This is a very small film, focusing on 2 people pretty much for it's entirety, so how are they as characters. Darry and Trish are fine, in the start of the film they have fun brother sister banter, but aside from that neither of them are amazingly interesting, and is it just me, or in every close up of either of them in this film they are wide eyed and open mouthed like they've seen someone blow their brains out in front of them, truth be told it's pretty goofy looking, Justin Long in particular. Really while neither of them are annoying, and they have some fun back and forth, neither of them are very memorable at all. The supporting characters, I don't even know if any of them have names, but really they're what you'd expect if I said county cop or diner patron or crazy cat lady. The only other one really is a psychic that tries to help them towards the end of the film, but really she just feels more like a bundle of questions, why psychic? Why the vision she allegedly had? why does she know about the Creeper, how does she know, because of a vision? Really she's just another supernatural element where the film didn't need one, and she does nothing for the plot. Speaking of plot, the film is on a very small scale, taking place pretty much entirely on 1 road and with just 2 characters, however, at least for the first half, I felt that it really worked, as you didn't see much of the Creeper. And for the first half the Creeper looks a lot cooler, with a ragged coat and cowboy hat, almost always either in the distance or in the dark, and driving around in a rusted old van, he, at least for the first half, is a very unsettling figure. Unfortunately rather than going the much cleverer and much scarier route of making the Creeper just a guy, they make him a monster, let me explain, I'm an adult now, movie monsters have to be pretty impressive to scare me, alternatively, it's very easy to get creeped out by the thought of someone insane and murderous hunting you down, because that is more real than a giant bat from hell, and that can get under your skin a lot better than a bat, which is what the Creeper is. Further more, the pre bat wing design of the Creeper looked really cool, the ragged clothes and cowboy hat, as well as the pretty freaky face, but then they just do away with that and give him wings, and he just stops being scary, just completely, the monster doesn't look that cool either, he's just a monster, with wings. His true form, like the psychic is just a supernatural element that the film didn't need or in my opinion benefit from. That said, this film has a few really cool scenes, 2 in particular really stand out to me, one where they drive past a church and see the Creeper, it's creepy, I liked it, and one with the Creeper on the roof of a car, I just though that was a cool scene. These 2 scenes are also really good for building the Creeper as a character, something that, unfortunately, gets completely thrown away along with any chance of him being scary. Finally, the film has an ending that I have mixed feelings on, with no real big fight with the Creeper, it just catches them, and I really think that the film should have ended then, and had the fate of his victim be left a mystery, because that's scarier to me than a mutilated body, by a mile, and it just feels, like the Creeper himself, like a wasted opportunity.
Which is pretty much how I can describe this film, a wasted opportunity, with it's creepy first half it really looks like it might go somewhere, and be a creepy and scary chase film, but instead it just throws all the momentum it had built away in favour of being a pretty bog standard monster movie. While it's not a bad film by any means, it has a great first half, but let's itself down. You won't hate yourself for giving it a watch, but you won't be missing anything by passing on Jeepers Creepers.
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