Late in the summer of 2001, a modestly budgeted horror film came out of nowhere and grossed nearly 40 million dollars. Jeepers Creepers, released on the normally desolate weekend before Labor Day, proved that writer/director Victor Salva could successfully deliver his own modern-day creature feature. The film's solid box office numbers ensured that a sequel would be on the way, and sure enough, Jeepers Creepers 2  has been unleashed two years later, on the same weekend as it's predecessor.

As promised, this entry is bigger and louder than the original -- which is precisely why it's not better. Jeepers Creepers was a success due to its eerie atmosphere, small-scale scares, and the strength of its two leading actors. Simplicity worked in the film's favor, but in the case of Jeepers Creepers 2, more turns out to be less.

As an opening title card tells the audience, the Creeper (Jonathan Breck), a winged, flesh-hungry beast, embarks on a 23-day feeding frenzy every 23rd spring. The film opens on Day 22, when the Creeper takes off with the son of a farmer (Ray Wise) and quickly moves onto Day 23 to introduce the main victims - er characters. A high school basketball team is on its way back from a big championship game when all of a sudden their bus experiences a tire blow-out. Later that night, the second tire bursts. Both incidents are caused by weird star-shaped objects apparently made out of bones.

Little do the athletes and cheerleaders know that the Creeper has marked them for his final feast.  Stranded on an isolated highway and at each other's throats, the frightened students are picked off one by one by the monster.

If Jeepers Creepers was a cross between a horror flick and Duel, then this sequel is a combination of horror movie, Speed, and Lifeboat -- only the results are not as positive as I expected. Having shown most of what the Creeper can do in the first film, Salva doesn't have as much room to play around with the monster's identity this time. And gone is the convincing relationship between Gina Phillips and Justin Long as brother and sister trapped in a terrifying situation.
Instead, a handful of teens trade barbs about race and homosexuality even before the Creeper shows up.

Nevertheless, Jeepers Creepers 2 contains the ingredients of a straightforward monster movie and emerges as an overall entertaining horror experience.  JC2 really isn't as much a creepfest as it is a horror/action flick, pitting the kids and Wise (best known as Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks) against an indestructible monster who keeps coming back like a flying version of Freddy Krueger. A number of well-designed stunt sequences impressed me -- the best one involving a few students trying to speed away with the Creeper in hot pursuit. Although the film also includes a couple of eerie moments, the opening scene hints at a level of creepiness missing from the rest of the movie. Despite working with a larger budget, Salva loses the sense of fear and horrifying discovery that fueled the first picture.

By now the audience knows exactly what to expect, and that's a handful of thin, barely-defined characters waiting until it's their turn to be the Creeper's next victim. Wise does solid, understated work as the vengeful farmer whose sole mission becomes the once-and-for-all destruction of the monster. Breck uses his expressive face and physical movements to help create the monster's creepiness, and Nicki Ayoux is much more believable as the film's resident psychic than Patricia Belcher was in the original. The rest of the cast gets  stuck with one-note parts, from the homophobic/bigoted jock to the wimpy manager and the adult figures who are among the first to go.

While JC2 is neither creepier nor scarier than its predecessor, Salva's eerie style works in its favor. I wholly invite the idea of a prequel set in the Old West, but jeepers, I'd like more real scares next time.

MY RATING:  **  ½  (out of ****)

(Released by United Artists and rated "R" for horror violence and language.) 

Review also posted at www.ajhakari.com.