Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017)

Episode 139, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Craig: Hello, and welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Craig.

Todd: And I’m Todd.

Craig: And we are wrapping up our month of requests this week and we went back through some of our Facebook messages. A loyal listener of ours, Megan had asked us several times about our opinions of the movie Jeepers Creepers 3. And since we have reviewed both Jeepers Creepers 12, we thought, you know, let’s go for it. Let’s Mhmm. Let’s give it give it a shot. And so we did. Gosh, Todd, I didn’t even write this down. What what year did Jeepers Creepers 3 come out?

Todd: Oh, just last year. It was just last year in, September, I think.

Craig: Yeah. That’s right. You know, it kinda seems I guess, it maybe kinda seems like it’s been out longer than that because it was released. They did have a very limited theatrical release. I think that they released it in 1 theater. It came out, on video on demand, and it came out on, Netflix and I think some of the other streaming services, and it was released all at the same time, which generally, in my opinion, is not a very good sign.

Todd: You do kinda wonder. Right? Like, you don’t what Todd they not want people to see this too much in advance before they Todd making their money back on it? You know?

Craig: Are they are they anticipating a poor return? Right? Who knows? It’s obviously, the second sequel to the original Jeepers Creepers. All three movies were written and directed by Victor Salva. And, we’ve done this. We okay. So we’ve done both other Jeepers Creepers movies, and we did, another Salva movie, Clown House, very very early when we first started doing this. And anytime that we’ve tackled, a Victor Salva movie, we have made a point of saying that, you know, Victor Silva has a sordid history. He was convicted, of sexual misconduct against a child. Obviously, we certainly do not condone that kind of behavior. We find that to be abhorrent. However, you know, we you know talked about it and we came to the decision that we could still look at his art and try to objectively talk about, his work, kind of separate from his personal life. So just put throwing that out there again because I know that there are some people who are very passionate about, you know, not being supportive of of somebody with that sort of history, and if that’s the case and you don’t wanna listen to this episode, turn it off, and I applaud you for your convictions. But we are gonna go ahead and talk about the movie and be sad that something ugly happened a really long time ago.

Todd: Yep.

Craig: But anyway, so Jeepers Creepers 3. I really liked Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2 a lot, both of them. I thought that Jeepers Creepers 1, as far as monster movies are concerned, was pretty unique. One of the things that I liked most about it was that there was a lot of mystery, surrounding the antagonist. And for the first half of the movie, you real if you didn’t know anything going into it, you really just would have thought that this was just some really bad guy.

Todd: Yeah.

Craig: And it was only revealed about halfway or maybe even a little bit further through the movie that it was in fact this monster with these supernatural powers, and it he was quite scary in that movie. Obviously, going into the second movie, we already knew that and so they didn’t waste any time, you know, trying to be mysterious about, you know, who the antagonist was, and we just had another monster flick. But, it changed things up, with a different type of ensemble cast. It was this big group of high school kids as opposed to in the first movie when it was just these 2 young people who were being stalked. Now we’ve got this whole big group of kids in peril. And so I was really excited, really excited when I heard that Jeepers Creepers 3 was gonna come out. And I had initially heard that, it was going to return to the story of Trish and Derry, the, 2 main folks from the the first movie. So I was really looking forward to that, and as it turns out, it’s not. Not really anyway. I mean there there are certainly tie ins, but not really. This movie went in a different direction and, kind of, at least not in the direction that I had expected. And I I have to admit that I was super stoked about it and I watched it immediately when it first came out. And the first time I saw it, I was so disappointed. I was just so disappointed, and and I feel like I’m gonna have to kinda, in talking to you, kinda figure out why, I was so disappointed by it. Because subsequently, I’ve watched it 2 more times. You know, one day it just happened to be on sci fi, on cable, and I sat and watched it and then of course I watched it again for this And with each new viewing, I’ve disliked it less.

Todd: Well, he’s really turning you around here.

Craig: Well, no. I mean, really frankly watching it again yesterday for this podcast, I was kind of like man you were pretty harsh about this the first time you watched this. It’s maybe not as bad as as I made it out to be. Now I still don’t think that it’s on par with the first two, but, I’ll be interested to see what you think.

Todd: Well, you know, I think this is always a problem when you do sequels is the expectations, you know, trying to match expectations, especially when you have a really good solid film and especially if that film is really unique. And we one thing that we said about Jeepers Creepers was we thought it was really unique. It was quite original, despite the fact that at the end of the day, it’s a monster movie. You know, they just it takes you some it’s some interesting twists and turns. It really subverts your expectations in many many cases. And it has a sense of humor, and a great cast, you know, it was great. And so, then, going into the second one, what are they gonna do? You know, we said this about sequels before, like, are you going to just rehash what you did the first time to give fans what you think they want? Are you going to expand upon what you did the first time? Or are you gonna take it in a whole different direction and run the risk of alienating the people that liked whatever they liked about the first movie that you’re not including in the sequel? And in this case, I think we both came to the conclusion that that second one was really quite smart in the direction that it went. And it still had the feel of a very original movie, even though it was, you know, a sequel to this movie. And so I think with the third one, that’s probably what you were facing, I think, is this history of 2 really original quality, interesting, fun movies. How is that third one gonna measure up? And could it ever, you know? Right. What direction can they take it in? And I would say, I think this third film follows in that tradition, I guess, that Salve has of trying to do do something unique and original with each iteration of this movie. And sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. And with this movie and that’s why I feel it’s it’s it’s a bit uneven. In some ways, I felt like maybe he was trying a little too hard, to be original by trying to cram a lot of different stuff in here. And I think the thing that makes this movie a little more difficult for me, and it’s one of the biggest changes from the first two films, is its plot line. In the first two movies, is is a pretty singular plot line going through.

Craig: Yeah.

