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The Story: A brother and sister are hounded by a mysterious creature on a lonely highway.

Our story opens with Darry (Justin Long) driving his sister Trish (Gina Philips) home for her collegiate Spring Break. They have a game going in which they call license numbers, and Darry is trailing. They drive upon a slow going motor home and pass it. As they discuss the game rules further, the motor home turns off behind them.

Still in discussion, the siblings fail to notice a large, rusty beast of a truck gaining on them. Before they know it, the truck is right on their fender, it's horn roaring like some jurassic monster. After a few scary minutes, the truck finally passes them by and disappears down the road at a high rate of speed.

Before too long, they drive past a dilapidated house where Darry sees the strange truck. As Darry and Trish watch on, they see a tall, dark figure in a floppy hat and trench coat dump what appears to be a body wapped in a sheet into an above ground sewage pipe. They decide to hightail it down the road, but find themselves pursued once again by the monstrous truck, which this time runs them off the road where they stall out in a small field, while the truck continues on down the road.

Darry thinks the two should go back and see if it was actually a body that was dumped into the sewer pipe, while Trish insists they move on to the nearest phone and call the police. Darry ponders that if it was a person, they might still be alive. Trish still won't budge. Finally, Darry asks what if it were her back there in that pipe, and Trish reluctantly agrees.
They go back to the house and Darry works himself into the sewage pipe. Once down there, he finds that there are hundreds of bodies in the cave at the end of the pipe, and it mortifies him to speechlessness. Finally, Trish gets her way and they drive off into the next town.

They make it to a diner and as they get out of the car, the ominous truck once again drives by. The siblings rush into the diner where Darry answers a ringing pay phone and is warned of terrible danger if he hears the song, "Jeepers Creepers," and something about a creature catching Darry's scent. Freaked out, Darry hangs up the phone and finally the police are called.

Soon the police arrive and take Darry's story. One of the waitresses from the diner suddenly runs in and says there was a strange man going through Darry and Trish's car. When they go outside, Darry's clothes, which were in the backseat, are scattered everywhere and the waitress says the strange man was smelling them.
The cops escort Trish and Darry back onto the highway and follow along. As Trish and Darry are suddenly shocked at the sound of "Jeepers Creepers" playing on the radio, the patrol car behind them is attacked by the driver of the creepy truck (Jonathan Breck). He takes out the cops, and now the kids are on their own...

Filmed in Florida, Jeepers Creepers is a pretty decent monster movie. It has characters you care about, though they do occasionally perpetrate the typical "dumb horror film character" blunders such as not running off right away when the monster attacks. But director Salva, who also wrote the screenplay, does something very smart; he takes his time introducing us to the siblings and getting us to care for them before putting them in a deadly situation. The fact that you don't want to see them die is what keeps you hooked, even when the story slips into its less plausible parts. Plus, the monster doesn't even physically show up onscreen until near the half-hour mark, which adds to the spookiness.

The monster himself is well done, if not entirely convincing, but that's okay. Sure, it's a man in a suit, but this is explained in the story as the demon attempting to look human. How does the demon do this? By eating the human parts he needs to pass as more human. If he needs a leg, he eats a leg, eating a heart gives him a heart, etc.
Another thing I liked is that Salva cast a pair of unknowns for the sibling leads. Both do exceptionally good jobs, and the fact that they're not instantly recognizable makes them seem more realistic. Kudos to Salva for not following the now typical style of casting hot young actors already recognizable from some sappy teen drama.

But what I probably like most about this movie is that the monster does what monsters are supposed to do; hack people up and eat 'em. There's no romanticizing it like they do with vampire movies, no "Jekyll and Hyde"-style Dionysian aspect of inner evil, and no "man playing god" Frankenstein nonsense. It's simply a monster. No explanation needed.

But there are flaws, to be sure. The lady who calls Darry on the pay phone diner and warns him eventually shows up, but she kind of gets in the way once she does. It was only logical that she make an appearance after being such major plot point, but she doesn't really have any importance when she arrives. Also, the climax takes place in a crowded police station. Does the monster treat itself and "pig" out on the police? Nope. He only gets rid of a couple of them and at one point you think he’s finished the others off-screen, but sure enough they all reappear, this time in SWAT gear.

But the unforeseen ending packs a nice jolt, although it doesn't fully make up the sillier aspects of rest of the film. I'm not going to ruin it for you, but it is very effective.

Overall, Jeepers Creepers is an effective monster-romp which is unfortunately hindered by a few implausible sequences. But, it's still a good flick for those looking for some well done monster chills. Worth a rental.