Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017)

First thing's first, this is a review of a movie. Nothing more, nothing less. The rest of the conversation attached to this film, and director Victor Salva, is a whole different kettle of fish.

With that out of the way, Jeepers Creepers 3 is, as if you couldn't guess, the third instalment in the popular Jeepers Creepers series. I enjoyed the first film a lot. And the second. But this third film seemed to be in pre-production for a long time. I wasn't even sure if it was going to be made. Then I wasn't sure if the end result would be worth my time. It was, and it was.

The Creeper is back to doing what he does, killing people and taking body parts from them. That's really all there is to this film. He has two cops on his tail, he has a whole new bag of tricks on display (the van has been pimped out in a way that some hate, but I really liked), and he's not as worried as before about being spotted by people. In fact, this character seems to nonchalantly walk around whenever and wherever he likes, confident in his ability to kill without any fatal revenge coming his way.

Written and directed by Victor Salva, this is a fun film for fans of the main creature. The pacing is perfect, the new details are, whether you like or dislike them, appreciated as an attempt to add to the mythos, rather than just keep rehashing the same moments from the previous two movies, and the murderous set-pieces are enjoyable enough.

The problems stem from the budget, which seems obviously reduced from the first two movies. Either Salva didn't have enough to make sure things looked consistent with his vision on the screen, or he was unable to stretch the dollars and make some tough decisions in a way that was beneficial to the film.

There's also a cast that doesn't really feature anyone interesting enough to have you caring about the humans potentially about to be preyed on by the Creeper. Meg Foster is good, playing a woman having psychic visions of a dead son who tries to advise her on how to defeat the creature, and Stan Shaw and Brandon Smith do well as the two men determined to hunt him down and put an end to his killing spree. Jonathan Breck does well once again as the Creeper, but Gabrielle Haugh, Chester Rushing, Jordan Salloum (playing the aforementioned dead son), and the other young actors fail to make much of an impression. They're not awful. They're just stuck with bad writing that leaves their characters paper-thin.

If you enjoyed the first two movies then you should find enough here to like. But it's not guaranteed. This takes a slightly different direction, and a more light-hearted and even more fantastical approach to the material. Some will not appreciate that at all. I thought it was fun, albeit never really great.

6/10

Jeepers Creepers 3 is available to buy here.
And Americans can buy it here.