Todd: The second movie, there’s there’s a slight parallel plot, you know, with a farmer and and, his son and all that kind of on their own little but but but that’s that’s almost a sideline thing that just comes in at the end. Whereas, this movie has, like, 4 or 5 different sets of characters in different locations who all have their things going on. And we spent a lot of the movie bouncing back and forth between them and trying to resolve them. And what that did for me for this film is it took away the whole feel of the first movies, which were these just these intense creature flicks. People find themselves in this perilous situation. They’re increasingly isolated and they have to, you know, defend themselves or try to fight back against this creature. In this movie, I just felt like all of these little plot lines, the back and forth really bogged down the the pacing to where you didn’t really even see the creeper that much, you know. I mean, don’t get me wrong. When he comes in, he comes in, he comes in strong. But it’s like he just kinda he can pop in here, he kinda pops in there, he pops and takes these people out, he pops and takes these people out. It’s just such a spread out haphazard affair that you just don’t get that intensity.

Craig: Right.

Todd: The scenes within themselves can be somewhat intense, but you’re not getting that build of these these these people that we spend a lot of time with in in kind of a confined situation, that we get to know them really well so that when they’re put in peril, you know, we really get a a stronger emotional attachment. I didn’t feel like I felt like there are just so many characters in this movie that, and they were all kinda doing their own thing that I never got terribly emotionally attached to any of them to the point where there was real suspense, in these the moments when they are are facing the creature.

Craig: Yep. Yep. There you go. That’s one of the things that I didn’t like. I’m just gonna I’m gonna that Todd. You’re gonna help me tick them tick them off. You know, I don’t need to repeat what you said, but yeah, you just don’t feel any real connection to any of them and I guess that in the first two movies, even though there was a much larger cast of characters in the second movie, you know, they were all confined in this small space and they were all very much kind of in it together. Mhmm. Whereas this, everything is kinda spread out like you said. And again, you know, something different. I guess I have to give credit where credit is due. I I probably would have complained just as much if not more if it had just been a repeat of the first two. Yeah. That’s one that’s one of the things that I I and I I told my partner I was talking to him about this and I said I think that part of the reason that I didn’t like it is just that it just felt so different in some ways from the first two movies and one of the major things and again this just isn’t in inherently bad, but the first movies literally were very dark. Now in the second movie some some of the things with the main characters happened during the day, but most of the action and the scary stuff happened at night. And I would say that 90% of this movie happens in bold bright daylight. Yeah. And that’s fine, but it just it was almost unsettling to me to see this dark mysterious creature in broad daylight to the point that it almost just kinda felt like he could have just been, like, a truck driver. You know? Like like, he he he’s wearing, like, this red T shirt and, like, he just looks kinda like buff and I don’t know. It was weird. It just felt so weird and different to me. I kind of the I mean, the monster himself in appearance is kind of bat like and I just you know, I would anticipate that he would do most of his stalking in the night time, and in this movie it’s almost entirely just broad daylight the whole time. And I I Yeah. It’s again, it’s not inherently bad. It’s just so different that it just felt like a kind of a different entity than the first couple.

Todd: Well, and, you know, it’s you but, yeah, I completely agree. And the the fact of the matter is that this the the the premise of this of these films, in case you haven’t seen the first two, is there’s this creature and he comes back every 23 years

Craig: Yeah.

Todd: And he has to basically kill a bunch of people in order Yeah. To continue to live. And it’s really still kinda mysterious why and kinda where he comes from and all that stuff. And it’s still not resolved by the end of this movie that we kinda feel like in an intended sequel to this one, we might be starting to get some answers. At least Yeah. Some people already know, which is another weird thing I think we’ll get to also. Right. So that’s that’s the the idea. And so, with those rules, and because he’s practically invincible, he can run around in the daylight and kill people. And then, I guess, the idea is that people sort of forget about it after 23 years.

Craig: And Yeah. I guess.

Todd: But that just kind of when it happens at night, and it’s more mysterious that way, and people, you know, are getting murdered and things like that, At the end of the day, when everything’s wrapped up and you’ve got all these sort of this sort of incident that happened where these people died and you Todd really knew why and that’s kinda how it goes in the history books, you know. Mhmm. It’s a little easier to swallow than here is a period of time in this one community where people are dying everywhere in all these gruesome and crazy ways, and we’re getting whisked away. And then at the end of it, you know, because it kinda the story kinda wraps around. This takes place just before the sequel. Mhmm. At the end of it, we know there’s gonna be a big busload of kids that are killed.

Craig: Right. Right.

Todd: It really makes it extremely hard to believe that the the next the 23 years later, people are going to not be prepared for this. They’re not gonna have done all their research and kinda know everything and anything, and this guy isn’t gonna be in real trouble. And how would this monster have survived this long if this was his approach for all of the decades previous, you know, that he’s been doing throughout human history? So it stretches credibility when it goes into this territory as well. It’s not just less mysterious when you see this stuff happening in the daylight, broad daylight in the middle of a field and it is almost like they’re just doing battle against, like, a guy, like you said. But, yeah, it starts to really stretch that credibility and I found that kind of, nagging at me through the whole movie as well.

Craig: Yeah. And you you bring up something interesting as far as timeline is concerned like in in the series of films, this movie actually transpires in between the first two. And the first two happened within 2 days of each other. So all 3 movies happen within the time frame of, like, 2 days. And I’m just gonna go ahead and say it now because it really bothers me. It’s gonna spoil some things for the end, but whatever folks. You don’t care. You’ve seen the movie. We find out in the very beginning, and it starts out dark. It’s cool, like, oh, there’s crows and they’re kind of the harbinger of the creeper or whatever. And, the creeper, you know, chases some kid down the road and and he can fly so he not the kid, the creeper. He can fly so he, like, you know, swoops this kid away, and then we see a big machete fall out of the sky and and a hand fall out of the sky. And then it says 23 years later, and we go to a scene where the cops are checking out the creepers’ truck and it becomes apparent because they say it in the dialogue that, this is happening immediately police station, and Derry, the main character, gets taken away by the creeper and we see in the very last scene of that movie that he’s killed. And then he shows up as a spirit in the second movie. So, you know, we’re we’re we know the time frame and then there are little hints throughout the movie. Like, we see, banners. Like, there’s a hay store, where we go a couple of times, and where one of the main characters works, his dad owns it and there’s a banner for the something county bantams, which is the team from the second movie. So there are these little hints and little connections, but one of the another problem that I had with it is that we follow this one kid buddy, you know, he’s not really a central character, but he’s in it a lot, and we see him a lot and he deals with the creeper left and right, like, you know, firsthand experience. The girl that he has a crush on gets targeted by the creeper and gets taken by him at some point, but again, spoiler alert, he lives and at the very end of the movie, we see him get on the bus that then is going to be the bus that is besieged by the the creeper later in that day, which you know is kind of cool in that it ties the movies together and it’s kind of a wink and a nod to the audience, like, oh, well, yeah. Here, you know, we’re setting up for the, you know, the next event or whatever, but it doesn’t make any sense No. Because because in the second movie, these kids on the bus get attacked by this thing and none of them have any idea what it is. Well, was that kid just asleep like because he had just spent the whole previous night dealing with this thing. Oh, gosh.

