Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Episode 42, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

Todd:  Hello, and welcome to another edition of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd. I’m Craig. And today, this movie was a film from 2001, Jeepers Creepers. This was a movie that I had not actually seen until now, and Craig was extremely surprised.

Craig:  Yeah. And it was my turn to pick this week, and this is one that we’ve been talking about for a while, and I you know, it’s a 15, 16 year old movie. I can’t believe you haven’t seen it. So what’d you think?

Todd:  You know, it’s always been on my list, but I didn’t really know anything about it, and I think in the end that turned out to be a good thing. I yeah. I guess I just sort of missed it when it came out. You know, I think this was the time when I would I had moved overseas, and so about any movie from 2,001 to 2,003 that was American, if it wasn’t like, I think, Lord of the Rings or one of the Harry Potter movies, we didn’t probably get it over in Japan at that time. Well, that makes sense. But, yeah, this movie was interesting, and I think maybe the best way to go into it is to not know anything about it because it it really is kinda bold, and it goes in some directions you wouldn’t imagine, but, you know, you kinda think it’s gonna be like a lot of horror movies where it holds a lot of its cards close to its chest, and it does that for about the first half of the movie, but then for the second half of the movie, it just lays them all out on the table.

Craig:  Yeah. When I saw this, I didn’t know much about it either, and I think that it must say something about their marketing campaign because I remember it was kind of a big deal when it came out. But, when I first saw it, I didn’t know until, I don’t know, like you said, probably halfway through the movie that it was a monster movie. I thought it was a crazy road killer movie, and I thought that was it was I I found it really really creepy, in the first half, in part because I thought, you know, this feasibly could happen. Yeah. And and then, you know, later on when, it’s revealed to actually be kind of a monster movie, I thought that that was, I don’t know, not completely unexpected, but, I didn’t necessarily see it coming. And then it didn’t get hokey from that point. You know, it still it just went in a direction I didn’t expect, and then I thought that it was still pretty effectively scary throughout.

Todd:  Yeah. I think that’s a pretty good description of how it went for me too, and, well, I mean, the movie starts out with Justin Long, and I think this is one of his first films. I think he’d only done Dynasty Quest before this, but was this but this was about the time he was doing the Mac and PC commercials, wasn’t it?

Craig:  Yeah. Yep.

Todd:  So it was kinda neat to see him on the screen, looking pretty young. He still looks pretty young. True. And, he opens up driving across the country, and it’s a rather long scene of the 2 of Mhmm. Him and his sister talking. They’re in this classic car, and they’re driving across nothing. It’s like driving through Kansas, where there’s just a road, and there’s absolutely nobody else coming from the other direction. At one point, they get behind a camper, and they pass it, and that’s, like, the only other car they see for most of the movie.  And they’re just chatting. They’re chatting. It’s clear that he has picked her up from school, I think. He’s picked her up from from her she’s in university, and, they’re going back to

Craig:  school. Or maybe they go to the same university. I’m not sure. He says something about, he lives on campus and she lives off campus. So, I don’t know if they go to the same school or they go to nearby schools or whatever, but they’ve come back together to to take the trip home.

Todd:  Yeah. And, you know, I found this banter to be really charming. I guess it’s just interesting enough that you don’t sit there and tap your foot and go, okay. Where when’s the movie gonna start? Because this movie doesn’t really start with a jump scare or some kind of Right. Projection of the future, the horrible things that are happening, like a lot of horror films do. They try to grab you in the first few minutes with something like that, and and this doesn’t have that, which is also pretty unusual.

Craig:  Yeah. And I just thought that it did a really good job in the very beginning of establishing not only kind of, you know, I I say isolated only because, you know, they’re out in the middle of nowhere. I guess this was filmed in Florida and and the director Victor Salva, really kind of wanted it to look not as beautiful as the actual Florida landscape looks like. So they ended up doing a lot of shading and stuff to kind of dull the colors and things. But it worked really well because, you know, you and I are both, you know, from the Midwest and it felt very much, you know, it felt very familiar. It felt like countryside that we could drive through at any given moment, here in the Midwest.

Todd:  Oh, yeah.

Craig:  And then the, yeah. And then the the the 2 main actors who we’re introduced to, like you said, Justin Long plays Derry, and Gina Phillips plays Trisha, and they’re brother and sister. And like you said, it’s charming and I just thought that they did a really good job of establishing a very believable brother sister relationship. You know, they’re they’re teasing one another, they’re picking on one another, but they’re also playful and they’re playing games like, you know, they’re competitive, they’re, you know, trying to beat each other figuring out, you know, what vanity plates mean. Gay gay fever. No. Gay forever. Gay forever.

Clip:  That’s mine. That’s 3 for little bros. That’s a 6, not a g, you idiot. That’s sexy forever. That’s mine. That’s 5 to 2. Okay, fever?

Craig:  I just found the relationship between the two to be really, really believable from the very beginning. And I think that it needed to be because we’re with these 2 for the whole movie. Like, they those these 2 are on screen the whole time. If their relationship wasn’t believable, if their acting was poor, I I I think it would have just sunk the movie altogether.

Todd:  Yeah. You needed to like them. You needed to enjoy spending time with them, and I really did. They didn’t overplay it at all. It it really worked. The chemistry worked, and that’s really a pretty good testament to the writing and the acting as well. And the fact that, again, there’s nothing else to distract you in this movie. It’s we’ve had that experience, 2 people sitting in a car, making conversation as they’re going across the country.  And, he’s got a bag of laundry in the back, and she’s talking about how it smells when she goes back to get something. And she pulls down an air freshener and tucks it in there, which which I I wanna talk about later because I’m wondering if there’s some significance to that. The the cinematography could play that up a little bit, and then later on, you know, we do find out that maybe that’s a little important, but I didn’t quite catch it. So anyway, as they’re driving along and after they pass that van after a while and this is another thing I thought the movie did really well, and that was bring things up in the background. You know? Uh-huh. Create that sense of tension where, yeah, these 2 people are talking, but, hey. I just noticed that there’s something a little blurry approaching them from the back. It’s absolutely past that RV.  Yeah. That, in the background, you just kind of notice that it turns off the road, and there’s something else coming up behind it Todd, but it takes a long time to get there. And in the meantime, they’re talking. By the time it gets behind them, it’s this very weird looking vehicle. It’s it’s like a big truck that’s been kinda souped up, and it’s grungy and rusty looking, and it gets very aggressive with them. It’s like it’s trying to pass them, and they’re kinda freaking out, and it won’t pass them, and they’re moving to try to let it pass, but then it’s getting behind them. It almost seems, for a minute, like it’s trying to run them off the road.

