Jeepers Creepers: Reborn (2022)
Written By: Sean-Michael Argo
Directed By: Timo Vuorensola
Stars: Sydney Craven, Imran Adams, Jarreau Benjamin
IMDB Rating: 2.4/10 Stars
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 9%
Plot Synopsis: Forced to travel with her boyfriend, Laine begins to experience premonitions associated with the urban myth of The Creeper. She believes that something supernatural has been summoned - and that she is at the center of it all.
My Review: This was absolute trash. From the concept to the plot. The acting, directing and editing. This was filmmaking amateur hour if you even wanna call this amateur. Plugin effects, made for TV vibe and the tone had no atmosphere whatsoever. The dialog is so badly written and executed I cannot see how this movie even resembles what the first 2 films did. At least the 3rd felt like a Jeepers Creepers movie. This felt like a really poor student film with really bad digital and practical effects. The budget for this movie is 5 million, allegedly. Even for 5 million this should have looked better. The look of the film is just cringe worthy to sit through. Save your money. Hopefully it ends up on Tubi or something free if you want to check it out.
I’d say, SPOILERS AHEAD, but there isn’t anything to spoil. They made Jeepers Creepers into a really bad witchcraft/cultist/slasher movie with no gore. Unlike the Iron Sky films this movie is just a mess from start to finish. I am not even gonna bother with a proper critique of this movie because this is so bad I wanted to shut it off. I was scared once I saw the runtime of 1 hour and 27 minutes as I am a firm believer you cannot make a great horror movie under 90 minutes. Sure, there are some out there, but for the most part, if they are this short they are usually missing things. I don’t know. Like plot, character development and exposition. This movie has none of these things.
I just spent the last hour digging in my YouTube history for this great video explanation/fan theory of what the Creeper is. On a side note; YouTube updated this feature and it is pretty interesting what you can search for in your YouTube history. If you get on a PC it is worth taking a look at.
This video predated the comics and came out around the time of part III, but it was a video that showed examples from the films that the Creeper was one of the 2 thieves that was crucified next to Jesus. According to tradition, the Good Thief was crucified to Jesus' right and the other thief was crucified to his left. For this reason, depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus often show Jesus' head inclined to his right, showing his acceptance of the Good Thief.
In the video, the mythology was going in the direction that the Thief on the Left was jealous of the Thief on the Right and prayed for revenge. Something about the thief being able to escape the cross and drink some of Jesus’s blood to become the Creeper. Granted this isn’t canon or anything, but the video did a good job of showing examples from the movies that could make this theory believable.
I have also seen theories about an alien parasite that infects a person from medieval times and such as the Creeper lives through human history and tends to dwell where human misery is centralized. I do not like the explanation in the comics nor do I like this newer mythos from “Reborn.”
I like the idea of the Creeper being so ancient that it goes back to before Christianity and/or has been a long extinct race of beings that previously lived on Earth over it being some explainable thing that makes sense. The more they try to explain it in practical terms in the films and comics, the more it ruins it for me. However, I wish I could find that video because I thought the explanation was a neat way of trying to explain the Creeper, even if it was just a fan theory that could be supported in the movies.
Just wish they would have stayed within the original lore/foundation it was built on. I would have loved to see Jeepers Creepers during the Crusades or the Wild West. Maybe take the PREY approach over what we got. “Reborn” is so bad I don’t know how anyone can defend it.
I would entertain someone’s opinion if they do like it, but this to me is like trying to sell me a brand new 2022 car, but with no engine in it. It’s gonna be a tough sell on my end. I ended up giving the movie 1 out of 10 stars on IMDB.com and that is being generous. It really is that bad…