Todd: Yeah.

Craig: I guess it I guess it’s picking nits, but that really bothered me. This is a pretty big

Todd: nits though, you know. I mean, it’s a pretty big, I I don’t I don’t get it. Maybe somebody’s explained it somewhere online to make it sense. Maybe he maybe he they let him off the bus early in between. I don’t know.

Craig: I guess. Maybe he got sick and had to go home. Yeah. That that could be it.

Todd: That’s the only way you could really explain that away.

Craig: Okay.

Todd: We we we get introduced, to this, cop. His name is Danny. Now, please help me out here. I I don’t remember him from the other movies, but is he a recurring character?

Craig: He’s not a recurring character from the other movies, but, he was in Monster Squad. There you go. Stan Shaw. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Todd: It does actually introduce a number of these characters who are presumably previous victims, like, they’ve survived encounters with the creature. And so this guy shows up, Danny, right on the scene, once they have this truck. And one of the neat things that I think they they always they always introduce something new, I think, in each of these sequels. And in this one, I thought it was interesting that they really ramped up the truck. Like before, the I, tell me if I’m wrong, I’m pretty sure that the truck was just a big ugly scary truck that he ran around and threw his bodies into. Yes. But in this movie, this truck is like a tank that his custom built, it’s kind of a mysterious death trap machine that has almost a mind of its own, in many ways, or maybe the creeper can somewhat control it from afar, or maybe it’s just it’s just it’s sentient and looks out for his best interests, or, you know, whatever is going on. As they’re investigating this truck, they’ve, you know, they open it up, they see these bodies in there, and one guy goes in to investigate and comes out, and he swings his arm back to point into it. And there are these metal gates. It’s like a Spikes. Spikes that shoot down and, you know, slam shut on the across the back of the truck, and, hurt his arm or cut it off. I can’t remember which. And then throughout the movie, we see that the tail one of the tailpipes, can shoot out a really long spear with a it’s like a win winches it back, you know, across, like, a supernatural distance. And then, I mean, I guess we’re going a little far ahead, but it drops, like, these these landmine things that can, like, fly around and and get cars. It’s it’s it’s all pretty nuts, and it sort of begs the question, why didn’t we see this before?

Craig: Exactly. Alright, buddy. Like, you are just nailing all these things on the head the things that really bothered me. This bothers me, like, because in the first movie, the truck was really scary, like, it was really menacing on the road and anytime it showed up you knew the creeper was coming, and it was super scary. Then in the second movie, it wasn’t in it at all. I guess he just had it, like, parked in a Walmart or something. And then in this movie and, yeah, in this movie, it’s the goddamn Batmobile. Like, what? Like, I That’s so true. And okay. Like, alright. Fine. Maybe I can even though it doesn’t make any from a physical it doesn’t make any sense. Like, where do these huge spikes come from, like, out of the air? Like, it doesn’t make any sense. And and then it the bombs, I I think that I could’ve dealt with the spikes. I think that I could’ve dealt with the big spear that’s, like, attached to the wire rope that can, like, you know, reel people in. I think I could’ve got on board with that, but then it starts dropping these, like, freaking guided missiles out of the bottom of it. And, like, like like like, they’re these balls that it drops out and they start rolling, but it’s not like they just drop out and, like, oh, well, we can avoid them and just, you know, go around or whatever. But, no. Like, they are, like, guided. Like They’re just Like, they’ll turn around and chase you. Yeah.

Todd: What? It’s this it’s this high technology for the creeper. And and it just it just sort of begs. So and I think it neuters him in a way too, you know, because it was just it was cool when he was this big scary demon who had these powers. But he has even though he seems fairly invincible, he does have some weaknesses, you know. We’re not actually certain what his ultimate weakness is, but we do know that he can have arms lopped off. He can be incapacitated, things like that. But now that he has a truck that he’s kitted out with all these fancy features in some way, like, I’m just trying to picture him, like, in the garage, tinkering with this stuff in his spare time. Like, you know, what is is this what he does, you know, in the 23 years between, this kind of soups up his car? You know, like, I it’s it’s just kind of like it’s it’s not so supernatural anymore, and it’s it loses that simplicity. And once again, you’re like, okay. And and I guess this is the other thing that I didn’t like about this about this movie or a flaw that I saw. And I really hate to do all this nitpicking because I really do appreciate him trying to go in a new direction.

Craig: I I get it. Yeah.

Todd: More than ever before, this this thing just seemed so invincible. Right? Uh-huh. That after a while, I just stopped caring about the little battles that he’d get in with all these people. I just figured everyone’s gonna die because if it wasn’t him, it was the truck. Either way, it just he just he just felt too invincible in this movie. Yeah.

Craig: There were

Todd: times in the in the first two movies where, you know, he he was in peril and it was kind of they they Yes. Made except for one moment in this film where they really, I thought, went back to, there’s a scene in this movie where I felt like they really revisited sort of almost the comedic elements of of him trying to overcome his weaknesses when he gets incapacitated, Todd, loses a wing or something like that. You know, it gets kinda silly. In this movie, except for one scene like that, I was just like, okay. Yeah. He’s, they’re gonna run, but the the spike’s gonna shoot out of the car and get them. And sure enough, it Todd. And, oh, yeah. You know, he’s they’re they’re gonna shoot at this truck, but we’ve all seen the bullets just bounce off of it. So it’s all gonna ricochet back at them, and it just got so predictable. Right. And I didn’t care about any of the characters too much. So I was like, alright, this is gonna be kind of a high body count movie. This thing’s gonna be pretty invincible, and I’m just interested to see where it eventually goes with his severed hand and this whole side plot thing that they get.