Craig:  Yeah. And it’s a really it’s it’s a scary looking vehicle. Like, I I have no idea what it would have originally been intended for, like, some sort of farm truck or something. I mean, it’s it’s bigger than your typical, you know, truck that you see on the road but not as big as, like, you know, a big Craig. But just the way that, you know, it’s all rusted out and, you know, it’s it’s it’s it’s a scary and the truck, I think, in this movie is almost kind of a character in itself or at least an extension of, the main antagonist and it’s really spooky. Like you said, you have a better eye than I did because I didn’t even the first time I saw it, I didn’t even see it coming at them until it was right behind them and it honked its horn and they were super startled and it got me too because I was engaged in what they were talking about. I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in the background, and then it was just there out of nowhere, and I jumped probably as much as as the characters did. And yeah.  So then, you know, it finally eventually goes around them and of course they’re kind of freaked out, you know, what was that? What was that all about? But they don’t think much more, about it except for they it reminds, Trish that this road is kind of notorious. She remembers a story and it it’s unclear if it’s kind of like an urban legend or if it happened at their, you know, high school or what. But, a couple, a high couple who’d been going to a dance or something, their car was found alongside the road, but their bodies weren’t found or maybe parts of their bodies were found but not all of it. And and she says something and, you know, in hindsight it’s a little hokey, but she says, you know, every time I heard that story, it always made me think this would be the highway that I would die on.

Todd:  Yeah.

Craig:  And so, you know, it’s it’s it’s a little bit, you know, it’s a little bit clunky that line as far as writing goes. But, it does, you know, at least give you some indication that maybe, you know, there’s something going on, in this area or on this particular road.

Todd:  And and it just so happens that this couple who’s been playing this license plate game, that this truck also has a license plate. And if you sound it out, it looks like it’s it’s beating you. Uh-huh. And, you know, this movie reminds me so much, at least at this point of Dual. Have you ever seen Dual?

Craig:  I haven’t.

Todd:  It’s, it’s one of Steven Spielberg’s very first films. Think it might have been made for TV, but it’s a fantastic movie, and it’s one of those, like you said, Todd, terrorizer kind of films where

Craig:  Mhmm.

Todd:  You see this big semi tractor trailer that’s just antagonizing this person, but you never see the driver, and that’s Right. Kind of how it is, at least at first, with this guy. You know it’s gonna be significant later on because you know what kind of a movie you’re watching, and then later on as they’re talking, they drive past what looks like at first an old rundown abandoned house that’s just far enough off the road that you can see that that big truck is there, and you could see this figure that’s dressed kind of menacingly in in what looks like large leather overcoat or something and a hat. And he’s Yeah.

Craig:  He almost looks like a gunslinger or something.

Todd:  Yeah. He does. And he’s taking these, what look like wrapped bodies, out of the back of the truck and tossing it down this again, it’s so weird. This big pipe that’s angularly out of the ground behind this building, and it’s so strange. And again, it’s it’s just very reminiscent of these. Yeah. This this guy was in this house here, and these are the people he’s just killed, and he’s out in the country. And they as they’re driving by, they notice, and they’re like, oh my gosh.  Are those Todd? Are those bodies? And as they’re craning their heads out the window and passing, this guy just stands and looks at them.

Craig:  And watches them drive past.

Todd:  Yeah. It’s so creepy. And, you know, they’re targets now, yet you just can’t Right.

Clip:  Have

Todd:  a very good look of this guy, but you know that he’s menacing because he still looks amazing from yards, you know.

Clip:  The,

Craig:  the camera never zooms in on him. It’s always, you know, kinda from their perspective. They can and he’s in all black, so, you know, you can’t really see any detail. He’s almost just kinda like a silhouette. But the other thing that I thought was so effective here is that it’s broad daylight. Like, this is in the middle of the day. Yeah. And and they, you know, they’re on a highway.  Maybe, you know, it’s rural or whatever, but they’re, you know, driving by on the highway. And this guy is just almost casually pulling what clearly appear to be bodies wrapped up in a sheet and just tossing them down there, you know, right out in the open and, you know, they just so happen to drive by and yeah, just that menacing stare. I mean, he turns and just watches them, his his it’s almost like his whole body kind of turns to follow them as they go by. And it’s so creepy. I just thought it just gives me the willies, because again, hopefully, in real life, you would never see something like that. But every once in a while, you know, maybe you drive by some scene or you just catch a glimpse of something that just doesn’t seem right and it’s really unsettling. And and I I think I was able to relate to it which is what made it so effective.

Todd:  Yeah. And again, it’s that what what the filmmaker Victor Salva does so well in in this film and in others is just in the background kind of out of focus. These things are happening and and the fact, like you said, that it’s daylight, I’ve always said, in horror films, if you can make the horror happen during the day, it’s just 10 times more creepy. To me, it’s like right up on par with using children’s voices, you know.

Craig:  Right. Right.

Todd:  If it’s in the day, it’s pretty scary because it just sets you off kilter, and it maybe puts a little more in the real life for you.

