Review of "Jeepers Creepers 2" DVD (2003)

Review by Staci Layne Wilson for Horror.com

The first Jeepers Creepers, a surprise hit from writer-director Victor Salva, introduced a new horror character, The Creeper (Jonathan Breck), to film audiences. The Creeper is a bat-winged, talon-clawed Gargoyle type who surfaces every 23rd spring to eat live human flesh for 23 blood-drenched days.

Set a few days after the first story ended, Jeepers Creepers 2 tracks one terrifying night in the lives of a team of varsity basketball players, cheerleaders, and coaches after their bus gets a flat tire and they become stranded on a lonely rural highway. As darkness falls, the petrified group must fight their own fears and prejudices as they reluctantly band together in hopes of outsmarting the wily (and ravenous) Creeper.

Jeepers Creepers 2 takes place mostly inside the stranded school bus and focuses quite a bit on the characters trapped within, lending a sort of Lifeboat feel to the picture. The young, mostly unknown actors hired to play the bait all do a really good job -- even Nicki Aycox, who's saddled with a rather ridiculous (but fun, if you let it be) role as the psychic cheerleader who has to cry a lot, go into trances, and speak in ominous tones of doom.

While the more intimate brother and sister dynamic I liked so much from the first Jeepers Creepers is obviously not here in Part 2, Salva has done a good job of adding a lot of new and different elements -- in addition to the busload of human hors d' ourves, there's a grieving vigilante father, played with overwrought panache by Twin Peaks' Ray Wise, and a pair of passing motorists who promise to get help -- and he keeps things going at breakneck pace even though the bus scarcely moves.

Salva has once again recruited talented cinematographer Don E. FauntLeRoy, who brings on the night with quietly chilling and sometimes star-dazzling flair. Perhaps well on his way to Freddy/Jason/Chucky status, Breck pulls out all the stops as The Creeper. Now that audiences have seen the winged nightmare, there is no need for the slow reveal -- he's letting it all hang out now, complete with winks, nods and toothy grins. And I've got to say: he's scary! I didn't miss The Creeper's truck or his boots, but I was hoping for the use of the haunting tune, Jeepers Creepers, again. I would've thought that had become The Creeper's theme song and a fixture to foreshadow his evil arrival.

I'm not implying that Jeepers Creepers 2 is going be up for the Oscar, and I'm not even saying it's as good as the first one, but it is not a disappointing sequel by any means. There's are plenty of beloved horror clichés here: Teens doing the dumb things we love and cringe at, bodies torn limb from limb, and a slew of fake-out chills and thrills to go along with the real ones. In addition to the cliches is Salva's own wit as a screenwriter, skill as a director, and expertise as a storyteller.

If horror is your thing, then Jeepers Creepers 2 is definitely worth a trip to the video rental store. Just don't take the bus.

The DVD has a plethora of additional release material. The menus are somewhat clever -- or somewhat confusing, depending upon your point of view -- with titles such as "Leftovers", "Main Course", and "Dessert". There are two audio commentary tracks 1) Director Victor Salva and cast -- and I do mean "cast" -- it's almost everybody! All of them are in the same room, and having a lot of fun. This is a really amusing commentary, and it's not as hard to differentiate between the voices as you might think; 2) The Creeper Jonathan Breck, and two guys from the special effects crew. This one is not as entertaining as the first, but it has it's merits. In addition to the two commentary tracks, there are several deleted scenes and "moments", plus a behind-the-scenes tour hosted by Salva called "A Day in Hell" (this one is for die-hard film students, only), and four well-produced, slick featurettes (1. "Lights, Camera, Creeper"; 2. "Creeper Creation"; 3. "Digital Effects by the Orphanage"; 4. "Creeper Composer". Finally, there are several Text/Image Galleries, including "The Creeper's Lair" and "Ventriloquist Creeper" (about how the Creeper might have spoken), and a "Storyboard Rendition of Scenes Not Filmed".