Jeepers Creepers 2

Writer-director Victor Salva's follow-up to his 2001 horror flick about a gargoyle-like creature released every 23 years to gobble up victims for 23 days before returning to hibernation, takes up where its predecessor left off to recount the last several days in The Creeper's current spree. Since its underground lair was discovered in the first film, the monster's modus operandi changes this time around: it disables a school bus carrying a high school basketball team along an isolated stretch of road in order to pick off victims during the night. Jeepers Creepers 2 blatantly mimics (or rips off) Hitchcock (Lifeboat) and Spielberg (Jaws) in story and style, and by multiplying the two teens who served as prospective morsels the first time around into an entire phalanx of jocks and coeds it turns into a conventional shooting-gallery sort of slasher flick, in which the biggest question is which of the kids will become targets and how they'll be dispatched. Still, this film is more imaginative than most examples of this admittedly undistinguished genre, making this an optional purchase for larger horror collections. [Note: DVD extras include themed menu options (ex: scene selection is “body parts”; special features are “appetizers”), audio commentaries (one by writer/director Victor Salva and a “majority of the principal cast,” the other a “Creeper Commentary” by costar Jonathan Breck, storyboard artist Brad Parker, and creature makeup and effects supervisor Brian Penikas), a 39-minute “making of” documentary (with four segments: “Lights, Camera, Creeper,” “Creeper Creation,” “Creeper Composer,” and “Digital Effects”), a 27-minute “A Day in Hell” behind-the-scenes on-the-set featurette, 15 minutes of “Deleted Scenes, Moments, and Lines,” two storyboard sequences (5 min.), a slideshow photo gallery, a behind-the-menus photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid set of extras for a better-than-usual spam-in-a-cabin flick.] (F. Swietek)