Craig:  And Well, and I think something so something else that it does well in that moment is that it’s not just, Oh, here’s the menacing stare. Like, you know, that could have happened and they could have driven along and been like, Oh, that was creepy. But no, I mean, he he watches them go by but then he immediately gets into his big truck and starts chasing them again. And so, you know, we know that he saw them. We know that he’s kind of after them or whatever, and he runs them off, the road, which is where then they start to debate about what they should do next. You know, dairy thinks that they need to go back, you know, they they both agreed that those sure looked like Todd, and Trish doesn’t wanna go back, you know, and and I I again, they have these conversations that feel very real because usually in movies like this, they don’t have those conversations. They just go back because, of course, they’re going Todd. It’s a horror movie.  Mhmm. But here, you know, Trish is, like, you’re crazy. Why would we go back? And but he convinces her and they do go back and they look down the tube, you know, dairy calls down there. He doesn’t hear anything and we’re seeing it from the perspective of down in the bottom of the tube. So we’re just seeing, you know, dairy kind of framed in the circle of light. When he’s called down there, he doesn’t get any response. He moves out of that circle of light for just a second and you just very faintly hear some kind of moaning or something from down, wherever that tube leads, and he hears it Todd. And so he wants to check it out.  He gets a flashlight and he he starts to crawl in there. And it’s maybe my favorite line from the whole movie. Trish says

Clip:  Okay. You know the part in scary movies where somebody does something really stupid and everybody hates them for it? This is

Todd:  it. And I

Craig:  just thought that was so clever because nobody does ever question that, you know, in in the movies. And that kind of, you know, self reference in that, in joke, I thought it was really funny and it didn’t come off as as cornball or hokey. It just felt kind of natural and something that might run through my head, given that circumstance.

Todd:  Well, and something that’s kind of messed up, but then works, for their motivation for going back is the fact that he runs them off the road, but he keeps going. You you’ve Mhmm. You feel like, oh, he’s he’s gonna be taking them down, and there’s going to be a chase, but he just seems to want to run them off the Todd, and then he totally takes off. So they feel, in a sense, they feel like there’s a giant net of safety underneath them, that this guy’s Right. You know, clearly not after them after them, at least not yet. And so they can go back, and they can spend a little time, doing this exploration that’s ultimately I wouldn’t do in a 1000000 years. But No. But they do.  But you still have, of course, that feeling, like, man, this guy could come back any minute now. This guy could come back any minute now, And and he never does. Right. So anyway, yeah. They’re they’re going, jeez. He wants to get a better look. They pull out a flashlight. He’s, like, hanging down the tube and asks her to hold his feet, and you know this isn’t gonna end well.  And oh, right. Right. It’s rats that scare him, and he starts kicking and slides down the tube and ends up at the bottom. And this is another part that I thought was really interesting. It’s nothing I don’t think I’ve quite seen anything like this before where he starts exploring this underground little layer. He comes across the body. The body, he kicks a little bit and it moves. So he tears it open, and there, sure enough, is an almost dead young person in there, guy.  Mhmm. And he just kind of tries to say something and I don’t think he if he manages to get something out, it’s unintelligible.

Craig:  Right.

Todd:  And, Justin Long’s character, Derry, was that right?

Craig:  Yeah. Mhmm.

Todd:  Opens up, tears open the cloth that’s wrapped around him and sees that some his chest has been, very crudely sewn up like you might sew up a scarecrow. Obviously, something’s been taken out of it, and then this guy just totally dies. And what I haven’t seen in a movie like this is that at first when he’s looking around, he can’t see everything because it’s totally dark, but as the scene goes on, we even as the audience start to see more things just in the same way that your eyes adjust to the light in a dark room. Yep. You know? As your eyes adjust to the light in a dark room, gradually you can see more things and pretty soon it’s like as long as there’s just a little bit of light in there, you don’t need a flashlight. That happens to us as he’s kind of walking around. There’s some things he’s shining his flashlight on. He’s kind of seeing, but then the background to us slowly becomes a little more visible, until you can see there’s definitely something creepy in the background.  And that’s about the time that he turns around and sees it himself. And that

Craig:  is Right. And I thought that part was exactly like you said, you know, the fact that it’s it just kinda slowly, slowly comes into focus so that we, the viewers, maybe notice something in the background, but you’re asking yourself, what is that? There there’s something weird. What something weird is going on in the background. And then when it becomes clear, then it’s really grotesque and horrifying.

Todd:  Yeah. It’s Todd. And and at first, again, they look like maybe just mannequins that are

Clip:  Mhmm.

Todd:  Like glued to the ceiling and to the walls and in all these different positions and things. Definitely creepy. But then, he notices that, there are these very prominent bodies kind of right in front of him at one point, and it’s a girl that has had her head sewn back on who’s conjoined, to a guy, and literally conjoined. They’ve been sewn together, and they’re hand they’re holding hands, and he sees the ring on the hand and puts 2 and 2 together. It’s it’s a class ring. Puts 22 together that this is the girl they were talking about earlier, who had died on this rope, who had lost her head, and he goes, he sewed it back on, and runs back to the thing and says, we need to get out of here, and yells up to

Craig:  him, right.

Todd:  You can’t get back up the pipe. But then they have this interesting exchange and and this is, the point where she’s like, what’s going on? What’s going on? He’s just like, go get help. Go to the road. Find a flag down a person you can for help, and if that guy comes back, please run back here. And she’s like, Well, how are you gonna get out? And he says, Well, this and it turns out that this is an old church that they’re behind. He said, I’m sure I’m in the basement of this church. I’ll find a way out, and that turns out to be a pretty easy task for him. Now what’s weird about this and what’s very unsettling about it is that we as a as an audience immediately can recognize that if this happened in 1978, I think, was when this death of this girl on this road was supposed to happen, these bodies look extremely fresh.

Craig:  Yeah. And I that’s never really explained. And there are some things that go unexplained. You know, like he says, I can get my way. It’s a basement. I’ll find my way out. We never actually see him do that. He just appears out later.  And and and same thing here. The, the Todd, like you said, at first, they almost look like mannequins. And they’re clearly props I would assume unless it was, you know, it was actors and really, really heavy makeup. But they look almost plasticized and later, Daria and Trish talked to the police and explained what happened and the police asked the exact same question, you know, if if it’s who you say it was, you know, that was 20 some years ago. They wouldn’t be anything but bones. And he says, Yeah, but I grabbed one of them and it was hard like it had been preserved some way. And that’s all we get. That’s the only explanation we get.  We don’t know how, at least as far as I remember, you know, we don’t really get an explanation. It’s just that somehow, they’ve been preserved, and it’s almost like artwork, like, he had dairy, I think, at one point calls it like some sort of messed up Sistine Chapel or something, and and that is very much what it looks like.

Todd:  That’s right. That was a great line Todd. And and you’re right. And not only do we not get the explanation, but we don’t even ever really get a clear sense of why this this thing would be preserving these bodies either. Mhmm. There’s just no connection at all, which is interesting. It I guess it adds a little to the mystery without explaining it. Also, it allows you to have some gruesome props, I suppose.

