JEEPERS CREEPERS 2

US, 2003, 104 minutes, Colour.
Ray Wise, Jonathan Breck, Eric Nenninger, Nicki Aycox, Justin Long.
Directed by Victor Salva.

Jeepers Creepers was a very successful horror film of 2001, giving new life to the horror genre, especially people being pursued on the open road. The film focused on a brother and sister travelling home being pursued by a mysterious creature, called the Creeper (Jonathan Brack). The film created its atmosphere of horror on the road as well as in caverns under the ground where corpses of victims were buried. The film was written and directed by Victor Salva (Powder, The Peacemaker).

Salva has written and directed this sequel, keeping the same mysterious creature, the Creeper, again played by Jonathan Brack. This time, the victims of the Creeper are a group of university students coming home from a sports event. Like the couple in the first film, they experience trouble on the open road.

However, while he Creeper is responsible for the breakdown of the bus carrying the students, the film focuses on a farmer, played by Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) and his son who sense that they have a mission to destroy the Creeper. A mythology is created about the monster, from the dreams of one of the victims from the early film, transmitted by one of the girls – involving mysterious and apocalyptic numbers and twenty-three days for the Creeper to feed on human flesh.

There are many scares, an atmosphere of evil and fright. The film complements the original Jeepers Creepers. Star Justin Long has a cameo role in this film.

1. The unexpected popularity of the initial film? The motivation for a sequel? The initial team working on creating the sequel? Its success?

2. The popularity of this kind of horror film, the eerie mystery, the monstrous character, the people under threat, the cosmic significance - and the monster feeding on people? The group of young people in a confined situation, the bus? The chases, the threats, the deaths, the success in confronting and defeating the monster?

3. The Midwest settings, the initial farm, the barn, the bus on the road, the fields, the isolated countryside? The musical score?

4. The Creeper, reprised from the initial film? Giving him a more exotic setting, the initial information about every 23 years, the 23 days of feeding before he disappeared? (Audiences accepting this as some kind of fact.) The Creeper and his visual appearance, like a scarecrow in the field, the ability to fly through the sky, devouring, being destroyed, re-creating himself? The vindictive and vengeful nature of the monster?

5. The opening, the farm, the farmer and his two sons, the young boy and the clash with the older brother, the boy disappearing in the field and being taken by the Creeper? The effect on the brother, on the son? Their determination to get the boy back, to destroy the Creeper? Their waiting, making their own harpoon? The phone call, going to the bus (without the police) in order to confront the Creeper? The hardships of the fight with the Creeper, with the harpoons and his strength, dragging the truck, their trying to rescue some of the young people?

6. The bus and the victorious team, their interactions, the boys and their rivalries, Scott and his clash with Double D? The girls, cheerleaders, their not sitting with the boys, disgusted with their rivalries? The bus driver, the coaches? The normal trip back from the victory, the personality clashes?

7. The Creeper and the attack on the bus, the punctured tyre, the weapon? The investigation, trying to get along the road? The other tyre going? The coaches and Betty trying to help? Their being taken?

8. The young people on the bus, their fears, trying to make contact, the phone calls to the police, getting the Taggert family? The horror bringing out all the fears? The rivalries? The Creeper and his looking at individuals to take them? The reaction of the young people, Scott wanting to put the potential victims out of the bus? The reaction against him? Having to collaborate with Double D? the attacks on the bus, the ripping of the roof, the young people being locked in, ways of getting out, running through the fields? The monster taking the people in the bus? Pursuing them? The range of victims? Scott and his hostility and his being taken?

9. Minxie and her dream, the protagonist of the original film appearing to her and explaining about death? Her interpretation, her fears, her running away with the group? Her survival?

10. The build-up to the climax, the destruction of the bus, the pursuit through the fields? The arrival of the Taggerts, the harpoon, the bus? The destruction?

11. The Creeper, visually, the eyes, the scarecrow hat, the demonic nature of its evil? Its finally being destroyed?

12. Twenty-three years later, Taggert as an old man, the tourists paying their money to come and look, the Creeper pinioned on the wall - and the twenty-three years almost being up?

13. The psychological effect of watching this kind of horror thriller? Excitement? A modern bogeyman story? A visualising of subconscious fears and evil?