Jeepers Creepers 2 - Dark Lord's DVD Collection.

"It had wings ... big fucking wings!" - Scott Braddock

Jeepers Creepers 2

Jeepers Creepers 2 Year of Release - 2003
DVD Release - MGM - 2003
Region 1 - NTSC - Rated R
Running Time - 103:56

Director: Victor Salva
Starring: Ray Wise, Jonathan Breck, Garikayi Mutambirwa, Eric Nenninger, Nicki Aycox, Travis Schiffner, Lena Cardwell, Billy Aaron Brown, and Diane Delano as Bus Driver Betty
Music: Bennett Salvay

Victor Salva's 2001 Horror film Jeepers Creepers was widely regarded as a success. It was about brother and sister, Darry and Patricia Jenner, being hunted by an unstoppable monster, dubbed the Creeper. It was an unashamed and unapologetic monster movie. Would the sequel go down as a stinker or would it be well recieved by Horror fans?

SYNOPSIS

Every 23rd Spring for 23 Days, the Creeper gets to eat.

On Day 22, following on 4 days after the events of the first Jeepers Creepers film, the movie opens with Farmer Jack Taggart's (Wise) youngest son, Billy (Shaun Fleming) securing the scarecrows in their field. One of the scarcrows moves and a curious Billy is violently attacked and abducted by the Creeper (Breck) as a helpless Taggart and his eldest son Jack Jnr. (Luke Edwards) look on in stunned horror.

On Day 23, a busload high schoolers breaksdown in the middle of the highway. The occupants of the bus are a basketball team, cheerleaders and the Coaches. The Bus driver, Betty, examines the tires and discovers that what looks like a Ninja Star made of bone and metal has punctured the tire. Their mobile phones are getting no reception and the CB Radio is not being answered. Betty decides that they can continue if the go slowly.

Night falls and as they travel, one of the girl's, Minxie (Aycox), has a dream. She sees a distressed Darry Jenner (a good cameo reprisal from Justin Long) and Billy Taggart pointing to the fields. She wakes suddenly, because another of the Buses tires has been burst. Again a homemade Ninja Star is the culprit. The Coach starts do place flares in front and behind the bus to prevent accidents, but is suddenly snatched by the Creeper and taken airborne! Needless to say that everyone ran back onto the bus and closed the door. They have more things to worry about that flat tires...

As night goes on and as the Creeper terrorises and kills the occupants of the Bus one-by-one, Taggart and Jack Jnr. fashion some weapons and goes on the hunt for the Creeper. They're out for revenge! But can they find and destroy the Creeper in time or will the Creeper sleep for the next 23 years on a full stomach?

It's the Creeper's last night to feed and he's kicking the fear up a notch!

VIDEO

Jeepers Creepers 2 is presented in its original aspect of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. It is a high quality transfer without a flaw to be seen.

AUDIO

The DVD has a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. It also has a Spanish and French track in Dolby Stereo 2.0.

EXTRAS

Audio Commentary - Victor Salva (Writer/Director) and various Cast Members

Along with Salva, most of the principle actors take part in the commentary. Salva provides an entertaining and informative commentary and basically acts as a moderator.

Audio Commentary - Jonathan Breck, Brad Parker (Storyboard Artist) and Brian Penikas (Make-up & Effects)

Not quite as lighthearted and entertaining as the Salva & Cast Commentary, but still entertaining. Parker and Penikas provide a lot of informative annecdotes and Breck, who plays the Creeper, provides a lot of the entertaining anecdotes. It's a good combination and worth listening to.