Craig:  Right. Right.

Todd:  But just as but then comes a really another really great scene, and that is her standing by the Todd, waiting for a vehicle to come. Of course, we haven’t seen any vehicles for a long time, the whole time they’ve been driving, the whole time they’ve been there, and slowly in the background, out of focus, are 2 headlights that appear to be coming from a truck. And they’re getting closer and closer and closer, and she’s just completely staring in the opposite direction. You’re like, turn around turn around turn around. Right. Oh, my gosh. It’s coming like that. When she does turn around, she freaks out too and she jumps in her car and she tries to start it into stick shift and she she’s they’re perennial.  They’re always having trouble with the stick shift. She’s just grinding the gears like she doesn’t know how to drive.

Craig:  I don’t know why this girl is driving a manual transmission because she is not good at it at all. And the whole every time, like, seriously, every single time she’s in a hurry, she’s just grinding those gears. I’m like, this car is not gonna make

Todd:  it. It’s just moving. You keep

Craig:  grinding the gears like that.

Todd:  She even makes a point she makes a point of it later. It says something like, I don’t know how much longer this car is gonna last. And I’m like, well of course it’s not gonna last any longer. You’re the owner. This is terrible. But then the truck whizzes by and it turns out not to be the truck, which is like a double whammy. It’s like, Oh, it wasn’t the truck. And it’s, oh, that was probably the one person you could have flagged down to save you.  Right. Right. Oh, but and it it turns out to not matter, right? Because he comes out and he finds her.

Craig:  Right. And he’s clearly like traumatized and he can’t even speak, and and that freaks her out. And they’re driving along and she’s trying to get him to talk, but he he can’t or won’t, which is, you know, understandable based on what he has seen. But she looks down and notices that they’re almost out of gas. They to Todd. And they stop at this little roadside diner slash gas station, which is surprisingly populated because it seems to be out in the middle of nowhere and yet it’s full of patrons. And again, this is one of those one of those times where the movie kind of, went against my expectations because they walked in and I expected it to be that typical, you know, walking into the local bar and everybody looks at you and it’s very sinister and people know what’s going on. But it wasn’t.  Everybody does turn to look at them because they draw attention to themselves as soon as they come in, but instead of being sinister, instead they’re actually, you know, helpful. They they call the police for them and and whatnot.

Todd:  Yeah. And that really subverts your expectations there. You you I mean, almost up until the very end, I was wondering, do these do these townspeople know a little more than they’re letting on? And they don’t really act like it, but they’re just so stunned by this couple that they act like stunned people would act. They they they kinda don’t know what to do, and and that can either be, again, something sinister or just stunned people. And in this case, it turns out to be stunned people. Right. But the phone rings. There’s

Clip:  a pay phone on the wall, which tells you this was back in 2001. There’s a pay phone

Todd:  on the wall, and it immediately rings, while brother and sister having this argument and after and after like a minute or 2 of this phone ringing, one of the patrons in the bar just like is, it says, are you gonna answer that? And so he does, and it turns out to be this creepy call from this woman this time. And she seems to it’s almost like she’s watched the movie up until this point and and maybe seen a little ahead. She knew that they were there, she knew she could call them on the phone and get them.

Clip:  Have you seen the cats yet? You and your brother.  Me and my brother.  You and Derry. I saw you with lots of cats.  Who the hell is this? How do you know Derry?  Who is this? Dairy. You know the cats I’m talking about? Who is this? You have a torn shirt. Right? And a bloody hand. Shirts torn just above a small rose tattoo on your stomach.

Craig:  Who is this?

Clip:  How do

Craig:  you know us?

Clip:  You’ve found its house of pain. The what? Those bodies down there, that’s what it likes to call it. It’s house of pain.

Todd:  And if you hear this song, you’re you don’t have much longer to live, and the song is playing in the background and she you it it flashes back. It kind of, the camera moves back to what is the per the, like, the living room of the person who’s actually calling, although they never show us the caller. But then as it pans across the room, it has this old fashioned stereo with an old fashioned record player playing there and this album called Jeepers Creepers sitting there, and that music in the background, that classic Jeepers Creepers song. And she holds the phone up to the speaker so that he can hear that song. And I think he freaks out and hangs up the phone.

Craig:  So she she seems to know something about what’s going on, but but again, she’s, you know, just talking in kind of cryptic phrases, and she does. She plays the song for him and says, if you hear this, run. This song means something really bad for you. And you know, he’s freaked out. I, you know, I think he calls her a bitch and hangs up the phone. And so then they just he he walks to the window and says, Let’s just talk to the cops and get out of here. And that’s when the cops come and, you know, we don’t actually see them recount the whole story which is great. We know what happened.  We don’t need to hear it again. But he tells the cops the story and, you know, they’re of course skeptical as they should be.

Todd:  And even his sister is skeptical. And that’s an interesting point in there, too. I mean, she just sees he’s freaked out and she wonders, you know, he did fall. Did how hard did you hit your head? And that was a great point too for her to show a little bit of skepticism because it does call into question this whole story. And then again, for us in some way, you know, we also question maybe if he saw what he saw, especially those bodies being so well preserved. That’s the thing that, for me anyway, was the detail that threw me into even questioning his narrative.

Craig:  Sure. Yeah. And but so and he’s upset, you know, he’s he wants he in fact, I I think if I remember correctly, he grabs her and says, Tell me you believe me, and then she won’t. And again, Salva does such a good job here of things happening in the background that you’re not paying attention to because your attention is directed elsewhere. But while they’re kind of having this argument while he’s talking to the cops, if you pay attention in the background, all the other restaurant patrons patrons are standing up and moving towards the front of the restaurant. And after, I don’t know, 30 seconds or so, the waitress at the restaurant comes running over to them and says, hey, kids. Isn’t that your car out there? And they say, yeah. And, so they all run out there and the waitress says, there was some guy standing outside your car.  He had picked up big handfuls of the laundry out of the back seat and he was just sniffing it And she kinda disgustingly says or disgustedly says, and it seemed like he was liking it too. Dairy believes that this is the guy that, something that we didn’t mention is when they stopped at the diner, the truck went by again going back, towards the church. And and so they’re confused. They don’t understand how it could have gotten to the church and gotten back, you know, to sniff his laundry or whatever. But obviously that’s troubling regardless of who this guy is or whatever. Somebody sniffing your dirty laundry. I mean, that’s just gross. And, you know, and dairy’s picking up his laundry off the floor or the ground apparently when it’s been dropped and he picks up a pair of underwear and you see that his name is written in it.  And he’s like, and he knows my name too. And I’m like, well, that serves you right for being a 20 something with your name written in your underwear. So