Craig: Right. And we’ll get there. My my gosh, you know, god, we’re just rambling on and on. We’ll get to the plot and we’ll go through it real quick. But, yeah, like, in the first movie, Trish could run over him with his her car and that would really incapacitate him. Like, he he had trouble getting up. He couldn’t fly. In this movie, he can get shot with a military grade, like, tank machine gun at point blank Craig, and he’s fine. Like, what?

Todd: He just stands up. And or he gets creamed about supposedly creamed by a semi. He’s in the middle of the road and the semi comes barreling down. And Trisha’s car was not a semi.

Craig: Right. It’s just

Todd: a normal car, but when when he gets hit by the semi instead of getting crushed beneath it, it just like he flies back like defying the laws of physics through the air with no damage. It’s

Craig: Okay. So we’ve got sheriff Dan who, you know, is like this kind of presented as this, like, trench coat wearing badass, and he’s got, like, this whole posse of people, like you said, that have lost family members or have had some sort of interaction with the creeper before. And so, you know, they’re kind of on their little mission. We really don’t even see them all that much. We see Dan quite a bit.

Todd: That’s the other I hate to interrupt you again, but, I mean, seriously, like, I thought this was an element of the movie. Okay. We have this, like, special they even have their own patch. Right? Uh-huh. Little flaming skull thing on them. Like, oh, wow. This is interesting. There’s like a gang of people who, like, get themselves worked up over 23 years, try to figure out this guy’s weakness and go it. It’s a revenge vendetta kind of thing. No. They barely show up in the movie.

Craig: Yeah. Which is kinda disappointing. I mean, I I feel like if he had focused on that, that could have been its own interesting movie. You know, all these people coming back who had, you know, some kind of personal vendetta. That could have been cool. You know, maybe even Trish could have hooked up with those folks, you know, and they could have worked to fight the guy together or whatever, but they really just play 4th fiddle, you know, they’re hardly there at all. And then we’ve also got this old lady played by Meg Foster. Now I’ve seen Meg Foster in several things, and she’s always so recognizable to me because she has these ice blue eyes, like, these these pale pale eyes. I almost wonder if she’s vision impaired because her eyes are so so light, in pigment. And she we, you know, we have, reviewed They Live, and she’s the central female character in that movie. And she was big in the eighties, and and she’s just got this really cool look. In in this movie, they just have her looking like she has been Todd hard and hung out to dry. Like, she just looks awful. She’s so Sorry, Meg Foster. I love you. Yeah. I think that you’re fantastic, but, oh, man, time has not been good to you, or they did a really good job of making it look like that. Yeah. But anyway, so apparently, she’s got this dead son who comes back and visits her every once in a while and she goes out and talks to him and Time’s up. It’s coming back just like I said. Why? Stop asking. It doesn’t matter. You tell me why it’s coming here. Pieces of it left behind. They’re full of secrets about it. And it turns out that her dead son is, one, the guy we saw in the beginning of the movie who was driving a car and who saw the creeper take the kid away and who saw the hand fall out of the air. And so he has the hand. But if I’m not mistaken, he’s also the same kid from the legend from part 1 where they talk about these young people who were on their way to prom and, you know, were on this certain highway and then were never seen again. Mhmm. I think it’s supposed to be that same guy. She, Galen, Meg Foster’s character Galen, has a granddaughter named Addison, who I think is supposed to be the main character, but it’s so sparse that she’s really not any bigger than anybody else. Galen tells Addison, I need you to go away for few days because her dead son had said he’s coming back here. He’s gonna come back to get the peace, which we know is the hand. And so she tells her to to go away for a few days, but, she doesn’t. God. You know, it’s so funny in trying to in trying to talk about the plot, like, it’s so choppy, like, it’s difficult to even and because it cuts back and forth to all of these people so quickly, like, you’ll just get a quick scene with 1 person and they’ll to somebody

Todd: else. Yeah. Well, then we see Addison and we kinda meet her, and she has a friend who’s a she goes over. Oh, I was so confused, Craig. Maybe you’re gonna have to help me out with this, but she goes over to a friend’s house. She has a, an and and then they they have some conversation with a friend’s mother and all that, and they’re outside. And then her friend has a brother who’s a total jerk.

Craig: Kirk. Yeah. Kirk the jerk.

Todd: Yeah. Kirk the jerk.

Craig: Kirk the I’m so clever. God.

Todd: You are, man. Oh my god.

Craig: You’re so you’re so lucky to have me as your co host.

Todd: I think it’s just because you’re bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning,

Craig: you know. And I’m at

Todd: a disadvantage doing this right before bed at night, so it’s damn time.

Craig: I got you, boo. I got you.

Todd: That’s alright. Anyway, Kirk the jerk, likes to catch animals, and his sister accuses him then of of, like, torturing them and killing them. He catches them to kill them and all that. So we know that he’s, you know, not a very nice person. And then, we also get to meet Buddy, who’s the one you referred to earlier. There’s all this stuff. I don’t know, man. We don’t have to go through all of it, but it, basically, the way they’re all connected is the likes horses and she has a horse, but, of course, their family can’t afford food for the horse. They have a bad reputation around town or whatever. She’s getting all her horse food and stuff from Buddy. But Buddy turns her down because they haven’t paid their bills, but he feels bad about it. So he chases her back down the road and brings her hay after all. And, you know, he approaches his father. His father’s angry that, you know, he’s doing it. And so there’s all this, like, sort of like silly little drama here that kinda means nothing. But Mhmm. I think their boyfriend, girlfriend, or at least we’re trying to establish

Craig: They have a crush on each other. Yeah. And he’s cute. He’s this dorky kid with freckles all over his face. He’s cute guy. Anyway Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.

