Jeepers Creepers Information

Jeepers Creepers is a 2001 American horror film written and directed by Victor Salva. The movie takes its name from the 1938 song "Jeepers Creepers" which is featured in the film.

Plot

The film chronicles a day in the life of two siblings, Trish (Gina Philips) and her brother Darry Jenner (Justin Long). As they drive through the Florida countryside, a mysterious driver tries to run them off the road. After letting the vehicle pass them, they later see the same truck with a hulking man sliding what looks to be a body wrapped in blood stained sheets into a large pipe sticking out of the ground next to an old abandoned church.

The driver, noticing Darry and Trish have seen him, catches up to them and tries to run them off the road a second time. After barely escaping, Darry insists they go back to the church and investigate. Darry proceeds to crawl inside the pipe with Trish holding on to him, but she loses her grip and he slides down the pipe. At the bottom, he finds hundreds of bodies sewn together. Darry finally finds a passage up through the church. He and Trish flee the scene and stop at a gas station where they contact the police. They are phoned by a strange woman who warns them that they are in terrible danger. Confused and frightened, they ignore her warning. Word arrives that the old church had gone up in flames, and all evidence of any bodies has been destroyed. Trish and Darry rush out of the gas station with the police providing a security escort.

As they travel, the police are attacked and killed by the mysterious driver of the old truck. The driver loads the policemen's bodies into his truck. Fleeing once again, Trish and Darry stop at a reclusive old woman's house, begging her to call the police. The woman complies, until she notices the driver hiding in her yard. She tries to kill him with her shotgun, but in the process, the driver attacks her and pursues Trish and Darry once again. Trish manages to hit the mysterious driver with their car, and run him over several times. After crushing his body and seemingly killing him, they are horrified to see a giant wing tear through the driver's trenchcoat and flap frantically in the air. Leaving it on the road, they drive to the local police station to wait for their parents, when they receive another visitor; Jezelle Gay Hartman. She reveals herself as the woman who phoned Darry and Trish previously at the diner.

Jezelle tells them the true nature of the mysterious creature: it is an ancient immortal demon known as the "The Creeper", which hunts every twenty-third spring for twenty three days to feast on human body parts which, upon consumption, form part of its own body. She also tells them that it seeks out its victims through fear, and that by smelling the fear from Trish and Darry, it has found something it likes, but she does not know what.

The wounded Creeper attacks the police station and gains entrance to the cells. Jezelle, Trish and Darry attempt to escape but find themselves trapped. Jezelle warns that one of them will die a horrible death, while the song "Jeepers Creepers" plays on a phonograph in the background. Darry demands to know which one of them, and she looks to Trish. The three are then discovered by the Creeper, and are separated. The Creeper heads towards Jezelle and sniffs her intently, but lets her go, and heads off to find Trish and Darry.

After a lengthy chase, the Creeper corners both Trish and Darry in an upstairs room. After sniffing (and even tasting) them, the Creeper throws Trish aside and chooses Darry. Trish tries to reason with it, and offers to give her life for her brother's. The police burst in and take aim, but do not fire; the Creeper escapes out the window, flying away with Darry. The next day, Trish, contemplating Darry's fate, is picked up by her parents, and Jezelle returns home in regret.

The final scene shows the Creeper in its new hideout, an abandoned factory, where the audience finally learns what the Creeper wanted: by ripping out the back of Darry's head, it has taken his eyes, leaving Darry's body an eyeless corpse, while "Jeepers Creepers" is playing in the background. The film ends with Creeper leering at the audience, now with Darry's brown eyes, through Darry's empty eye socket.

In a brief post-credits scene, the Creeper's truck is shown hurtling down the road at sunset, blaring its horn.

Cast

• Gina Philips as Patricia "Trish" Jenner
• Justin Long as Darius "Darry" Jenner
• Jonathan Breck as The Creeper
• Patricia Belcher as Jezelle Gay Hartman
• Eileen Brennan as The Cat Lady
• Brandon Smith as Sgt. David Tubbs
• Jon Beshara as Officer Robert Gideon
• Avis-Marie Barnes as Officer Natasha Weston

Reception

BBC Movies gave four stars out of five stating, "An unsettling, gory, but intelligent horror flick... The result is a scary movie that will have you cowering beneath your popcorn bucket. It holds a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Box office

Jeepers Creepers opened in 2,944 theaters and took in a domestic gross of $37,904,175; it later made $21,313,614 internationally, making a total of $59,217,789 worldwide.

It broke the record for the highest ever Labor Day opening weekend gross. The record for Labor Day weekend four-day gross is now held by Halloween (2007). Jeepers Creepers now holds the #5 spot and the #3 spot goes to its successor, Jeepers Creepers 2.

Awards

• Nominated: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films - Saturn Award Best Horror Film
• Nominated: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films - Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Justin Long
• Nominated: International Horror Guild - IHG Award Best Movie
• Nominated: Catalonian International Film Festival - Best Film: Victor Salva

Sequels

Jeepers Creepers 2

See Jeepers Creepers 2 for more information In 2003, a sequel was released, Jeepers Creepers 2. Events in the second film take place days after the first film. The Creeper and Darry are the only characters to appear in both films, although they are not the only actors to appear in both films. In the first film, actor Tom Tarantini appears as the minor character "Austin McCoy" AKA "Roach" who is a car thief and regular in the Poho County jail. In the second film, he portrays "Coach Dwayne Barnes".

Jeepers Creepers 3: Cathedral

MGM has announced a third installment, Jeepers Creepers 3: Cathedral. The film will continue the story of the original film with Trish (Gina Philips) who now has a son named Darry, after her late brother (Justin Long) who was killed by the Creeper in the first film. Trish suffers from a recurring nightmare that her son will suffer the same fate. Trish, who is now rich and powerful sets out with Jack Taggart, Sr, and Jack Taggart, Jr on a mission to end the Creeper's reign of terror once and for all. The film will also feature the infamous Creeper truck. Jonathan Breck will return as The Creeper. Victor Salva will return as both director and writer. It has recently been confirmed that MGM Studios is interested in bringing a fourth film to the series and that they intend Salva to film it back-to-back with Jeepers Creepers 3.

See also

• Jersey Devil