Featurette - The Making of Jeepers Creepers 2 - 40:03

A fairly good Making Of Featurette that can be "Play All"ed, otherwise you can select the following Chapters:

Lights, Camera, Creeper - 14:07 - Salva begins the Featurette with; "'Every 23rd Spring for 23 Days, the Creeper gets to eat' was written so that there would never be a sequel to Jeepers Creepers, ironically." Francis Ford Coppola came up with the easy solution of making the sequel set during the same 23 days. This chapter of the Featurette has many interviews with the cast and crew, and it outlines not only the finished film, but Salva goes into what the original script would have been and the concept of the Creeper itself.
Creeper Creation - 11:18 - This chapter of the Featurette goes into how the costume of the Creeper was designed and built. It featues interviews with Brad Parker, Victor Salva, Brian Penikas and Jonathan Breck.
Creeper Composer - 09:15 - This chapter goes into the creation of the score for Jeepers Creepers 2. It has Victor Salva discussing Movie Scoring with Bennet Salvay. As a fan of Movie Scores, I found this part of the Featurette very interesting.
Digital Effects - 04:06 - As series of before and afters to highlight how the mixture of mechanical, make-up and digital effects all work to create what you see in the movie.

Featurette - A Day in Hell - 26:42

Director Victor Salva takes a documentary camera crew to film a day of filming of Jeepers Creepers 2. This is a very, very good featurette, especially if you are interested in the filming and movie-making process. Mre DVDs need featurettes such as this.

Deleted Scenes and Moments - 15:51

An interested reel of deleted scenes. Some of them would have been good to have added, but most were worth trimming from the final cut.

The Creeper's Lair - 04:08

This is an "animated" Storyboard sequence that had som of the characters discovering the new lair of the Creeper. This sequence was cut from the film and never filmed.

Ventriloquist Creeper - 01:27

Anothe animated Storyboard of a scene where the Creeper uses the Coach ans a Ventriloquist's dummy to try to lure out the kids in the bus. This scene was dropped and not filmed as Victor Salva decided that he didn't want the Creeper to talk.

Photo Gallery - 07:00

For some reason I find that Featurette-style Phot Galleries as opposed to Button Pressing Photo Galleries a lot better. This one has some good stuff in it.

Theatrical Trailer - 02:18

Standard fare. it sets up the premise for the movie well, but in my opinion it shows a little too much. I'm actually glad that I watched the film before I saw the Trailer.

Behind the Menus Photo Gallery

The cool thing about this DVD is that they created live action Menus. They got Jonatan Breck in as the Creeper specifically for the DVD. Good stuff. This photo Gallery shows aome of the Behind the Scenes of the shoot. Unfortunately its one of those Butoon Pressing Galleries...

Other MGM Releases

Trailers for:

MGM Means Great Movies - 01:10 - A package of clips from some of MGM's catalogue of films.
Jeepers Creepers - 00:57
Shedder - 01:34 - This film looks like it was shot with a Home Video Camera. It's about a buch of teens in a ski lodge being stalked by a Serial Killer dressed in Black Ski gear. Spooky!
Bulletproof Monk - 01:53 - I kinda enjoyed this film.
More Great MGM Releases - A gallery of DVD coverart for MGM's other films.

OVERALL

The first Jeepers Creepers dissapointed me somewhat. It had the best first Act and first half to a Horror film in a long time. It started as one thing, then it turned into a monster movie. It annoyed me a little. I enjoyed it, but it was a little dissapointing. But now, with the Creeper out of the bag, the sequel can move along with no pretense. And it does just that. From the first reel to the last, Jeepers Creepers 2 moves along like a freight train. The character of the Creeper is expanded upon. The special effects are improved.

The first film had the two stars, Justin Long and Gina Philips, but he second film is very much an ensemble. Salva juggles the large ensemble cast with ease, giving everyone plenty of screen time and importance. The cast themselves handled it well, too. Most of the actors playing the teens in the bus were in their first feature film, Ray Wise was as professional as usual and Jonathan Breck played the Creeper with devilish delight. A highlight for me was Diane Delano as Bus Driver Betty. She had some great lines delivered with expert comedic timing. If she hadn't been killed during the film, she would have stolen the whole show!

Jeepers Creepers 2 is a satisfying sequel. It is a highly enjoyable film with elements of Horror, Action and Comedy. Still not a patch on the first half of the first movie, but unlike the first movie, it doesn't feel like two different films in one.

The DVD for Jeepers Creepers 2 is outstanding. For a single-disc DVD, it is packed with good qualtiy extras. A flawless print, a 5.1 soundtrack, 2 Commentaries and informative Featurettes add up to a DVD worth buying.

The Film:
The Disk: 1/2