Todd: But and and I’m all about it. You know? And, you know, we wanna get to know these characters. We we wanna, you know, start to care about them and stuff, but all of this is just kind of a slog, really, I felt like. What was the movie we talked about the other day that felt like a lifetime drama for most?

Craig: Yeah. No. We Cujo.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We said that was kind of an interesting element of the movie and here it just feels like a bunch of filler.

Craig: It does and and it’s just like it’s just introducing all of these characters so that we’ll kind of know who they are when we get to the action sequences. And so you I mean yeah. I mean, we know who they are. Oh, okay. Addison likes horses. Oh, okay. Like, who cares? Like, it doesn’t make any difference. And Kirk’s a jerk. Oh, okay. Well, he’ll probably get killed. So but, yeah, it’s just setting it up for these, you know, action sequences, and the action sequences are are kind of fun. You know, the first one, like, Kirk and his, like, biker gang find the truck, and it’s, you know, kind of a long scene where they’re, like, looking at the truck and pounding on it, and one of them pees on it. You think somebody could be in there? Yeah. It’s warm. Of course, it’s warm, you dipshit. It’s been sitting out in the sun. Who’d dump it out here? Who wouldn’t? Finally, you know, they they discover that it’s booby trapped, so they and they see the bodies in the back. So, they go to take off on their bikes, but the truck shoots that ridiculously long spear on a wire rope, and it it gets Kirk through the leg. And eventually it reels him in and some of the a couple of the friends try to help him, but one of them just the one who peed on the truck just takes off, and it’s really all inconsequential. It’s just a setup for the creeper to show up and he does, like, the and the way that he shows up is he comes down and he lands right on top of his truck and he is literally framed by the sun behind him. So, I mean, again, it’s just broad daylight. Here he is in all his scary glory or whatever and the 2 that were trying to help Kirk run off and and the creeper grabs this great big long spear and throws it at them, and he he somehow nails them both through the back so they get speared to this tree. It just you really have to suspend your disbelief when it comes to this guy’s abilities.

Todd: Yeah. And also, I don’t know. I I always feel like inside and I think I had this problem a little bit with the first two movies, although it wasn’t that big of a deal. I always feel like the physics of everything is just a little off, like, his weapons and things and the things that it does to people are just a little Todd, like, it it reels this kid in, you know, and they’re trying to pull it out, but they can’t pull the spear out of his leg. I mean, it’s this long spear. It’s I guess it’s a little barbed.

Craig: I guess, yeah.

Todd: But then it proceeds to pull, reel him in toward the truck. So he’s pulled up against the truck and then the creeper shows up and all that. And then while the creeper is doing all this crap with his friends, he just kinda sits there.

Craig: Yeah. You

Todd: don’t see him struggling against the spear. You don’t see him, you know, trying to get away.

Craig: You know, he just he just kinda

Todd: sits there. And later on, we have a scene. Oh, okay. We gotta do this in order. Right? There’s all there’s all the horse drama, blah blah blah.

Craig: Well, the yeah. The the next thing we get really is, the old lady, Galen. We’ve. She is digging wildly on the hill for something and what she uncovers there will be significant. But, first, her granddaughter, Addie, goes to get away from her crazy grandmother, goes with Buddy to deliver hay because that’s what he does. You know, all of this is cutting back and forth between these different scenes, but eventually when Addie and Buddy get to this place, it’s like this big plantation, the first thing they see is that the horses are running away, which they find mysterious and then they stop and Buddy gets out and he starts calling for people and he looks around and he sees that all of these farm workers like, hiding under the trucks and the guys are, like, go get help, go get the sheriff, and they’re, you know, vaguely saying it’s it’s around, you know, it’s it took somebody and, of course, Buddy’s like, what are you talking about? But he and he gets back in the truck with Addison and then the creeper shows up and he throws a truck in the air and he he’s, like, throttling 1 guy until he sees the young people in the truck and then he drops that guy, and then he comes over to the truck. And it’s been established in the movies, the previous movies, that, like, he gets his scents, like, set on somebody. Like, he smells people out and, like, he is attracted to certain sense or whatever. And it becomes really obvious that he is, into Addie. And so, you know, he just stands there and menaces them for a little while, and then he takes her.

Todd: This this scene bothered me a little bit just because didn’t feel their acting was extremely convincing in the truck.

Craig: Yeah. They didn’t seem as scared as I would have been. Yeah.

Todd: No. They didn’t seem as scared and they were, again, they weren’t really doing anything. Like, he didn’t try to start the truck. He didn’t, you know, whatever. They just let this creeper go into one window and sniff around. And then when he takes her, he flips the whole truck on its side. Uh-huh. And then the next scene, or not not long after that, we see Buddy drive up in that truck. Right. How did he flip this truck back over? This kid is in a daze, you know, because his girlfriend’s been taken and so Right.

Craig: Like, he’s in shock. Like, he can’t talk, but

Todd: He can flip a truck, you know Yeah. Back back upright. So that’s that’s impressive.

Craig: And and we’re skipping around, you know, like, I I feel like they were really focused on the action which is fine. You know, you don’t want a boring movie. Like, there’s a scene where the after, the creeper has killed, Kirk’s two friends. He is, like, loading their bodies or whatever, but then he smells the pee on his bumper, and he’s really mad that somebody peed on his truck. So he chases the kid who ran away early on on his bike and, like, so, like, there’s kind of this cool bike scene, and the bike, like, does this huge jump and then this the creeper just swoops in and, like, gets the guy off the bike. Like, just as an action sequence, it looks really good. And that’s the thing, like, the movie’s got stuff going for it. It was too bright for me and not only was it too bright, but it felt like it was really I don’t know if this is the right word. Tell me if I’m wrong, but it just felt very saturated, like like, really, really bright

Todd: Yeah.

Craig: Throughout. And that kinda bothered me, but I didn’t even look to see what the budget on this movie was. But there was just something about it that made it feel Cheap. More cheap Yeah.