Todd:  that that bit was hilarious. And, and so the cops decide clearly something is a little weird, and so they’re going to send, they they apparently call ahead and have somebody go and investigate the church. They get in their car, and Derry and his sister get in their car, and there’s a small mini caravan out just the 2 of them out to the church. And it’s this is really well shot, I think, because we start out with Derry and his sister, and they’re driving and they’re talking, and the camera is shooting sort of through the window, and we don’t realize the cops are following them quite yet. And then the camera pans slowly backwards and, dollies back to the cops and starts shooting through their window where the cops are talking and they’re discussing. Mhmm. It it’s really a neat way of kind of showing us, oh, yeah. They they have some company here.  A really interesting method of cinematography, I thought.

Craig:  Mhmm. Mhmm.

Clip:  And then

Todd:  this is where the movie, just like the film we watched, just like the film we watched 2 weeks ago is so Todd. And I wasn’t expecting this level of bold where something jumps on the roof of the cops car

Craig:  And Mhmm.

Todd:  The brother and sister don’t notice it because they’re talking and even arguing in the car in front. They’re not really looking behind them, and it’s nighttime. And, but the cops notice it and the 1 cop, the female cop who’s in the passenger side

Craig:  Passenger.

Todd:  Rolls down the window and leans out and is immediately pulled up and out of the car. And the male cop, before he can kinda figure out what’s going on, a hand punches down through the roof and makes a big hole in the roof and pulls his head up through it. And then we see this character standing on top of the car. Again, we can’t get a really good look at his face, but we can see that he’s holding this cop’s head and raises a giant it’s like a mini axe. It’s very decorative, and hogs the, the cop’s head off. I really didn’t expect the movie to get that bold where we would have just an outright attack by this guy, because, again

Clip:  Right.

Todd:  I’m expecting what typically happens in this movie is they arrive at the site, and it’s picked clean, and, you know, there’s no evidence, and they’re still questioning their motives. And I’m, again, I’m still imagining this except for those little details of how why is he getting to where he’s getting so fast, I’m still just imagining this creepy guy who who Exactly. Is is out killing people.

Craig:  Yeah. Up till this point, you just think it’s a creepy guy in a creepy truck, and, all of a sudden it just and you’re kind of lulled into this sense of security because they’ve got a police escort, you know. Like the cops are right there with them. You don’t expect there to be such imminent danger right there. But, yeah, like you said, I I loved the cinematography too because, when we see that it’s the guy standing on top of the moving car, there’s no explanation for how he could have gotten there. You know, they’re going down the highway at high speeds, but we, you know, it cuts back to Darrie and Trish and we’re looking at them from the front. And so if you just look behind them in between them through the back windshield, you can see the guy standing there, but they, you know, they have no idea until the head of the cop lands on their, the hood of the car and kind of rolls back up off the car. And of course, you know, they panic and, both their car and the cop car come to screeching halts, in the middle of the Todd, and Trish and Dary get out, to investigate.  And, Trish is moving towards the car. She’s, you know, it appears that there’s somebody’s in the car and she’s asking if they’re okay. But as she comes a little bit more around the side of the car, she sees the police officer’s head, severed head on the ground. And so she backs up a little bit and the guy, the scary guy gets out of the cop car and this is really where we get the reveal and where we realize this isn’t just some guy. You know, this is some this is something that they are dealing with. And again, you don’t get it’s not like it’s a, you know, a real, real clear shot, but you can tell that this man is monstrous. You know, his head is you know, it’s not human. It’s somewhat human like but, his skin is like Craig and blue and almost, oh gosh, I don’t know, reptilian kind of almost.  And he picks up the head and this is all set against this dimly lit, billboard. And he picks up the head and he’s, you know, just sniffing, taking big sniffs of the head. And eventually, it almost looks like he’s kissing it, like he’s making out with his head and one of them either Trish or Gary says, What is he doing? And the guy starts or the bad guy starts pulling the head away from him and he’s bit the tongue between his lip or between his teeth and is ripping the tongue out. So we know now we are in this kind of movie. You know, they’re up against they’re up against a monster.

Todd:  Yeah. Even this scene is a little funny because the billboard that it’s shot against appears to be like an advertisement for meat or like a butcher shop or something. I was like, wow. It’s like, that was an interesting touch. Yeah. So that happens, and and now they’re we know they’re in real danger. We know this is clearly some superhuman figure, and, he can pretty much do what he wants. And he doesn’t need the truck, to advertise his presence, and yet we don’t know how he got there.  We’re really not clear of his abilities, but we know that he likes to eat

Craig:  these things. They take off down the road just a little ways, and eventually, they stop right in the middle of the road in front of this house. And and Trish says, you know, there’s gotta be a phone in there. So they go up to this house and there’s all these cats there. So again, it comes back to this connection. So whoever that was on the phone knew that they were gonna encounter this place with all these cats. And there’s this crazy cat lady. It’s a great cameo by Eileen Brennan, who you would recognize from a million things, but I always remember her as missus Peacock from Clue.  Mhmm. And, you know, they’re they’re trying to get her to let them use the phone, and, you know, she’s crazy old cat lady and whatever. And then the creeper, the bad guy arrives there and, at first, he kinda standing in front of the, scarecrow, so he looks like the scarecrow, and they make a lot more use of that imagery in the sequel too. But he kills the cat lady.

Todd:  The brother and sister get in the car. They try to drive away. Of course, they’re still having trouble with the car, and as they get on the road, he lands in front of them. And so she decides that she’s going to try to run him over, and we know how great she is at shifting.

Craig:  Right.

Todd:  But anyway, as she drives towards him, he does that where he just leaps on top of the car and kind of runs over it like a stuntman, and, and it happens a second time. But the 3rd time she tries to run over him, I think she does it kinda fast or he’s a they’re a little closer. For some reason, she ends up breaking him down.

