Jeepers Creepers MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 1/2 Content: -3

Driving home from school on break from college, siblings Trish (Gina Phillips) and Darie (Justin Long), decide to take the back roads through the country. And on the quietest of days in the most peaceful of environments, they are nearly run off the road by an old, rusted truck. The driver doesn’t bother to stop, but when they get back on the road, they see the truck stopped ahead at an old church. As they pass, they are sure they see the driver throwing a dead body down a large drainage pipe. The problem is, he sees them too, and after a pursuit, he does run them off the road. While he continues on, Trish and Darie decide to go back and determine what exactly it was that they saw. Not only do they find the dead body, but they also find the driver of the truck on their trail, and he won’t stop until he gets what he’s after. JEEPERS CREEPERS has a decent start and an unorthodox finish. However, while its shows some originality, the story breaks down, succumbing to lots of clichs found in many recent horror films.

One of the story’s downfalls is inclusion of an “all-knowing” psychic who sees the bits of information she knows about the pursuer in dreams. While she is treated as nothing more than a crazy old woman at first, she eventually wins Darie and Trish into her trust. However, she also prays the Lord’s Prayer when trouble comes, and interestingly enough, it seems to protect her. Being a horror film, there is plenty of violence to go around, with two or three scenes of graphic and gory sights. In one scene, the killer beheads a man and eats the tongue out of the severed head. Graphic, excessive violence and gory images, along with many obscenities and numerous strong profanities keep JEEPERS CREEPERS from anyone’s peepers.

Preview Reviewer: John Adair
Distributor: MGM/UA, 2500 Broadway St., Santa Monica, CA 90404-3061