Parents' Guide to Jeepers Creepers: Reborn

This fourth entry in the slasher franchise erases the previous three (they're "fictional," while this is the "real thing"), but it's so abominably bad that it, too, deserves to be erased for good. Jeepers Creepers: Reborn begins with a strangely acted prologue -- surprising, given that it features Dee Wallace, a veteran of many horror movies, as well as E.T. -- that sets the movie's tone. Things don't improve when we meet Chase and Laine. It's unclear what they see in each other, given that their interests are entirely opposite (he likes horror and the supernatural, and she scoffs at those things). Their dialogue and performances make things even more awkward; they don't seem to listen to each other. Frankly, none of the characters really feels like an actual human.

Indeed, Jeepers Creepers: Reborn feels like a horror movie created by an algorithm. The festival -- which for some reason features fire-eaters and sword-swallowers -- is also awkward, and everyone seems to be robotically dancing and having no fun. The final stretch in the old house is over-lit to the point that nothing is scary; the monster looks like a harmless alien from a Star Trek episode. Shafts of light stream through the walls, suggesting that it would be pretty easy to break through and escape, but no one thinks of it. When Chase says of the Creeper, "we can't fight it, but we can beat it... maybe even stop it," viewers would be forgiven for throwing up their hands and walking away.