Craig:  I think she’s being sneaky like, the first two times she had kind of, you know, given him not given him warning intentionally but you know, there was some, you know, she was racing towards him. He had the time to prep for it. On this last time that you’re talking about, I think that she kind of fakes messing with the clutch or having problems with the clutch until he gets pretty close and then she throws it into gear and goes really fast. So she gets him down on the ground.

Todd:  She gets him down on the ground, and it’s kinda funny, actually, that she runs over him and clearly runs over him. There are raises and you could see him, on the ground being run over, And then she backs up and does it again, and then she goes forward and does it again. And each time you’re seeing things break apart on this guy, and you’re thinking, wow. I mean, it doesn’t seem like they should have killed him, but this guy’s gotta be dead.

Clip:  You you think he’s dead?  They never are.

Craig:  It just keeps going back, and you see him getting, you know, ground into the road. And eventually when they kind of stop, they’re looking and we can see, like, one of his legs has been severed off, like, I mean, he’s clearly in bad, bad shape. But then here was another really cool thing, you know, as he’s they’re sitting there looking at him and he’s seemingly dead but then he just kinda starts to twitch a little bit and then out of nowhere pops up from his back this enormous wing. And it looks like, a batwing. And, you know, I just even though I knew, okay, we’re dealing with some kind of monster or whatever. It’s just, you know, a little surprise that I didn’t see coming. And it looked really cool when it happened. I’m like, Oh man, this thing, what else can this thing do? You know, what is this guy? And it was just a really cool image.  So after that happens, she runs over him yet again, and they take off, down the road.

Todd:  Yeah. And the wing comes out, and it twitches a little bit. It’s almost like it’s trying to fly away, and then it bends down and falls. It’s like a dying insect, which almost further it’s almost like, okay. This guy really is dead. At least leans lends credibility to that, that theory anyway when you’re watching the movie. You do get lulled into this sense that, okay. Well, maybe he’s dead, but but maybe there are more of them or something else.

Craig:  I’m not

Todd:  sure what to make of it at that point, but there was a part of me that thought maybe that threat had been neutralized.

Craig:  Right. Yeah. You wonder. And then again, you know, they get to the police station. They get to a police station, you know, they call their parents and and, you know, Trisha’s, like, don’t worry about us. You don’t have to come here. You know, by the time you got here, we could already be home. And so except for the fact that we’re really only about an hour into the movie, you’re thinking, well, it’s over.  But then while they’re there in the police station, this, lady shows up, you know, kind of a, middle aged, black lady shows up, and it turns out that this is the woman who called them on the phone And the cop in the cop station says, Oh yeah. This lady, you know, she thinks she’s our resident psychic, you know, don’t pay her any attention or whatever. And she says to them, to, Darrie and Trish, she says, I don’t care if you believe I’m a psychic. I don’t I don’t care what you believe, but I want to tell you this. And she basically just says that she has dreams and sometimes her dreams reveal things to her. And she says she’s seen his house of pain, you know, that place with all the bodies. She’s seen it in her dreams. And then she kind of gives us really the only information about the backstory of this thing that we get.  She says every 23rd spring for 23 days, it gets to eat. And she says, it eats lungs so it can breathe and it eats eyes so it can see. And she says, you all may have heard it and you may have heard it as badly as it can be hurt, but it it’s not dead and all it has to do is eat to regenerate itself. And as she’s telling this story, we cut to outside and we see the truck pull up to the police station and the feet, you know, come down, on the outside of the car and and we see the creeper, hobbling his way into the police station. And then we cut back into the police station and all the lights go out. The power goes out, the phones are out. And you know at this point that we’re probably gearing up for what’s gonna be the the finale.

Todd:  And that’s, again, what’s so weird about this is, again, where this movie really subverts your expectations. I was not expecting the movie to end up with this kind of a finale where undoubtedly, now everybody realizes that there’s something terrible, and it’s almost like rallying the troops in order to defeat it, kind of like an alien invasion movie. You know? Yeah. It’s it’s it’s not at all like your, again, your typical horror films like this where they they first don’t believe them, and then things happen, but they happen off camera. They happen before the cops can get there, and so people still don’t believe them. No. They know the place is under attack because this thing enters in the basement, and, the one cop goes downstairs, while the lights are out to get all the the prisoners, I guess. I mean, for such a small little town

Craig:  He’s doing a roll call.

Todd:  Yeah. He’s doing a roll call. And for such a tiny little town, with the diner sure is full and, the their little prison in their county jail or or, like, in their police office is so packed with people. Right.

Craig:  Right. And, he’s funny too.

Todd:  It was hilarious, but what was really crazy was, like, he’s panning across the prisoners, and he’s like, you’re here. Yep. You’re here, there, you wake up, blah blah blah. He comes to this last set of prisoners, and they’re just like against the wall terrified, and they’re looking over at him, and they they motion in front of them. He pans over, and there the bars of the prison of the cell have been totally bent in and opened up. And there is the back of this creature. There are no clothes on it anymore, and you could see its wings kind of folded up in there, and it’s all scaly and gross, and it’s clearly eating one of the other prisoners. Mhmm.  And immediately, you know, he calls over the Craig, something bad’s going on down here. It’s coming up. And so the police upstairs, gather together and start slowly approaching the stairway to the downstairs. In the meantime, the psychic lady is trying to get Justin and his sister or Justin, Darren and Derry and his sister out of there. She’s like, we shouldn’t be sticking around, and I know I know the way out. And so she kind of Right. Went in a different direction to try to, to get them out of the police station.

