‘He can taste your fear’
Jeepers Creepers 2 is a 2003 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Victor Salva (Dark House; Clownhouse). It stars Ray Wise, Jonathan Breck and Luke Edwards and is, obviously, as sequel to Salva’s Jeepers Creepers (2001).
At the box office, the film took $63.1 million against a reported budget of $17 million. An expected yet long-belated sequel, Jeepers Creepers 3, finally arrived in 2017.
The Creeper, disguised as a scarecrow, abducts young Billy Taggart in front of his father and Billy’s older brother. The following day, a school bus carrying a high school basketball team and cheerleaders suffers a blowout, after one of the wheels is hit by a handcrafted shuriken made from bone.
Cheerleader Minxie has a vision of Billy and Darry Jenner, the Creeper’s victim from the first film, who both attempt to warn her about the Creeper. With the party stranded, the Creeper singles out several of the occupants. Minxie has another vision in which Darry explains that every twenty-third spring, for twenty-three days, the creature emerges from hibernation and hunts victims for specific body parts which it then consumes in order to replace those of its own…
On June 14, 2016, Scream Factory released the film on a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray. Special Features Include:
Disc 1:
Audio Commentary by writer/director Victor Salva, and cast members
Audio Commentary by Jonathan Breck (The Creeper), Brad Parker (Production Illustrator), and Brian Penikas (Special Effects Makeup)
Disc 2:
“Jeepers Creepers 2: Then and Now” featuring new interviews with writer/director Victor Salva, director of photography Don FauntLeRoy, editor Ed Marx, and actor Tom Tarantini (22 minutes)
“A Father’s Revenge” – an interview with actor Ray Wise (15 minutes)
“Don’t Get Off the Bus” – interviews with actors Tom Tarantini, Thom Gossom Jr., and Diane Delano (20 minutes)
-“A Day in Hell” – A look at the filming of Jeepers Creepers 2 (26 minutes)
-“Lights, Camera, Creeper: The Making of Jeepers Creepers 2” featuring writer/director Victor Salva, actors Travis Schiffner, Josh Hammond, Billy Aaron Brown, Eric Nenninger, Nicki Aycox, director of photography Don FauntLeRoy, and more (15 minutes)
-“Creeper Creation” featuring interviews with production illustrator Brad Parker, special makeup effects artist Brian Penikas, and Jonathan Breck (12 minutes)
-“The Orphanage” visual effects reel (4 minutes)
-“Creeper Composer” – an interview with composer Bennett Salvay and writer/director Victor Salva (10 minutes)
-Storyboard Renditions of Scenes Not Filmed – “The Creeper’s Lair” and “Ventriloquist Creeper”
-Deleted Scenes (16 minutes)
-Photo Gallery
-Theatrical Trailer
Buy: Amazon.com
Reviews:
“Few things are scarier than a sequel to a bad movie, but, in fact, Jeepers Creepers 2 is substantially better than its predecessor, even while staying strictly within the genre’s well-defined boundaries […] Bennett Salvay’s score may be hugely derivative — bits of Stravinsky, Bartok, and Marius Constant’s Twilight Zone theme drift through — but it’s very effective.” Andy Klein, Variety
“Instantly taking to the meals-on-wheels concept, the creature selectively dines out on the captive students, and any remaining inventiveness and suspense has exited quicker than the air in the stranded vehicle’s tires […] while it may have minimized location setups, the concept gets old really quickly, and it certainly doesn’t help matters when those bickering kids are so annoying that the Creeper can’t seem to pluck them away fast enough.” Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
“JC 2 is by no means a great film, but it is a good one, especially if you’ve been disappointed by a lot of Teen Slashers out there right now. It’s probably too straightforward for its own good, and the middle, when the Creeper calmly takes its time assaulting the bus, might be a bit too slow for the teen crowd. Still, the film has enough action, suspense, and good special effects to satisfy most people.” Beyond Hollywood
“Jeepers Creepers 2 is competently made, but it lacks the suspense – and the scares – of its predecessor. As a sequel it delivers on bigger set pieces, improved special effects, and more bloodshed, but the writing fails to give us any compelling characters. The teenagers are entirely unlikeable, and I found myself excited by the prospect of watching the Creeper turn their school bus into a smörgåsbord.” Adam Frazier, Geeks of Doom
“The most notable character on the bus is Scott Braddock (Eric Nenninger), a virulent homophobe who doth, I think, protest too much as he accuses fellow team members of being gay […] To call the characters on the bus paper-thin would be a kindness. Too bad, then, that we spend so much time on the bus, listening to their wretched dialogue and watching as they race from one window to another to see what foul deeds are occurring outside.” RogerEbert.com
“JC 2 is by no means a great film, but it is a good one, especially if you’ve been disappointed by a lot of Teen Slashers out there right now. It’s probably too straightforward for its own good, and the middle, when the Creeper calmly takes its time assaulting the bus, might be a bit too slow for the teen crowd. Still, the film has enough action, suspense, and good special effects to satisfy most people.” Beyond Hollywood
“Jeepers Creepers 2 looks far more elaborate, and yet…it’s nowhere near as frightening as the first half hour or so of the original, nor is it any more coherent or meaningful than the original’s last half hour. Gloss has overtaken terror here, as director Salva indulges in longer and longer takes of wide, wide shots that certainly look pretty […], but which are inevitably drained of any substantial tension or suspense.” Paul Mavis, DVD Drive-In
Cast and characters:
- Jonathan Breck as the Creeper
- Ray Wise as Jack Taggart, Sr. (Halloweed; Suburban Gothic; Big Ass Spider!, et al)
- Luke Edwards as Jack “Jackie” Taggart, Jr.
- Garikayi Mutambirwa as Deaundre “Double D” Davis
- Nicki Aycox as Minxie Hayes
- Eric Nenninger as Scott “Scotty” Braddock
- Travis Schiffner as Izzy Bohen
- Marieh Delfino as Rhonda Truitt
- Billy Aaron Brown as Andy “Bucky” Buck
- Lena Cardwell as Chelsea Farmer
- Josh Hammond as Jake Spencer
- Al Santos as Dante Belasco
- Kasan Butcher as Kimball “Big K” Ward
- Drew Tyler Bell as Jonny Young
- Diane Delano as Bus Driver Betty Borman
- Thom Gossom, Jr. as Coach Charlie Hanna
- Tom Tarantini as Coach Dwayne Barnes
- Shaun Fleming as Billy Taggart
- Justin Long as Darius “Darry” Jenner
