Jeepers Creepers Reborn: Should Have Remained Dead

The original Jeepers Creepers came out in 2001 which started a mildly successful franchise spawning two sequels.  The first movie was stylistic and appropriately creepy with the introduction of a new horror villain, “The Creeper”.  The creature awakes every twenty-three years and feeds on humans for twenty-three days, with his victim’s body parts restoring his own.  The sequel and third movie take place during that same twenty-three-day period.  Neither of the sequels recaptured the same vibe and creepiness of the original but were still solid horror movies.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the reboot dubbed Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. In the world of the fourth movie, the previous three were actual films based on an urban legend.  This relegates the original film outside its own established universe and sets Reborn up as the new “real” universe of The Creeper. Chase (Imran Adams) is a fan and self-proclaimed expert on “The Creeper”.  Which basically means that he has watched a bunch of YouTube videos about it. His girlfriend, Laine (Sydney Craven) is a biologist, emphasizing her nonbelief in the supernatural and a firm belief in science. While at the Horror Hounds festival, the couple wins an escape room experience at the original “Creeper” house, only to find that it was a trick and they are now being hunted by “The Creeper”.

I will not say that this movie was all bad, the direction and cinematography were nicely done.  There were some great images and visuals used that kept the movie interesting. The main actors were actually pretty good for a horror film.  Imran’s Chase was a likeable horror nerd, who really loves his girlfriend.  Pete Brooke does a great job as the redneck tough guy Stu. Unfortunately, the supporting cast was not as good and honestly, nobody could save this film from the convoluted plot and terribly written script. The dialogue was clunky and never felt natural, with the exposition feeling like it was being shoved down your throat instead of it flowing naturally.  The small amount of humor never lands properly removing any real lightness from the film.  The storyline itself is unnecessarily confusing and leaves the audience with a lot of unanswered questions (and not in a good way).  The mysterious and eerie nature of “The Creeper” is replaced with a more standard “slasher movie killer” vibe which detracts from the original films shuddersome character. There were some elements of the story that could have been intriguing, had they been explored and handled more appropriately.  This wasn’t the worst horror film I have ever seen, but it was a disappointment given the plethora of stories they could have told and the very nature of the main villain.