Jeepers Creepers 2
What sets
Jeepers Creepers 2 apart from most other standard horror
sequels is its complete lack of mythology. Normally part two
is a time to backtrack and redefine the creature with rules
that will facilitate a franchise, but with Jeepers Creepers
2, we just get a killfest and more creepiness than Creeper.
Maybe it's that anything looks good after a wretched summer,
but this picture provides a good time for the passing horror
fan.
Up front
the rules are laid out, "Every 23 years, for 23 days, it gets
to eat." That's pretty much it. The Creeper, who comes off
in this one as the love child of Predator and Freddy Krueger
with Gillman's pretty mouth, seems fairly unkillable with
healing abilities that make Wolverine's look only slightly
better than an infant with an immune deficiency.
The victims
are only slightly more fleshed out.. After a fairly tight
opening killing sequence that was unfortunately burned in
the trailer, we check in with a school bus full of basketball
players back from winning the state championships. There's
three grown-ups, some cheerleaders, an angry white boy, a
possibly gay player, a team manager, and bunch of others.
There was only one name to really catch, Izzy the possibly
gay player, blatantly named just to do some "Izzy or Izn't
he jokes."
Predictably,
the team is stranded and the grown-ups are whisked away by
The Creeper. Director Victor Salva sets things up right and
although he makes more than a few mistakes, he keeps things
moving well enough for a good time that may actually justify
Disney's obsession with self-destructing DVDs. Once the picture
is over, there's no real need for another viewing.
Salva
is of course more infamous as a convicted child molester than
a director, and like the first picture, the predatory Creeper
seems to have shades of Salva's dark past. This time, though,
the Creeper has lost his lair. He's exposed and grabbing whatever
he can before his 23rd day is over. Compounding the creepiness,
if not actually overshadowing the obvious goings-on, the camera
stalks the victims even when the creature isn't around.
Usually,
a meandering shot of shirtless teen boys sunbathing atop a
school bus in a horror film can be written off as harmless
beefcake, a bone thrown to the high school girls who didn't
want to see the picture, but here the shot is just as leering
as the new, slightly cockier Creeper.
It's not
just Salva's past signaling this boy-crazy read of the picture.
The character of Izzy may have gotten his facial scars in
a bar fight after sneaking into a gay bar. It's one of those
back-story mysteries that usually garner big revelations in
clutch situations, but not in Jeepers Creepers 2. There's
no time for real characters and swooping mayhem and gore too.
Although, unless my notes are too confused, The Creeper only
goes after one female and that seems to be more of a strategy
move than anything else.
The team's
general homophobia towards Izzy is only one of a few interwoven
plot threads of prejudice lying just under the surface in
most of these characters. While Salva is probably patting
himself on the back for tackling issues of high school intolerance,
what it really does is serve to make the Creeper more sympathetic.
He's just another persecuted minority, he's misunderstood,
he's just following the family traditions.
 Salva's
only real crime in all of this is falling back on the old
saw of a seer amongst them. True, the first picture had your
standard black psychic - usually played by CCH Pounder or
Tony Todd - to run down the rules of the game, an update from
the ancient gypsy cliché, but somehow in this material, that's
sort of expected. That's why they call it a convention.
This time
around, we get a cheerleader who sees things in her dreams.
It's unclear if this is a newly discovered skill, but it doesn't
really matter, it's just a very, very clumsy way to do the
exposition. Once she finishes with her "the boy in the dream
told me" speech, her skills are no longer needed outside the
running and screaming department. At least the Friday the
13th series didn't stoop to the Psychic girl until Part
VII.
Even with
all of these problems, the picture still floats fairly well.
The stings work in that cheap carnival way they're supposed
to, and the effects - except for one through the eye gag -
are cleanly done. The best part in all of this is not The
Creeper, but the father of the boy taken in the opening, played
by the awesome Ray Wise.
Wise made
his biggest impression playing another grieving parent in
Twin Peaks, but this time he truly takes action. Salva
is obviously going for an Ahab quality in this father hunting
down the creature that took his youngest, and would have done
well to have given over to it even more. Had this picture
been about an avenging angel after a bat out of hell with
a 23-year break between rounds, Salva might have had a true
classic on his hands.
As it
is, the picture does what it needs to and not much more. For
the Fango fans and the rest of you horror junkies, this is
just a little mint after the feast that was Freddy
Vs Jason. It's cute and harmless. For the passing
horror fan, this'll do the trick until some of the real stuff
shows up.
Rating: 
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