Jeepers Creepers: Reborn

Directed by Timo Vuorensola, Jeepers Creepers: Reborn follows a host of underwhelming, underdeveloped characters as they find themselves under attack from the series’ fearsome Creeper. Filmmaker Vuorensola kicks Jeepers Creepers: Reborn off with a watchable (albeit far from impressive) opening stretch detailing the Creeper’s encounter with an old married couple (Gary Graham’s Ronald and Dee Wallace’s Marie), and it does seem, in the movie’s early stages, that Vuorensola is returning the franchise to the relative simplicity of the still-potent original movie – with this vibe certainly perpetuated by the initial introduction of Graham and Wallace’s respective figures. It’s clear, however, that Vuorensola’s pervasive incompetence, which is reflected in everything from the shoddy special effects to the laughable dialogue, slowly-but-surely transforms the picture into a seriously trying, interminable piece of work, with the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by a repetitive and entirely tiresome second half that transpires mostly within a run-down mansion. (It doesn’t help, either, that the Creeper is hardly the unsettling figure he once was, as he predominantly comes off as a generic horror-movie villain with bad makeup and silly behavioral ticks.) By the time the over the top and completely anticlimactic finale rolls around, Jeepers Creepers: Reborn has cemented its place as just another awful entry within a franchise that started out with so much promise.

1/2* out of ****