Todd: The other 2. Well, there were some effects that were really poor CGI. There were some of the explosion effects in particular of the cars and things like that that were bad. And you’re right, overall, it just kinda felt cheap. Victor Salva is really, really good at staging these action sequences. And he’s really he’s got a great, eye for putting some really iconic scenes and sequences together without doing too much, ripping off of, you know, other things. What you said there was really unique. I mean, that Todd the bike flying in the air and the creeper just sweeping him up, and some of it’s in slow motion and

Craig: Mhmm.

Todd: And and through all of the movies, I’ve all I felt like he had a real eye for this kind of thing, and this movie does have that going forward at least. The action sequences are pretty good. They’re iconic really in a way many of them are. And so, it’s that that part is kinda nice, even if the acting isn’t always the greatest, even if, like you said, some of the effects, I think, made it feel cheap. Maybe the fact that was all filmed during the day made it feel cheap, you know. Me. Like a sitcom, you know, everything’s brightly lit. There’s an opportunity to use light and shadow and, you know, do kind of these cool things that you normally see in a in a, you know, high budget horror film.

Craig: Well, and to me, like, even a couple of the scenes that took place at night felt to me and I don’t know if this is true or not, but it felt to me like it was not particularly well executed day for night shots. And frankly, like okay. So I feel like the other important subplot is that Galen digs up the hand, like, I don’t know, she looks at it for a second and and it moves and that scares her, but it doesn’t stop her from touching it and it it grabs her, like, she starts having visions. And and this was kinda cool, like, her eyes go completely white. They’re almost completely white anyway, but they go completely white. Like, the hand, like, kind of pulls her up so that she’s suspended in the air and she’s kind of convulsing, you know, obviously having these visions. And eventually, Dan and his sidekick, Davis, come and and Todd talk to her because apparently she’s a member of Dan’s group because she’s dealt with the creeper or whatever. Be careful. You touch that thing. If you put your hand on it, you see you see how it came to be? And why did he? So Dan does. Like, they make this big production out of, you know, everybody kind of surrounds him and holds on to him so he won’t get I don’t know what they’re not I don’t know something.

Todd: It’s kinda weird.

Craig: Yeah. But he touches it and the same thing happens to him and he has these visions, and I desperately wanted to know what they were seeing.

Todd: Yeah.

Craig: But but we don’t get any indication at all. Don’t. They don’t they don’t say anything specific. The only thing that, Dan says later on is that, it’s ancient. Like, it’s really old. Like, oh, okay. Well, thank God we know that. You know? And that’s it. I felt like it was setting it up for a 4th movie. I felt like we’re setting this up so that in the 4th movie, we can reveal to you what it is that they saw. But it kinda pissed me off. Like, give me something. Give me something.

Todd: Me too. Give me a small piece or or make it so that some knowledge that they have is gonna be used to their advantage. At first, I thought he’s like, alright. You guys go here. You guys do this. He doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like that, but I felt like that was information we already knew. Uh-huh. I thought, oh, yeah. They’ve now the 2 of them have seen something, so now they’re going to be able to assemble this posse to more more effectively deal with the creature because they know his weak point. But that really didn’t seem to be the case at all. Uh-uh. No. And so, yeah, it was just like they had the knowledge of him and who he was. And So you’re right. It’s just setting it up, and it had no bearing on the movie, and it pissed me off Todd. Especially, the second time around. Okay. I thought I was gonna get at least get this guy’s vision, you know. Right. And we had nothing.

Craig: Just give give me a flash of something. A tiny piece.

Todd: Yeah. Something I could piece together on my own or, you know, it would be smart. Preview the 4th movie a little bit. Give give everyone a

Craig: little

Todd: bit of mystery, you know, and get people talking about what what what could they have seen, you know, what what did it all mean?

Craig: Well, and that’s the other thing like I feel like going in and with this script and with the way that he chose to deliver it, Salva must have felt fairly confident that he was gonna get a 4th movie and I’m not confident he’s gonna get a 4th movie. Been in the house. This one.

Todd: They they’re, you know, you can go online, you can see some people said that it’s happening or it’s gonna happen, and he’s got a script and all that stuff. But if you I mean, I go into the IMDB pro page of him and the only thing he has in development are 2 movies and this isn’t one of them.

Craig: Yeah. So well, the the same thing was true about part 3 though. I mean, there was a big span of time between part 2 and part 3, and it was rumored forever, and they they kept saying, oh, yeah. The script is written. It’s going into production. It’s going into production. It took forever. So wonders never cease, you know. We we may get a 4th one, but if we do, I have a feeling it’s gonna be a while.

Todd: It could be keeping it secret, you know, especially with all the controversy with him, you know, that that caused a bit of of fury around this movie when it was announced and talked about being cast.

Craig: It always does. It always does. Anytime he is behind the movie and and again like I I get it. Those those people who don’t want to see him celebrated, I get it. I do, and I I don’t wanna go I’ve talked about it before, so I’m not gonna rehash, you know, why we have chosen to go ahead and do these things.

Todd: But No.

Craig: Todd. I don’t know. I I’m so conflicted about it because I don’t want people to think that in any way that I condone that. I certainly certainly don’t, but I like watching movies. So Mhmm. Anyway alright. So then, you know, there’s really not much to it after that except for the action pieces, you know, the the Todd, you know, Dan’s squad goes after the creeper and that’s where they find him on the highway and, that’s when we get the, like, you know, heat seeking bombs or whatever, the the guided bombs or whatever. And Yeah. It’s not that that’s not cool. It is kinda cool. It just seems out of place. Yeah. So this ancient demon is also, like, some sort of, like, technician, like

Todd: Yeah. When you’ve when the movie’s gone on this long, I mean, we’re what, 20, 30 minutes away from the end. Yeah. And they’re still introducing new tricks and things that are pulling out of the hat that this guy has. You lose patience for it. Well, you you’re not confident. You really know the rules and what’s going on. And so, okay, next next time somebody comes up across and it looks like they’re gonna win, he’s gonna be shooting lasers out of the hubcaps. You know? Like, he just it just opens the door to anything. And, you kinda lose trust in the movie at that point. I I did anyways. Okay. Alright. Got these bombs fine. Alright. Just get me to the end. I’m I’m curious to see what’s going on with this disembodied hand and what these people saw and how it’s gonna help them with the creature. And I’m just gonna accept the fact that all these contraptions and gadgets are gonna pop out of this thing when the creature himself can’t deal with them, you know.

