Written by James Garibay, April 8, 2016, at 3:00 a.m.
Simply put, Jeepers Creepers is a campfire tale. It’s a very simple story: a brother and sister going home driving down an old country road, and suddenly a monster is after them. It’s totally a riff of Hanzel and Gretel. Written and directed by Victor Salva, it gives a modern day twist on urban legends.
Jeepers Creepers is a fun ride!
The main characters are Tricia and Darry Jenner, played by Gina Philips and Justin Long. The film gets to the excitement within five minutes, so the two characters needed to be developed quickly. Which they pull off very well. Darry is this kind of dorky, go-with-the-flow kind of guy while Tricia is the ballsy, take-no-shit, tough girl. But beneath their brother-sister bickering, you see love and concern when danger lurks.
The casting had to be done well because 3/4 of the movie is the two of them in the car trying to escape the Creeper. The two have more of emotional character arc than anything. When Long sees that horrible basement, he comes back to the car looking like a lost terrified little boy. He played the role so well alongside Philips.
It was shot in central Florida over two months with some days between 90-100 degrees. So the opening introduction scene, no make-up needed, Justin and Gina were really sweating their balls off. Salva was very surprised to shoot in Florida because when he thinks “Florida” he imagined palm trees everywhere and beaches. So when they went to central, he found that it had that back country road feel without all the corn of the Midwest.
It had a $17 million budget, or so I read, but it still had that low-budget feel. I love that because low-budget films tend to put more emphasis on story and characters, and are not all flash, bam!! Shooting in the middle of Florida, it was very bright and beautiful. So they have to tone down the colors to give the creepy vibe of the tale that is being told, which I didn’t know you could do.
The music had a lot to do with giving that uneasy, chill-down-your-spine feeling to the audience. Even the sound effects. For the main scoring, a full orchestra was used. There is just so much more you can feel with an orchestra. As the film escalates and stakes get higher, the music really does heighten the terror factor. The power of this kind of music in a horror film is just awesome. It was composed by Bennett Salvay. The sound effects have that classic “what we don’t see” motif. We know what is happening, but we can’t see it, letting our mind picture it so much more grotesque.
The make-up effects were good. Salva helped create a monster that is older than time. We don’t know where it comes from or what it is. We just know it’s been killing for centuries and is very skilled and artsy in very dark way that would make Ed Gein blush. They don’t show the Creeper a whole lot until towards the end. They just show a dark figure with a hat to shadow his face, making his ultimate reveal that much greater. The creeper is played by Jonathan Breck, who had to sit in make up for four hours. He had no trouble getting into character. When he looked in the mirror and saw that face looking back at him, he was there.
Conclusion
I had a fun ride with Jeepers Creepers. It was simple, had this Hitchcock feel about it. The plot was intriguing, and the characters were great to watch. They had such an emotional arc that they had to portray through the fear. Salva says that there is “emotional truth in fear,” and Phillips and Long portray it wonderfully. A lot of people don’t really care for it, but fuck it. It was kind of under rated, but sometimes those movies are the most fun. Salva made a sequel in 2003, where we learn a little more about the creeper, not much, but a little. Now supposedly there is finally a green light for a Jeepers Creepers 3. Hopefully it will still be as fun as the first one.