Jeepers Creepers Reborn
3 Gravestones
After the dismal release of Jeepers Creepers 3 which went straight to the SYFY Channel with very mixed reviews and opinions in 2017, we Creeper fans were waiting on pins and needles for the promise of a 4th film in the franchise to release in 2022. Well, that film had come to fruition but that film divided the fan base even more than its predecessor. First off, the thing that pissed most of us off is that this movie, like the one before, never answers the burning question of (what the hell happens after movie 2)? or even the twist ending the number 3. No this movie is…..what else, a reboot of the franchise! The first in a planned trilogy in fact!
Okay, so what does Jeepers Creepers Reborn do with this mythos of the Creeper, a winged demon that surfaces every 23 years and has 23 days to feed before going back into hibernation for another 23 years. This film, the first not to be written and directed by the franchise creator Victor Salva, tries to explain that the three Jeepers Creepers movies were just that…..movies. What the F**k!!! Yes, that the movies that we know were nothing more than just movies in this film’s world, that The Creeper himself was nothing more than an urban legend that the 3 movies were based on. Okay then!
So we open with an elderly couple driving down the road when a big scary truck comes up behind them…. sounds a little familiar….and scares them. Horror vet Dee Wallace plays the wife and is only within this opening scene played out much like the original film but then cuts away to the film’s real protagonists, a young couple on their way to an outdoor horror festival. The young man is obsessed with horror and in particular the legend of The Creeper, who in this movie is again just that, a campfire story like Bigfoot or The Mothman. Through a series of events, they discover that The Creeper is all too real as they and others are hunted down by the demonic beast.
The story is okay in this new movie but seems small in scale. With a budget of 5 million, half of the original, it only uses a handful of sets and most of that is nothing more than green screen CGI backgrounds that seem cheap. In fact, nearly every outdoor scene is CGI rendered for some reason from the moon, graveyards, and the exterior shots of the house where the final battle with The Creeper takes place and it all looks a little cheap. I kinda liked the exaggerated oversized full moon in the background sky and there’s a moment where The Creeper stands for a photo shoot under it that looks cool but for the most part it just comes off looking like a Jeepers Creepers fan film.
The Creeper himself too was redesigned in the face with more bumps and detail and yet looks more like a Cosplay mask somehow. Creeper actor Jonathan Breck who played the creature in the first 3 films was not asked to return to his iconic role, but went to Jarreau Benjamin who did okay.
We do see The Creeper come out of his state of hibernation, retrieve his iconic hat and long black coat from a scarecrow presumably where he left it 23 years prior, gather his weapons and pull a tarp off his Creeper-mobile with still a charged battery after 23 years….Wait what?”
Overall Jeepers Creepers is still not as good as the film and maybe not as good as the third…but it feels like a Jeepers Creepers movie….for the most part.
Terrifier 2
5 Gravestones
Oh my god, this movie is for sure made for gore hounds as this film very much holds up to its reputation for being bloody disgusting….and I fucking loved every minute of it!!! Yeah, this movie is the real deal when it comes to taking gore to all new levels because this is one hell of a blood bath. Art The Clown makes every other slasher movie killer out there seems like the Easter Bunny or Mickey Mouse because this guy makes killing and torture an art form like no one else. He absolutely revels in people’s pain and suffering as he dismembers people as they are still alive screaming in horror.
Don’t know if this is true or not but I heard that people seeing this movie in its limited release at the theater, some viewers got so overwhelmed by the gore that they had to leave the theater and vomit.....wimps! As for the gore….even this much blood didn’t affect me but then again, I love this stuff and run horror magazines and a yearly Halloween show called Blood Fest, so nothing was going to make me squirm in my seat. Still, I made sure not to be eating anything while watching this blood bath at home while steaming this gore hound’s wet dream just to be safe. Yeah, this thing is BLOODY!
Terrifier 2 picks up right after the last film with Art The Clown being resurrected after blowing his own brains out to avoid the taken in by police after all the murders committed in Terrifier. From there, his killing spree continues amping up each kill as he goes along until he and the final girl do battle. With a budget of $250,000, way more than the $35,000 it took to make Terrifier 1, this movie hikes up everything from its gore effects to its character development. With a run time of 2 hours and 18 minutes, Terrifier 2 has to be the longest slasher movie is history. I think it could have been cut down a little…maybe the 18 minutes or so as the final girl’s fight with the maniac clown runs a little longer than maybe it should have.
