Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
If you’re sitting in a theater sometime between now and August 31st and a trailer comes on with the MGM logo in front of it, you’ve got a decision to make.
Are you a horror fan?
More specifically, do you love monster movies?
If so, you have to decide what it would be worth to you to be totally surprised by something, and you’ll only have a few seconds to make that decision. That’s why I’m warning you now. If you see that MGM logo, close your eyes and close your ears. Tell the person next to you to nudge you when it’s over. Or, hell... be neighborly and tell them not to watch it either.
That way, when you sit down in the theater to see JEEPERS CREEPERS that opening weekend, you’ll have the opportunity to see something you haven’t seen in a theater since possibly as far back as the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET or even ALIEN.
That’s right... I’m talking about an original monster movie. A surprise. Satisfying from start to finish. I’m talking about one of those titles you’re going to revisit over and over, one of those great little movies that flies in under the radar and knocks you flat on your ass.
To be honest, I hadn’t heard a word about this before Harry Lime dropped into the Labs yesterday afternoon and invited me to Redondo Beach. I stared at him like he was a lunatic, reminding him that I’m 230 years old, and I’ve never exactly been a “beach person.” He corrected me though, telling me that’s where the GCC South Bay Theater was, and that’s where they’d be screening JEEPERS CREEPERS. He handed me the NRG passes. It’s been a while since I flew in under their radar... maybe since JASON X. I figured it was time to try again. Always good to keep the old skills limber, just in case.
We settled in for the movie, drawing no attention to ourselves. It’s a good thing, too, since they actually started the movie early for once. I would have been upset if we’d missed the start of the film, since it’s so adept at setting up its premise and starting all the elements into play. This movie wastes no time. It’s told with the same breathless efficiency as a good campfire yarn. A brother and a sister are driving home from college for a holiday. They’re having typical brother/sister conversations along the way, bickering off-handedly until their afternoon is turned upside down by the intrusion of a rusted out bucket of dents truck with a license plate reading “BEATINGU.” The truck terrorizes them for a few moments, then pulls around them and vanishes. They’ve barely had a chance to recover before they drive past the truck again, parked now beside an abandoned church. They slow down and see the driver of the truck feeding what appear to bodies into a pipe that leads into a hole in the earth. As they look, the driver turns around and sees them see him.
And that’s really all you need to know about the set-up. It’s more than I knew going in, and part of the joy with this film, as with the original ALIEN, is the discovery of just what our heroes are up against. And who exactly are our heroes? Well, there’s Justin Long, who made such a memorable impression in GALAXY QUEST, where he essentially played the geeky kid from TREKKIES (and, yes, you know which one I mean). He’s on NBC’s ED right now, doing consistently funny work, and he’s proving to be a nimble comic lead. Nice to see that when it’s time to be serious, he can be. JEEPERS CREEPERS is mercifully free of any of the self-referential humor that has made so many recent films a chore to sit through. I wasn’t that big a fan of SCREAM, so the endless imitation on it has worn my nerves raw. This film plays it all serious, though, and Long rises to the occasion, genuinely terrified as these events unfold. Gina Philips, who I recognize from some of her TV work like a recurring role as Billy’s secretary on ALLY McBEAL, is an equally strong presence as his sister. Darryl and Trish aren’t superheroes, and they’re not stupid hotties preening their way through the film, either. Instead, they’re real kids, caught in a situation beyond their comprehension, desperate to stay alive.
For the most part, the film seemed finished last night. I certainly wouldn’t tweak it any further. There’s a heaping helping of both digital and practical FX work, but there’s nothing that would preclude the film getting an R from the MPAA. It’s intense without being graphic, and it’s grim without being grotesque. Writer/director Victor Salva proves himself a remarkably able genre director here, never giving in to the same old tricks with false jumps and orchestra stings. In fact, this is about as far from what we’re used to as it can be. The characters constantly do exactly what they should do considering what they’re up against, but it still does them no good. The Creeper isn’t an average threat, and no matter what measures are taken, no one’s prepared for what he’s capable of. The physical performance by Jonathan Breck is quite striking, and this film may boast the first use of wire work since THE MATRIX that actually feels fresh because of context. There’s a lot of mythology implied by the film, but very little about the Creeper is made explicit. I found myself wanting a sequel immediately, wanting to know more about this monster, fascinated by where it might have come from, curious to understand more about its motives.
I’m actually going to label this a pre-review, giving myself the chance to go back and see the finished film and review that closer to release. As it stands, I’ve spent today with certain moments and images playing back in my head, and I can’t help but feel like this is another one of those movies that makes my work here at AICN so immensely enjoyable. Like with PITCH BLACK or THE IRON GIANT, here’s a film that I knew nothing about, a film that is in a position to get overlooked. This is coming out on the exact opposite end of the summer from where we are now, the last day of August, opposite Mariah Carey’s ALL THAT GLITTERS. That means there are two horror films opening that day, and audiences will have to choose. As much as the thought of Mariah’s take on A STAR IS BORN chills my blood, I can vouch for JEEPERS CREEPERS. This is exactly the kind of film that genre fans complain never gets made anymore. Well, here it is, ready and waiting. All it needs now is your asses in the seats on opening weekend. I hope we can focus more attention on it, and that FANGORIA gives the film a cover, and that it ends up being a success for the studio. Hollywood imitates success, and the genre as a whole could stand to learn a few lessons from this fresh and ferocious film. I’ll definitely be talking about this more before release. Until then...
"Moriarty" out.
