JEEPERS CREEPERS: REBORN

CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS

Let's be honest: we didn't really need another trip to the Creeper well. Three was stretching it further than necessary: the ideas, such as they were, had run out in the first two films. They were efficient enough monster movies with a few novel twists and a healthy lashing of splatter, but there was nothing in them that warranted an extended franchise series. Indeed, given creator Victor Salva's history there was a strong argument for binning it altogether and walking away and pretending it never happened. But they couldn't leave it alone and now here's the fourth, least, weirdest and hopefully last of them. Salva isn't credited anywhere on the UK Blu and while new director Timo (Iron Sky) Vuorensola had stated that Salva "would not be involved or benefiting from the production", elsewhere on the film's IMDb trivia page it suggests he "received a monetary percentage for renting his license".

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn features a dumbass horror nerd and his long-suffering girlfriend on a road trip to a frankly tedious outdoor horror festival with people dressed up as Pennywise and Beetlejuice. They end up winning the big raffle and a trip to the legendary Creeper's house, unaware that the draw was rigged so the Creeper can get at her unborn child. Mysteriously the Creeper can't wait for them to get there and starts picking the festival's camera crew off while they're still unaccountably wandering through the spooky graveyard in the middle of the night...

It's even weirder than that: much of the second half of the film has a strange unreal feeling to it. That's because they've opted to shoot vast chunks of it in green screen and then pasted a CG house in around them, rather than find a location that actually exists, or build one. The result is a videogame atmosphere where half of the scenery looks like it isn't really there - because it isn't. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing if it looked better, but the unreality just leaps out at you. It's also confused about what it is: it's not a proper sequel because dialogue refers to the in-Universe existence of the three Jeepers Creepers movies Salva made about the Creeper, but the production design department has stuffed the Creeper's house with props and references to those films.

You don't even get a rendition of the Jeepers Creepers song (presumably they couldn't get the rights). You do get an opening bit with Dee Wallace, you get some grue and splatter, you get an impressive looking monster, but you get absolutely no reason to rustle up any interest beyond wondering why they went for the CG look and, maybe, whether they're going to milk this thing any further. I would hope not: there's nothing there to milk any more. A British-American-Finnish co-production and bizarrely shot in all of them.

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