Craig:  The psychic lady, she says to them, you know, we’ve gotta get you out of here because I’ve seen this. He finds you here. So we’ve gotta get you out of here. And so she takes them. I don’t know where she’s taking them out. She’s trying to find a backdoor or whatever. Meanwhile, the cops are dealing with the creeper. You know, we’re hearing a conversation over walkie talkies.  There’s a group of police downstairs and they’re saying, this guy, you know, nothing hurts him. He’s got, he must have some weird body armor or something. And and he says, we lost him. We lost him. He’s he’s crawling on the walls and he’s headed up your way. And so the, the cops who are upstairs are waiting looking around, and finally it, you know, it does appear. It kills one of the cops, and, then, we get back to dairy and Trish and the psychic who have gotten to the backdoor only to find that because the electricity has gone out, all the automatic locks have locked. So they’re stuck there.  And and they’re, you know, just kind of, you know, they don’t know what to do. They’re they’re bantering back and forth. You know, Trish is blaming the psychic, and she says, I don’t know everything. You know, I I just try to get you out of here. And then we see, the creeper pop his head up around the from around the corner in the hallway, and he scurries. And like you said, he’s not wearing any clothes anymore so he’s just full out creature and he scurries along the wall. Darrie and Trish take off running and the psychic kinda drops to her knees and starts to Craig. And when she opens her eyes and looks up, it looks like it is gone by her, but then it pops up behind her and grabs her by the hair and kind of pulls her hair back and it gives her a great big sniff and then it just takes off and leaves her alone and goes off looking for Gary and Trish.  And they have made their way into like an interrogation room or something. They don’t know what to do. Trish is standing, you know, she’s looking in this big mirror which then we get to see from the other side. It’s actually a two way mirror and there’s kind of a cool scene where she’s on the side of it that you can’t see through and the creepers on the side of it that you can and he’s kind of sniffing her through the mirror and she doesn’t realize that she’s mere centimeters away, from this monster. But then, it breaks through the window and it grabs the both of them and it’s sniffing them both and you don’t know what’s gonna happen because the psychic told them that it just wants one of them. There’s one of them that it wants and they don’t know which one it is. So so I remember the first time seeing it not knowing, you know, is it is it gonna take them both? Is it gonna be indiscriminate? Does it really want one of them? If so, which one and why and And why. Right.  Right.

Todd:  That’s the big question because you’re you’re all you’re always looking for a motive. Right? Okay. Yeah. It it wants people, and it it eats to regenerate, but why is it has it honed in on these 2? Is it just because they’ve disturbed him? Maybe that’s the case, but then when the psychic talks about, you know, everything that the psychic says, things seem a little intentional, that he selected one of them somehow. It’s like, what does he want? What does he want from them? There is that implication that maybe it’s actually the girl, and even though we think he’s mad at the guy for going down in the lair, that maybe it’s actually the girl he wants. Then you’re thinking, Well, is there something historic? Are we gonna get some crazy twist? I know my mind was going in about 15 different directions while this was happening, and I was hoping for a big reveal. And, the cops are standing there as well, holding guns out at them, ready to shoot. There’s no question that this is his demon.  Just to make it absolutely apparent, there’s a point where they shine a light on him and the demon, like, recoils back and as though threatened kind of like the, dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

Craig:  Yeah. The

Todd:  ones that spit, acid. Like these parts, these I don’t even know what to call them. Just like a flare thing from his face opens up. Yeah. It actually reminded me of predator. You know, I was thinking predator.

Craig:  Yes. Yes. And A lot like that. Yeah.

Todd:  And he kinda hisses like he’s a creature that’s being,

Craig:  Oh, no. I was because I know it is, but it’s it’s exactly what you said. It’s almost like, you know, defensive, you know, rearing up to show his scariest visage, because he literally is cornered. But at by this point, he has sniffed them both. He’s licked Trish’s face. I mean, it’s all very tense and and creepy, but he throws Trish to the side. And so he’s holding on to dairy and it’s just a standoff, you know. He’s standing there in the window.  The police, it looks like a SWAT team are standing all around with their guns drawn, and, Trish starts talking to this thing.

Clip:  You don’t want him. Whatever you want, You can take it from me. You don’t want Terry? No. You don’t.

Craig:  Don’t you don’t you be a hero?

Clip:  I have everything the

Craig:  is listening and considering it. And again, it was just you know, I thought it was set up so well because I didn’t know what was gonna happen. I legitimately thought, maybe he’s gonna do it. Maybe he’ll do the trade off.

Todd:  Yeah. But Again, this would be one of those moments where he’s tricked into doing a trade off, and during the trade off, you know, they’re able to get him somehow. And Right. But, no, he he just almost smiles for a second and turns around and dives out the window and flies away with dairy, in his arms.

Clip:  Mhmm.

Todd:  Again, totally.

Craig:  And it it’s a really cool image. Trish runs downstairs really fast, apparently, and runs out the front door and is kind of chasing after and it’s just really kind of a cool image. You know, it’s a full moon and you just kind of see the silhouette of this giant bat like creature, with with the silhouette of dairy dangling below and it, you know, Trish is chasing and yelling dairy’s name and then it’s just gone. You know, it it it flies off and it’s it’s gone. And then we cut to what is the next morning, you know, Trish is still there at the police station alone. Well, I mean, the cops are there. And the, psychic lady comes in and says, Your parents just got here. And Trish says, Gary had asked at one point, Do your dreams always come true? And so Trish says, You never answer them.  You know, Do your dreams always come true? And the psychic lady just says, I’m just a crazy

Clip:  Craig lady, you know, ask anybody around here. They’ll tell you, I’m

Craig:  just a crazy old lady. Don’t listen anything I say. And Trish walks outside and kinda looks up and sees a crow flying around. There had been lots of crows, at that old church, where he had had all his bodies. And, I didn’t really know what to expect. And then, we just cut to this, what seems to be like an old abandoned factory or plant or something?

Clip:  Yeah.

Todd:  It looks to me like an oil refinery. Camera pans through slowly, and we’re obviously going down into this creature’s new lair and, we pan slowly into this room and we do see the creature in there and he’s working and slowly coming in to audible focus in the background is that song Jeepers Creepers that we’ve been waiting for Yep. Where we know this guy’s in trouble and it pans around and it pans up this body that’s kind of propped up, and we realize it’s Justin. I’m sorry, Todd. And, as it pans slowly up and to his face, his eyes are completely gone. And it’s not just like his eyes have been gouged out, but it’s like his the whole back side of his head has been removed. So it’s just his face with his open eyes there shining through, and at that moment, the monster kind of comes up behind there, and his eyes are in the eye holes, and you can see that now he has dairy’s eyes. And that’s And it’s creepy.

