Jeepers Creepers
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Jeepers Creepers
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Jeepers Creepers is a 2001 horror movie in which a brother and sister driving home from college encounter evil in the countryside. Expect horror movie violence and gore, including dead bodies with removed body parts or sewn-on body parts, a decapitation, torn limbs, organs ripped out. One character wields a shotgun and shoots it at The Creeper. The Creeper is shown removing a tongue of a decapitated head with its mouth. Jump scares throughout. Brief nudity of a dead female body (breasts). Reckless driving. Strong language throughout, including "f--k."
What's the Story?
In JEEPERS CREEPERS, Darry (Justin Long) and Trisha (Gina Philips) are a brother and sister driving home from college to visit their parents. They decide to take the backroads home, and while cracking jokes and playing the license plate game, they're nearly run off the road by a large and menacing truck. After recovering their composure, they get back on the road, but a few miles later, they see that same truck and a man carrying what appears to be wrapped-up bodies and dumping them through a sewer pipe. Far enough from the nearest town and with no cellphone service, Darry decides, after getting run off the road again by that same truck, that they should go investigate the pipe. Reluctantly, Trisha breaks down and agrees. It doesn't take long for Darry to find out what's at the bottom of the pipe, and now, Darry and Trisha must find a way to escape.
Is It Any Good?
This is a pretty standard horror movie from the early 2000s, hearkening back to a time when no cellular telephone service hadn't become a horror movie cliche. Jeepers Creepers still has some scares in it, even if it gets increasingly cheesy as the movie goes on. There's a menace to it that creates a lot of tension, and the direction makes all the right moves, but the proverbial "big reveal" makes the whole thing seem more than a little ridiculous.
There's an awareness of the tropes and cliches, such as the classic "young adults from the city driving through the unsettling rural area," the mystic local, skeptical cops, and how the bad decisions of said young adults lead to the scary consequences. But having the awareness of these cliches while still using them isn't great moviemaking. The acting is good, for a horror movie, and while it's not as dated as so many other movies from the late '90s and early 2000s, it's also not a classic of the genre.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about horror movies like Jeepers Creepers. How was it similar to and different from other horror movies you've seen?
What were some of the horror movie cliches in the movie? How did the movie try to play with those cliches to create plot twists?
How does the violence compare to that in other horror movies?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: August 31, 2001
- Cast: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck
- Director: Victor Salva
- Studio: United Artists
- Genre: Horror
- Run time: 90 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: Terror violence/gore, language and brief nudity.
- Last updated: January 27, 2023
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