Jeepers Creepers 3 Review
By: Nik S
Director: Victor Salva
Producer(s): Michael Ohoven, Jake Seal, Victor Salva
Starring: Jonathan Breck, Meg Foster, Gabrielle Haugh, Chester Rushing, Stan Shaw, Brandon Smith, Gina Philips
Production Company: Infinity Films, Myriad Pictures
Distributor: Screen Media Films
Runtime: 100 minutes
In Michigan Jeepers Creepers is a little more popular in my opinion, even though the series is set somewhere in the south like rural Florida. The inspiration for the movie comes from Dennis DePue, a real life fugitive who was on the run back in the early '90's. Dennis murdered his wife and tried to dump her body at a church along some back roads in Michigan, however he wasn't alone. A couple happened to be driving along during that exact same moment and witnessed the event. He then tailed them for a few miles until he vanished for almost a year, where he wound up in a police chase that ended up with him committing suicide in Mississippi.
Being a Michigander as a kid back in 2001 I was thrilled, yet horrified, to learn that Jeepers Creepers was based on an event that happened in my state. The original movie wasn't the greatest horror movie I had ever seen, but I at least enjoyed myself while I was watching it. When the sequel came out I was a little underwhelmed by it, but if it's now ever on TV I can sit through it and have a good time. I didn't have my hopes up too high when I heard a third movie was on the horizon, and that it was only going to be out in theaters for a short limited time. When it came out on streaming services I decided I could give it a try to see if it was at least watchable like its predecessors. Sad to say, it really isn't.
Jeepers Creepers 3 is set between the original and sequel, and if you're not aware of that fact (like myself upon first watching) you might think they retcon everything. It takes place in this small rural town, where everyone either works on a farm or lives on one, owns a vintage pickup truck, and owns a horse. The film has two stories going on that are all effected by the actions of the Creeper; a small militia-like group that was founded to track and possibly kill the monster, and another where a girl and her love interest are trying to survive. Since this is the third movie, and the Creeper needs no introduction, the movie starts right off showing us what he is capable of.
The film starts off with this horribly rendered CGI flying shuriken that really set the mood for me, that I was probably not going to have a good time watching this. The movie has a mix of practical and digital effects, both of which are barely considered B-movie quality. Each weapon that the Creeper uses looks like it's straight out of a Halloween pop-up-shop. The digital effects in this movie looked like something you would see in a SYFY TV movie. There is an early scene where the Creeper swoops down on an unlucky person, but it looks like it was almost stop motion which made me have to look back at it to just notice it was just a bad framerate. The only thing done well was the makeup for the Creeper, which keeps the same look without changing too much.
The Creeper really seemed to have an attitude change from his other two movies. He's a little more cocky and has very expressive facial movements. His actions were more like a bad action movie villain than a horror movie monster, as he has a lot of slow motion scenes. He wasn't the angry monster that hides in the dark to attack his victims like he used to be, but now is more this angry bad guy who kills during the middle of the afternoon with his truck.
The Creeper's truck from the first film makes a return, being this large version of a James Bond car where it's capable of driving itself, firing off explosions, and full of traps. The truck seems almost more overpowered than the Creeper himself, as it does more damage than he does throughout the movie.
Now I could overlook bad props and this super powered truck if the characters and what they had to work with were a little stronger. Everything is very flat and everything happens simply to help push the movie forward. There is very little room for any character development since the story doesn't really allow the audience to get to know any character other than their typical movie trope. The directing and editing just didn't shine through at all since some cuts were really choppy, and the actions of most characters seem like rough cuts rather than last attempts.
If you decide to skip this movie out of the franchise, you're really not going to miss much. About a quarter of the way through I got really bored and started messing around on my phone or made lunch as the film continued to play in the background. The ending connects the first two movies together and leaves a possibility for a fourth movie, but if it's anything like this one I might give it a hard pass.
Director: Victor Salva
Producer(s): Michael Ohoven, Jake Seal, Victor Salva
Starring: Jonathan Breck, Meg Foster, Gabrielle Haugh, Chester Rushing, Stan Shaw, Brandon Smith, Gina Philips
Production Company: Infinity Films, Myriad Pictures
Distributor: Screen Media Films
Runtime: 100 minutes
In Michigan Jeepers Creepers is a little more popular in my opinion, even though the series is set somewhere in the south like rural Florida. The inspiration for the movie comes from Dennis DePue, a real life fugitive who was on the run back in the early '90's. Dennis murdered his wife and tried to dump her body at a church along some back roads in Michigan, however he wasn't alone. A couple happened to be driving along during that exact same moment and witnessed the event. He then tailed them for a few miles until he vanished for almost a year, where he wound up in a police chase that ended up with him committing suicide in Mississippi.
Being a Michigander as a kid back in 2001 I was thrilled, yet horrified, to learn that Jeepers Creepers was based on an event that happened in my state. The original movie wasn't the greatest horror movie I had ever seen, but I at least enjoyed myself while I was watching it. When the sequel came out I was a little underwhelmed by it, but if it's now ever on TV I can sit through it and have a good time. I didn't have my hopes up too high when I heard a third movie was on the horizon, and that it was only going to be out in theaters for a short limited time. When it came out on streaming services I decided I could give it a try to see if it was at least watchable like its predecessors. Sad to say, it really isn't.
Jeepers Creepers 3 is set between the original and sequel, and if you're not aware of that fact (like myself upon first watching) you might think they retcon everything. It takes place in this small rural town, where everyone either works on a farm or lives on one, owns a vintage pickup truck, and owns a horse. The film has two stories going on that are all effected by the actions of the Creeper; a small militia-like group that was founded to track and possibly kill the monster, and another where a girl and her love interest are trying to survive. Since this is the third movie, and the Creeper needs no introduction, the movie starts right off showing us what he is capable of.
The film starts off with this horribly rendered CGI flying shuriken that really set the mood for me, that I was probably not going to have a good time watching this. The movie has a mix of practical and digital effects, both of which are barely considered B-movie quality. Each weapon that the Creeper uses looks like it's straight out of a Halloween pop-up-shop. The digital effects in this movie looked like something you would see in a SYFY TV movie. There is an early scene where the Creeper swoops down on an unlucky person, but it looks like it was almost stop motion which made me have to look back at it to just notice it was just a bad framerate. The only thing done well was the makeup for the Creeper, which keeps the same look without changing too much.
The Creeper really seemed to have an attitude change from his other two movies. He's a little more cocky and has very expressive facial movements. His actions were more like a bad action movie villain than a horror movie monster, as he has a lot of slow motion scenes. He wasn't the angry monster that hides in the dark to attack his victims like he used to be, but now is more this angry bad guy who kills during the middle of the afternoon with his truck.
The Creeper's truck from the first film makes a return, being this large version of a James Bond car where it's capable of driving itself, firing off explosions, and full of traps. The truck seems almost more overpowered than the Creeper himself, as it does more damage than he does throughout the movie.
Now I could overlook bad props and this super powered truck if the characters and what they had to work with were a little stronger. Everything is very flat and everything happens simply to help push the movie forward. There is very little room for any character development since the story doesn't really allow the audience to get to know any character other than their typical movie trope. The directing and editing just didn't shine through at all since some cuts were really choppy, and the actions of most characters seem like rough cuts rather than last attempts.
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