IT'S the spring break and a brother and sister are heading home for the holiday on a deserted country road.
Trish (Gina Phillips) and Darry (Justin Long) pass the long hours pleasantly enough bickering and squabbling as any teenage siblings would do.
They also chat excitedly about an incident from 20 years ago, when on that same stretch of road a couple from their old high school disappeared. As the story goes, her headless corpse was discovered, but her boyfriend was never found.
But they fall silent, chilled by something they see as they drive past a derelict church building. A shadowy figure removes something it can't be a body wrapped in a blood-soaked shroud, can it? from the back of a battered old van and appears to throw it down a large pipe leading underground.
Not sure what they are witnessing, Trish and Darry then realise the figure has spotted them, gets in his vehicle and gives chase. After a hectic pursuit, the couple are left shaken but unhurt as they are run off the road and their tormentor hurtles off into the distance.
They get their breaths back, they bicker some more, and then decide to return to the church to try to find out what was thrown down the pipe.
It's at this point that you may want to look away, as Jeepers Creepers enters classic horror movie mode, cranking the tension up to the limit.
This movie may be derivative and pull out every clich in the book, but for an hour at least it works very well, with the story keeping you on the edge of your seat and there are plenty of moments that will have you jumping out of your skin.
It is the final third that rather lets the film down. Up until then, Jeepers Creepers has virtually been a two-hander, with Phillips and Long playing neatly off each other, beginning with high-spirited larking about before terror and desperation take over.
But when new characters are added to the mix and the true nature of the mystery assailant is revealed, the story loses momentum and its ability to shock is weakened.
Without wanting to give too much away, we are close to ending up with just another monster movie.
Otherwise, Jeepers Creepers is an entertaining shocker for the Halloween season. The teen horror flick is now an overcrowded genre, but despite the familiar ground this film covers, at least it has a fresh feel to it.
It also has an effective pay-off, which puts the film's song-reference title into perspective.
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