Craig: And it it doesn’t make him scarier. I think that you said it earlier on, like, it kind of neuters him. Like, I wanna think of him as being the thing to fear. He’s a demon or whatever he is for for Pete’s sake, like, that’s good enough. Like, he doesn’t need to have a Batmobile.

Todd: It’s like a sidekick, you know?

Craig: Yeah. Yeah.

Todd: It’s he’s not even in the truck half the time.

Craig: Right. And he’s listening to the police scanner to, like, know where people are and stuff. Like, what? Like, that’s a very that’s a very human thing, you know. Like, I want this guy to be a badass monster. I don’t want him to have to get on the police scanner to find out where people are. Gosh. Anyway, so they’re on the road, and then there’s this kinda cool scene where the the young guy who had the the when I say machine gun, I’m not talking, like, something you could hold. I’m talking about one of those huge circular guns, like, on a big tank or something.

Todd: Yeah. It’s a serious gatling gun. Yeah.

Craig: And and the people, you know, Dan and Davis realized that the everything ricochets off this truck, which also doesn’t make any sense like they’re shooting the tires. I read some, trivia that supposedly he has reinforced the tires with parts of his own skin and that’s why they can’t be popped. Okay. Like, that there is nothing to suggest that in the movie, but if I’m supposed to believe that, okay. But, anyway, the guy with the machine gun, like, shoots the machine gun at it and all the bullets ricochet off and and come back and hit I mean, it’s but on its own, it’s a a a cool scene to to watch. And then right after that Dan and Davis get one of the bombs blows up under their truck and they get thrown off to the side of the road and then they face off with the creeper and it culminates with Dan getting behind the machine gun on this now disabled truck, and the creeper comes running at him. And he’s running really fast, and it’s it’s pretty scary. And then he leaps into the air, and it cuts into slow motion, and it looks fantastic. It’s awesome. It’s such a cool scene with the creeper, you know, just kind of with his wings spread out slowly descending on this guy who’s struggling with this gun. And eventually, he gets the gun. It it was jammed or something, and he gets it unjammed, and he starts shooting the creeper, and he shoots him. And so the bullets are going through him and, like, shooting out, I don’t know, blood or whatever is inside this guy, and it’s kind of coming out in these dust streams behind him. And it looks so cool. Like, if you did a freeze frame of any of the 10 seconds of that moment, you could frame it and hang it on the wall. Like like, it it it just looks great, but, ultimately, it doesn’t really amount to anything because they just, you know, collapse to the ground together, and then the creeper gets up and walks away and magic and magically summons his hatchet out of the guy’s face. Well And that’s and that’s that’s it.

Todd: Here’s the problem with this scene. As awesome as it is and the fact that it’s so awesome makes it so iconic. He’s drawing attention to this. This is a climactic scene. This is Danny’s badass moment. And we’ve been with Danny all since the beginning. If there as much as it bounces back and forth and stuff between these 2 care the all these characters, Danny is sort of the glue that holds this story together. You know, he’s kind of the one guy who’s like touches all of these little little stories and is leading the charge against this thing And has this, apparently, some deep background knowledge of him, which has been enhanced by his holding the hand of this thing. He has this iconic little scene. It’s fantastic. And then we see that, oh, his hatchet went in Danny’s head anyway, and Danny’s now dead. That’s like, what?

Craig: Right. If anybody was gonna make it to the next movie, it should have been him.

Todd: Well, yeah. And then even if he doesn’t give him a fight, like he had a fight, and then it’s like such a lame

Craig: He doesn’t I mean, let him go down. I mean, I guess in kind of he does, but let let him go down in a blaze of glory or, you know, let us let us see him put up more of a fight. I don’t know. I mean, the gun thing was cool, but, yeah, it just happened so quickly. It’s it’s kind of a letdown as is the whole movie, frankly. I mean and meanwhile, Addison has just been in the back of the creepers truck for, I don’t know, half an hour, at this point. And there was a scene where she, you know, she and Kirk were both alive back there, like, they were tied up like they were bodies, but they were both alive and they both kinda get out of their restraints or whatever, and Kirk gets killed with 1 of the booby traps. And then there’s kind of a new another scene where the creeper realizes that Addie is alive, and so it looks like he’s going to kill her and they struggle, and she uses the same I don’t even know if she does it intentionally. It almost seems like it was just kind of an accident, but, the same the same booby trap that killed Kirk gets the creeper too and this spike goes through his head. And I feel like this is the scene that you were referring to earlier. Yep. This is so good. It’s funny because his his eyeballs start bulging out like Jim Carrey in the mask or something. Like and then one

Todd: of them pops out. Pops out and falls on her, and she were I I I half expected her mouth to be open screaming and it popped into her mouth or something. It was just it was hilarious. And I actually really liked that part. I thought, oh, my gosh. This is so much like the scene. And she runs out of the truck, and then the creeper starts coming after her. But, he’s he’s incapacitated in other ways too.

Craig: The implication that I got was that because this went right through his head, it just kind of generally incapacitated him. I actually liked that because it’s the first time in the movie and it’s at the very end that he’s, like, incapacitated Todd at all. And so, like, he tries to fly and we’ve seen him do it before, like, he usually is just, you know, very gracefully swoops up into the air. And this time only one wing opens And we have seen him, throw things at people from 100 of yards away and just nail them with complete precision. And now he’s trying to throw things at her, but because he’s only got one eye, he can’t aim, and so things are just kinda flying around her.

Todd: He’s switching the spear from aside from shoulder to shoulder trying to get the the Right. Good eye to line up. I mean, it’s pretty funny. And it was this was really missing from most of the movie and this was an aspect of the previous films that I thought was so cool about them was this. He’s got a bit of a personality to him and he’s not invincible. But for most of the movie, he is and he has no personality.