The movie stars David Howard Thornton as Art The Clown reprising his role from Terrifier and although he never speaks or utters a sound, his facial expressions or gestures tells us exactly what’s on his sick little mind. The Final girl is Sienna Shaw, played by Lauren LaVera, and she is great in the role of a high school teen who the psychopath clown takes a shine as he hunts her, her brother, and her mother as well.
Unlike the first Terrifier or even All Hallows Eve, where Art The Clown made his debut, this movie has a lot more supernatural elements than ever before. In this film, the demonic clown gets a sidekick in the form of a little girl clown who looks as creepy as he and we are not really sure if she’s something in his own mind and projects out to his victims to scare them even more or if she like him, so evil clown creature sent from Hell itself.
In his first two movies, Art The Clown seems to be a normal man who dresses as a clown to conduct his murderous rampage. It’s not until the end of the first Terrifier that we see him kill himself only to come back from the dead later at the morgue. So we are not sure what this killer really is and in this new film, it’s very clear that something supernatural is going on here. If you like killer clown movies and trust me, this painted face mad man makes Pennywise a wimp in comparison, then you’ll love this spatter fest of blood and body parts. Move over Michael Myers, there’s a new killer to stalk on Halloween night that’s a hell of a lot more brutal.
The Man Wolf
2 Gravestones
Holy crap, this is one hell of a crazy mess!!! I found this movie….if I can call it that, on YouTube and it’s just simply insane. To be clear, this is NOT the Man Wolf Marvel movie oh hell no…but a chaotic jumble of a film with not one…not two but three….three opening title credits openings with the movie title shown 3 goddamn times for some unknown reason.
The title creature, “The Man Wolf”, is nothing more than just a guy walking around….no costume, no makeup…no fangs….nothing but a normal guy walking around acting like a nut….it’s hilarious. The lead creature looks like a low-rent Grim Reaper and the devil is a shadow-like thing with Christmas lights around it for some reason? Yeah, I don’t know!
As bad as this feature film is….and yes this is not a 10-minute short but a 90-minute feature I found myself wanting more as crazy as it is. Why….hell if I know, but the damn thing sucked me into I guess just to see how outrageous it could get. This movie will leave you speechless but I gotta say, there is nothing like anywhere and for that it delivers.
The Terror of Hallows Eve
3 Gravestones
This movie tells the story of Tim, a teen boy who loves all things horror, gore and monsters…my kind of kid. After a run-in with the local bullies, he while carving a jack’0 lantern makes a wish to scare them to death as his bloody nose drips a few drops into the pumpkin. This act of bleeding into the gourd sparked within it something evil to be unleashed and a moment later a sinister jester appeared granting him his wish.
Soon with the help of the demonic joker, Tim has his enemies killed one by one until the evil creature sets his eyes on the girl Tim likes and now hunts her. Not wishing her harm, Tim tries to save the girl only to discover the malevolent entity is too powerful. Tim is arrested for the murders and we the viewer are left with the thought Tim was the killer all along or was there really a demonic jester pulling the strings to make him murder or was it the creature all along?
This short feature with a runtime of only one hour and 20 minutes was upon its 2017 release played the London Fright Fest Film Festival before going directly to Red Box. This is not a bad little movie and although on the low end of an indie budget, it makes good use of practical effects, a well-written story, and good acting. All in all, not a bad movie to watch on a Halloween night.
The Sawyer Massacre
5 Gravestones
Okay, every once in a while something truly is made from the heart that makes an impact on the film world. One such instance is the film The Sawyer Massacre, a fan-made indie production directed by Stave Merlo. With great cinematography, acting, and story, this fan film is a cut above most as it not only shows its love of the source material, but is truly well made that stands alongside any official sequel, prequel, remake, or reboot of the Texas Chainsaw ever made.
This movie has a run time of just over 90 minutes landing it in the full-length feature category. So this is NOT a half-ass home video with a few friends play-acting Leatherface and chasing someone with a toy chainsaw. No this is a real movie and my only question is why the hell is this not an official Texas Chainsaw movie?
The film starts out with various people being lured by a creepy man who talks them all into going to his grandfather’s house for one thing or another only to discover death awaits them at the hands of the hulking menace Leatherface. The blood and gore here is tops and it holds back just enough to give the viewer a true sense of dread when you don’t see what horrors befall our victims.
The cast is on point as individuals even though we get a little backstory from each one but just enough to get an idea of who they are. It’s their screams of pain and terror that made this bloody feature as moving as you the viewer feel the horror that they are experiencing. You can truly tell the makers of the movie love the material from that mythology and put a lot of care into making this film. The Sawyer Massacre is currently playing for free on YouTube where any fans of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre can view and enjoy it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-GssBcG5fk
