reviews by Terry Wickham

MGM Home Entertainment is putting out some amazing special edition DVDs.  JEEPERS CREEPERS - Special Edition is from top to bottom, one of the finest DVDs I've seen. 

A great deal of care went into the special features and I wasn't surprised to see that Victor Salva was in on the construction of  "Behind The Peepers."  Tom Tarantini co-created this outstanding look behind the film.  This making of documentary explodes with dazzling use of behind the scenes footage, still photos and Bennett Salvay's incredible music. 

The first section is called "Finding Trish And Darry."  Producer Tom Luse and Victor Salva explain how they went about casting the two lead characters.  We even get to see Gina Philips and Justin Long's impressive first auditions.  It's in this section that Victor Salva admits that he made JEEPERS in response to seeing THE BLAIR WITCH and THE SIXTH SENSE.  After seeing those films, he said it inspired him to go back and make the kind of film he made in during high school the only kind he always wanted to make.  Salva grew up watching the old Universal "Monster" movies and JEEPERS CREEPERS came out of that. 

In "Designing The Creeper" Brad Parker Designer/Illustrator tells how he immediately could visualize Salva's script.  Parker grew up in Nebraska and says The Creeper is a classic Midwest bogeyman.  He said he could totally relate to the wide open spaces with trees by themselves and old abandoned buildings left along the roadside. 

"Cars And Trucks" is the segment that shows how The Creeper's old beat up truck was designed.  Victor Salva says as he was putting together the opening 30 minutes of the movie, he realized that he was making DUEL, which he saw when he was thirteen years old. 

"The Creeper Comes To Florida" Jonathan Breck who played The Creeper, details how he played the mysterious character.  Included is his audition, the sniff test scene, which is he performs amazingly similar to the final film.  You can easily see why Breck won the role. 

In "Night Shoots" you will learn about how the film was shot at night and what the crew did to pull off the tricky stunt work. 

"Composed By Bennett Salvay" is the last section, which details how Salvay created the amazing score.  We get a few sections of the film with isolated score and we get to see Salvay working with the different orchestras to get the music for the film. 

In all, the quality of the documentary interview footage, which is letterboxed and the audio and editing is pure dynamite.  I haven't seen a better behind the scenes documentary. 

Other supplements include: Deleted and Extended Scenes Including Alertnate Opening and Ending Sequences, Victor Salva's audio commentary, a beautiful photo gallery and trailer. 

I loved this movie.  It is very well made by someone who is obvisiouly a horror movie fan.  Victor Salva's choices are mature and stylitically impressive.  The first 30 minutes are as intense as any film I've ever seen.  It made me think of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and DUEL.  Salva doesn't rush things and lets things unfold at an old fashioned rate.  The way things should be when you are telling a monster movie or suspense piece. 

A brother Darry (Justin Long) and sister Trish (Gina Philips) driving home, are almost run over by someone driving menancing looking truck.  A short time later they see the truck and spot the man dumping what looks like bodies into a sewer pipe.  The man doesn't take kindly to their spying eyes viciously chases after them in his suped up, tattered truck.  After almost getting killed by the maniac in the truck, Darry convinces Trish to go back and see if someone is still alive.  This is a big mistake as it unleashes a chain of horrorifying events, each more ghastly than the other. 

I was very impressed with the two young lead actors.  Not only are they convincing as siblings, but are both able to project sheer terror believably.  You are going to see Justin Long and Gina Philips again, that I"m sure of. 

It's stroke of genius keeping The Creeper hidden for most of the movie.  It leaves you constantly guessing who and what he is.  An old man.  A demon, Victor Salva lets your imagaination come up with what you fear the most. 

Some people have complained that they didn't like the ending because it reminded them of other movies.  When I really think about it after watching this film again, I don't think he made a bad choice.  I think the medium character Jezette Gay Hartman (played by Patricia Belcher) was out of place but everything else was a progression of where the story was going.  Salva wasn't afraid to put his foot down in the end and really let you see The Creeper for what he is.  A monster. 

I can't wait to see JEEPERS sequel.
 

Official Website:
www.mgm.com/jeeperscreepers 
www.mgm.com/dvd 

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