Jeepers Creepers 2

The question on your blood red lips is, will The Creeper make it into the big league with Freddy and Jason?

He's not a talker. He flies about in the silver night, dive bombing a busload of high school basketball players. He should have a chat with Jason about doing it with teenagers. Murder, after all, is a specialist business, but The Creeper is not of this world, which means he kills for food and he's only around for 23 days every 23 years. What he does for the rest of the time may be explained in a future movie.

In the make-up department, he's streets ahead and the effects are suitably gruesome. For aficionados of yuck, there are quality incidents, especially when someone throws a javelin through his eye and the only way he can get it out is by taking half his head with it.

The story has built-in limitations. The bus is returning from a game with the coach, sexy cheerleaders and the team. They squabble amongst themselves, even before The Creeper make his attack, and there's no time to create recognisable characters. Scott (Eric Nenninger) has a hangup about being the best player and white. He thinks the black guys are giving him a hard time, which may be true, because he's not a nice person. Minxie (Nicki Lynn Aycox) is the only girl who stands out. She has a weird, inexplicable, psychic connection with The Creeper and you expect she's going to hold the key... to something. She doesn't, but she's good to have around.

It's a classic siege plot: broken down bus in the middle of nowhere, mobile phones not working, attack by winged monster with superhuman strength. Four-letter words are banded about, as if the art of conversation has been destroyed in the panic. The Creeper picks off the stranded kids one by one. There isn't much more to it than that.

In order to apply closure to the mayhem, a farmer (Ray Wise), driven insane after the loss of his youngest son, arrives in the nick with assorted homemade weapons. Minxie says, "You can't kill him." The farmer ignores her and sets about harpooning the thing. At this stage, it's more funny than scary.

The original Jeepers Creepers was definitely out of the rut. The sequel lacks the originality of the first, following the pattern of most supernatural teenage slasher flicks, although the girls stay clothed and the boys have perfect bodies.

Will The Creeper make it into the big league? Probably not. Other than looking hideous, he's a bit of a drag.

PS: how does his hat stay on? Details...