Craig: Right. Well, and and then that’s the thing, you know, like he chases for a little bit and then like you said he gets hit by a semi, but he’s not dead. He kills the truck driver as Addison runs away. And then that’s it. Like, that’s the end. Like, she got away and Buddy finds her and Buddy and the grandma find her and they all hug in the middle of the Todd, and that’s just kind of the end of it. And, like, you I guess, you know that that’s how you know he’s not gonna die at the end because Yeah. You know in part 2, he’s still around and and killing people, but it would and it just kinda it felt like a letdown. There was no really any climactic battle, and none of the stories really got wrapped up at all. Like, ultimately, the whole thing with Gale and the old lady, like, it didn’t really amount to anything. Like, I mean, I guess it could kinda maybe pay off if there gets to be a a 4th movie, but we didn’t really learn anything.

Todd: No. And the hand thing is so nebulous, like, I don’t even understand, like, so that was that was a piece of him that was cut off. And unlike other pieces of him, this thing suddenly has the will now to grant visions to the people who who possess it?

Craig: Yeah.

Todd: Is it is it on rogue, you know? And he well,

Craig: and he and the creeper is super concerned about finding it. Like, he doesn’t want people to find his secret and, like so then when he goes to find it where it was buried, he finds it, but they’ve written a big note that says, we know what you are. And, like, he, like, drops to his knees in agony and screams and all the crows drop dead. Like, what? Like, why? Why is he so concerned?

Todd: Well, and it and it begs the question, why didn’t he just go straight for the hand for the beginning? Why was he doing all this other stuff? Like, he wasn’t on some journey. You know, this guy can this guy can fly in and and does fly in and swoop in any work he wants. And his truck can power itself up and run around and take care of itself just fine. You know, why didn’t he just go straight for the hand? That’s what her dead son was warning her about, but we Yes. We spent, you know, an hour and a half getting to that point.

Craig: And I don’t know you know, I read this on IMDB, so pretty much anybody can contribute to that. So I don’t know if this is really canon, but, you know, what I read about, oh, he reinforced the tires with, you know, pieces of his own body so that they couldn’t be punctured or whatever. Okay. Well, could somebody go touch his tires and have visions? He doesn’t seem particularly concerned about that.

Todd: But he chased that eyeball down. If anything could give you visions, that eyeball should be able to.

Craig: Right. So and then there’s the little ending where Buddy comes to see Addie and they kinda are, like, oh, we made it, whatever. And then he and he gets on the bus. And I guess that’s kind of satisfying. It ties it to the other movie Yeah. Even though logically Todd doesn’t make any sense. And then it the end end is this voice over. We had a narrative voice over in the beginning that kind of did a little tiny bit of recap just kind of establishing or reestablishing for us, what the lore of the creature was that it comes back every 23 years or whatever. And then at the end, we get the narration again and it turns out that the narrator is Trish from the first movie.

Clip: This 23rd spring is a call to arms. We will not fail and we will not fear. My name is Trisha Jenner, and this time when it comes, I will destroy the thing that killed my brother.

Craig: So

Clip: come and get me, you son of a bitch.

Craig: We see her as though she’s writing this on a blog or something. I liked that. Like, I I I wish I don’t know. I wish there had been more of her. I would have preferred to see her be more essential part of the movie, and I know that, like you said, I also read online the script is done there, you know, she, the actress, the original actress who played Trish is signed on, but I read that for years about the 3rd movie too, and, it didn’t come to fruition. So who knows if it’ll ever happen. I’m at this point, whereas I was super excited about the third one, I’m far less enthusiastic. If if a 4th one comes out, I will have high hopes and I will give it a shot, but part 3 was not a good indicator for me. And, really, you know, by its own merits, if if you were to take it out of the trilogy and it was just its own movie, it’s not bad on on its own. It’s not bad. I just think that it pales in comparison, to the first two. And so it was a disappointment for me.

Todd: That’s that’s an interesting point. If you were to just watch this movie and not see the first two, you might have a whole different take on it. Well, you wouldn’t be pissed off that this truck can do all these amazing things.

Craig: Right. You

Todd: know, maybe some of the story, you know, between all the different characters and the back story would be intriguing to you because you’d feel like it’s it’s getting somewhere. And, you know, one of the things that I think and made the first movie good, but was a little frustrating for some people, I think, is that, you know, there’s no explanation, like, where this guy is and, you know, so little information, about his backstory, and it really gets teased here. Not if not a not not much, but at least gets teased that it’s knowable information. Yeah. I don’t know. I I think maybe if you did see this by itself, you’d probably come away with a better impression of it than if you saw it as as the 3rd in the in the series. But Yeah. I wouldn’t say that there’s a machete order, like, you need to see the 3rd one, and then go back and watch the first one, and then the second one, you know.

Craig: Well, you could I mean, you you could watch 132 and then they would be in sequential order and maybe you would be left with a little better taste. I don’t but even that doesn’t make sense because then why is the the truck is so pivotal in the third one and then it doesn’t appear in the second one at all. Like, I don’t know. There’s there’s just some inconsistencies, but whatever. It’s a horror series, you know, if we were to talk about any other, you know, look at Friday 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street or any of those others, there’s there’s all kinds of inconsistencies.

Todd: So and much worse movies.

Craig: This Yeah. So so maybe maybe we’re being a little bit too harsh on it.

Todd: But Yeah. Well, that’s our job.

Craig: That’s why we make the big bucks. Oh. Oh, man. Alright. Well, thank you for listening again to us. If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love it if you would give us some feedback or if you would, share it with a friend or friends. If you’re new to us, you can always go back to our website at 2 guys dot red40.net. Is that it, Todd?

Todd: Too close. No. It’s 2guys.redfortynet.com.

Craig: There you go. Okay. We also have a Facebook page at 2 Guys in a Chainsaw. You can look us up on Stitcher, Google Play, iTunes, all kinds of places. And, again, we we love to hear from you. We thank you all of you who submitted suggestions for us to do this month. If we didn’t get to you, don’t be discouraged. We will certainly continue to do requests. So, if we didn’t get to you, maybe remind us of the things that you’d like to see or if, you have any new requests, let us know. Until next time, I’m Craig. And I’m Todd. With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.