Jeepers Creepers: Reborn is the latest in a franchise started by controversial filmmaker, Victor (Clownhouse) Salva. This latest installment gets back to the basics, while claiming that the prior three flicks were merely based on legend. This new one, therefore, is intended as the investigative real-deal: separate yet linked to those dramatized events.
Directed by Timo (Iron Sky) Vuorensola and written by Sean-Michael Argo and Jake Seal, Creepers 4 commences with an engaging mini-movie flashback, starring Gary (Alien Nation) Graham and Dee (The Howling) Wallace, which opens the door for the prime plot: A young couple, played by Imran Adams, as Chase, and Sydney Craven, as Lane, investigate the urban legend by traveling its renown turf, just as an area horror convention hypes the folklore. Yeah, the timing couldn't be more (im)perfect for a demonic resurgence! Chase believes in the trucking Creeper's existence, or at least considers it a possibility, while Lane thinks it's a lark. Of course, the good ol' Creeper, enacted by Jarreau Benjamin, is genuine, and before long, the cloaked, floppy-hat demon conducts a series of kills to extend his collection of body parts, entrenching the couple (and those unfortunate enough to tag along) ever further into the entity's gory history.
What unfolds is expected, but for all its familiarity, the escapade holds one's interest (or at least it did mine). This is important to note since, Creepers 4, for the sake of its limited, theatrical run, received a reputed, bad rap among viewers (real or imagined), while facing a lawsuit with Myriad Pictures, which claimed that Screen Media Films had no right to make it. Despite these deterrents, Creepers 4 carries the tone of Salva's trilogy by spotlighting its stalking lead. Ergo, fans of Salva's unsettling mythology shouldn't have cause to gripe, unless they're after a complete overhaul, and that wouldn't make a damn lick of sense, now would it?
The horror-convention, carny-styled backdrop (accompanied by haunted-house, escape-room and cemetery inclusions), features fans dressed as other famous slashers (along with a for-those-in-the-know, Iron Sky allusion), and if only pushed, this angle could have flipped the concept into How to Make a Monster/New Nightmare terrain. However, even with the opportunity missed, the macabre homages establish a satisfying who's who to pad those patches where the Creeper doesn't appear. (The convention component also ties to a satanic cult [shades of Halloween 6] which reveres the Creeper as much as horror fans would revere any cinematic slasher.)
Creepers 4, in its trim, 90-minute entirety, can be found on Hulu, the same source that sprung the Predator chapter, Prey, and a Hellraiser reboot on us. Creepers 4 isn't as sprawling or stylish as those monster epics, but it's still worth a view, and so, if your subscription stands, take a peek at this fourth stab before the Creeper peeks back at you (and we all know, the brutal bastard would do far worse than that).
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