Jeepers Creepers: Reborn shines with one accomplishment. It’s terrible even by the abysmal standards of slasher sequels.
Jeepers Creepers: Reborn Synopsis
Though completely uninterested, Laine agrees to accompany her boyfriend Chase to the Horror Hound Festival in Louisiana. Chase, on the other hand, is ecstatic over the excursion, largely because of his fascination with the sinister Creeper legend. When the couple wins the chance to play a Creeper-themed escape room game, Chase is expectedly overjoyed. That is, till he meets the source of his fascination in the flesh.
Snappy Review
Two years ago, I wrote a Reelrundown list titled 7 Horror Movie Villains That Deserve a Reboot. In it, I shared how I longed for a new Jeepers Creepers movie, and how awesome the Creeper was to me.
Looking back, it was silly of me to include the flying monstrosity. Something this sinister, this evil, was bound to undergo cinematic revival before long. But I honestly thought it wouldn’t happen given the unending controversy with creator Victor Salva. (A topic I love to write about someday, but…)
Anyhow, this “reboot” came, about a month before Halloween too. All I can say is, it’s bad. It’s godawful. It’s terrible even by the standards of slasher sequels like Halloween 5.
What went wrong? The question should instead be, what managed not to go wrong? From overcooked CGI backgrounds that’d look bad in a PlayStation 2 game to bizarre lighting decisions, to truly cringe-worthy dialogue and acting, just about everything in this revival invites criticism. Wait, I should say, condemnation.
Worse, the story refused to wrap up too. The hallucinations of Sydney Craven’s Laine were one of the very few intriguing elements of the show, but as abruptly as the Creeper swooping in for a kill, they were abandoned and stuffed away. Was it because this movie was intended as the start of a new cinematic trilogy?
Making everything doubly tragic is how Finnish director Timo Vuorensola is clearly capable of a much better horror-fest. The extended prologue was a mirror of the first chapter of Jeepers Creepers (2001) and these were the moments when I was seated upright. Not just because they reminded me of the first movie but because the dread felt real. A dread effortlessly brought to life by veteran actors Dee Wallace and Gary Graham.
But the fear went away the moment the actual story began. And it stayed on holiday till the credits rolled.
Not even the kills are memorable. Heck, you can’t even get a good look at most.
Coming to the question of is there anything good about this reboot, two things, folks. That prologue*, and the 88-minute runtime.
Believe me, I was really grateful for the latter when watching this at the cinema yesterday.
* The only reason I’m giving this a two-star instead of the lowest one is because of the prologue.
Check out my other snappy movie reviews.