Craig:  I mean, and that’s and it just cuts to black. And, it I I love that last image. I mean, it’s grotesque. It’s it’s gory, but when, you know, the the creature pops up and, you know, it’s it’s just this blue human looking eye, you definitely get the implication that it’s it’s Derry’s eyes. In fact, the actor who plays, the the creeper, his name is Jonathan Breck. That wasn’t even really him. They put, they put, Justin Long in the creeper makeup just for that last scene, so that it would really be his eye that, that looks through. And then that’s it.  I mean if you want to stick around through all the credits at the very end after the credits you see the, the creepers van drive across the screen and honk Craig, I guess, implying that he’s still, running around. But, that’s pretty much it. Yeah. So what’d you think?

Todd:  I liked it. I really did, and I just liked it that it just subverted my expectations every step of the way, and it was wholly original. I mean, I really just have not seen a horror movie like this, that’s just so bold and and also a little weird. I mean, arguably, the idea of introducing the psychic to kind of move the plot along and kind of give them information that they wouldn’t normally have is a little silly. That was maybe the only part of the film that kinda threw it for me a little bit, is that one thing that felt a little out of place and maybe a little hokey and maybe a little lazy. Sure. But but and but, of course, it adds the mystery, but there’s so many mysteries in this movie. There’s so many things that you just don’t ever know.  Like, what’s the significance of this song? Why is this guy playing this song while he’s except that, oh, you know, the movie’s called Jeepers Creepers. The line is Jeepers Creepers, where’d you get those eyes? And of course Right. Right. That tag at the end of him getting his eyes. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless this monster has a sick sense of humor and really knows classic American songs really well or something. And Right. I I I almost wanted to do the math and go back another 23 years from there. And maybe 23 years prior to 1978, that was a popular song.  So maybe the last time he was out there moving around, he’d heard it. And Right. You know it but again, there that goes unexplained. Where he’s from and what his nature is is totally unexplained. Is he like a demon from hell? Is he an alien? Is he just something natural that’s that’s, you know, kind of long gone? That’s never really explained. It doesn’t really need to be, but it does leave it ripe for a sequel. And, I guess Todd did get a sequel. Have you seen the sequel?

Craig:  It did. I have. And there are actually people, quite a few people really who think that the sequel is actually a better movie. I don’t know if I would go that far, but as far as sequels are concerned, especially with horror sequels, you know, you never know what you’re gonna get. But this sequel, is actually pretty good. It picks up the very next day. When Victor Salva did this movie, he didn’t plan to do a sequel. But the first one was successful enough that the studio wanted a sequel and he said, fine.  I’ll do a sequel, but the only way that I’ll do it is if it’s set during the same time period. It’s the next day right after the events of the first one have happened, and it’s the 23rd day of this spree. What he was thinking was, if if I do that, okay, we can have that one more movie, but unless then they want to, you know, project 23 years into the future, there wouldn’t be any logical way to do, another direct sequel. But I think the second one is actually pretty good. You do get a little bit more backstory, on the creature. Not a lot, but a little bit more. And, it seems like because they don’t have to shroud the the creature in mystery, which it works so well in the in the first movie, but it wouldn’t work in the second movie because we already know what it is. So there I I think that the the actor, who plays the creeper gets to have a little bit more fun, in the second one, you know, there’s more close-up shots of him.  You kinda do seem to get the sense that he does have kind of a sadistic sense of humor. And, it introduces some new characters. The only returning character, in the sequel, that I remember is the creeper himself. But they are act and and like I said, I liked it. I remember I when it came out, I liked it enough that I bought it. I’ve got it somewhere. But there’s been a lot of demand. Oh, the one thing that I didn’t like about the sequel is that the truck isn’t in it at all.  And I think that the truck is so menacing, and other, other fans have said the same thing. So now it’s been gestating forever, but supposedly, Jeepers Creepers 3 is in preproduction. And it’s it’s been, you know, like 16, 17 years since the, first one. So they in fact are gonna have it be or at least this is the plan as it stands now or at least last that I’ve heard. It’s going to be 23 years later and we’re going to return to the character of Trish who is going to be played by the same actress and she’s gonna be a successful adult now with a teenage son of her own, but she keeps having these nightmares, that her son will meet the same fate that her brother did. And so she hooks up with one of the characters from the sequel to try to hunt down the creeper and and stop it, once and for all. And I hope the movie gets made, it’s tentatively titled, Jeepers Creepers 3. It’s been like I said, it’s been for a few years.  It’s been announced. You know, it’s got it’s it’s got an IMDB page. It says it’s in preproduction. It it it, you know, there’s there’s some backlash, in the horror community and just in general still against Victor Salva because of his, seedy past. You know, there are people out there who, because of his conviction, you know, on on child molestation charges. There are some people who feel very firmly that, he shouldn’t be supported, in any way. I have really mixed feelings about it. You know, the guy was caught.  He did his time. That doesn’t excuse anything. And I I don’t think anyone should ever forget that. But, you know, he paid his dues. He is a talented guy. So if if he can get the studio to back him, I hope that, we get a third entry in this franchise. I think you’d like the sequel. You should check it out.

Todd:  Yeah. I think I will actually. I’m very interested to see where he takes us on the next day. It it’s and it and you know what? It has a great ending. I love it when horror films, it’s not positive.

Craig:  You know? Right. It’s dreary.

Todd:  It’s dreary, and, that that sometimes works, and sometimes it seems like a cop out. In this case, it seemed like it was the only way that this movie could have ended because this monster is so menacing, which makes it a pretty iconic figure. And if he does get a third one made, you know, it could be one of those characters that kinda cemented into the Halloween, Right. Ouvoir, you know, with Freddie and and Right. Jason and all that. Although it’s a little harder to dress up as the creeper, I’d have to say. Sure. No.  I liked it. Thank you. Thank you very much for introducing this to me. It was a good movie.

Craig:  No problem. I’m glad you liked it.

Todd:  I do recommend it, especially if you’re looking for something a little different. Alright. Well, thank you again for another episode of 2 guys and a chainsaw. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share it with a friend. You can like us on Facebook, we have a page there. We’re available on Stitcher and in iTunes. Please share this with a friend, and please drop us a comment in one of these places to let us know what you think and if there are any movies coming up that you’d like us to Todd review. Until then, I’m Todd

Craig:  And I’m Craig.

Todd:  With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.