy, who lensed the original too.

Travis Schiffner, Eric Nenninger, Josh Hammond, Al Santos and Nicki Aycox also star.

Also in the cast are Garikayi Mutambirwa, Lena Cardwell, Billy Aaron Brown, Marieh Delfino, Diane Delano, Thom Gossom Jr, Tom Tarantini, and Kasan Butcher.

The special effects are by Makeup and Monsters and The Orphanage. They have made a few changes to the monster and it is even better and scarier looking than before. Four school buses were used to make the film, including the converted sound stage bus for shooting the interiors.

Jeepers Creepers 3 is planned and set to begin production in Vancouver early in 2016. Writer-director Victor Salva is returning, along with Jonathan Breck as The Creeper. It focuses on the final day of the Creeper’s 23-day feeding frenzy, as returning character Sergeant Tubbs (Brandon Smith) teams up with a task force dedicated to end the Creeper’s reign of terror. It was released on 26 September 2017 in the US.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 353

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