Darius "Darry" Jenner was one of the two main protagonists of Jeepers Creepers. He was a home-bound college student driving through rural Florida with his sister Trish for spring break. Darry, unfortunately, encountered the Creeper along the way.
Jeepers Creepers[]
Darry Jenner and his sister Trish Jenner were coming home from college to visit their family for spring break. As they drove through the North Florida countryside in Trish's 1960 Chevrolet Impala, they played a game of guessing the meaning of vanity license plates (such as 6A4EVR being "Sexy Forever"). After passing an RV, a mysterious driver in a rusty old truck, with the license plate "BEATNGU" tried to run them off the road.
After a stressful moment with Darry trying to convince the driver to go around, the truck finally passed them by. Afterward, Darry tried to guess the meaning of the vanity plate, assuming it read "Beating You." The encounter reminded them of two students, named Kenny and Darla, who disappeared while driving on the same road 23 years prior. Darry believed their story is just a legend to warn kids about being responsible on prom night. Darry knows that the story is about the recovered wrecked car, but Darla was missing her head.
After taking a bathroom break, they passed by the truck parked outside an old, abandoned church in the distance off the side of the road, and see a hulking man there, sliding what appeared to be bodies wrapped in old sheets, into a large sewer pipe protruding from the ground. The hulking man sees them and pursues them, Darry drives the car off the road after a few times of the truck hitting them to appear they crashed. The truck continues to drive onward.
The House of Pain
Darry insisted they go back and investigate, in case one of the bodies was still alive. Darry ordered Trish to hold his feet while he looked into the pipe. Darry was stunned by a swarm of rats and he jerked and screamed. This caused Trish to lose her grip on his legs, and he slid down the pipe cutting his hand and knocking the wind out of him.
Darry before sliding down the pipe
After Darry got up, he found a dying boy, with a huge stitch across his torso. The boy tried to tell him something but was unable to before he died. While looking for a way out, Darry found hundreds of bodies sewn together, covering the walls of a massive cavern beneath the church, including Kenny and Darla, realizing the legend is true.
Darry found his way out of the church and startled Trish, who mistakenly thought the truck was returning. Trish then took over driving, while Darry sat in the passenger seat, quiet and in great shock. He eventually explained to Trish that he saw Kenny and Darla and that the man had decapitated her and then sewn her head back on. Low on gas, they decided to stop at a local diner/gas station to fill up and contact the police. They see the truck pass by them on the way back to the church, Trish hurries Darry into the diner to call the police to catch him there.
In the diner, they tried to get help from the workers about needing a phone to call the police. Darry still in shock is not responding when Trish is needing him to hold it together to talk to the cops. However, they receive a phone call from the diner's pay phone. The lady identified Darry's rose tattoo and knew his name, asking if he's seen the cats yet, much to the Jenners' confusion. The woman tries to tell him that they are dealing with something demonic or inhuman and the church they saw all the bodies is called his House of Pain. She plays the song "Jeepers Creepers" on the phone, and told them that when they hear that song, they need to run. Badly frightened, Darry cursed at the woman and hung up. Later that night, Darry and Trish change out their clothes and clean up and were questioned by the police. Darry tells them everything which they have trouble believing, but try to assure Darry that they are not saying he is lying but to understand the story seems so remarkable from their perspective. A diner worker tells Darry and Trish that someone was out breaking into their car. They find that their car was broken in, and witnesses said the stranger was sniffing out their laundry and looking like he was liking it. Darry yells out to the cops that now the stranger is after them because he knows what they saw and now he is worried that the man knows his name, through being written on his underwear. Darry then informs the cop of a handprint left on the car door.
Pursued by the Creeper[]
In order to verify the story, the police escort and follow the Jenners' car back to the church. Trish questions how the stranger was able to make it back to the church then to the diner and heading back so fast. Unknown to them, the police received a report that the church was being burned down and the handprint sent over to forensics is of long-dead skin. While they were driving along, the man from the truck jumped atop the cop car, attacked and killed the police. Darry hears on the radio a rock cover of the Jeepers Creepers song, remembering the woman on the phone's warning. The stranger decapitates the male cop and tosses his head at Trish's car to startle them and get their attention. Leaving their car to investigate, Darry and Trish saw the man pick up an officer's head and pulls the cop's tongue out. Terrified, they got back into their car and fled.
Finding an old farmhouse, Darry and Trish discovered an old lady who has many, many cats. They pled with her to call the police, but she refused due to her fear that they would take away her cats. Darry observes and questions how many cats she has, remembering the phone call warning from the diner. While they argued, they noticed that the scarecrow in the yard was alive. The woman, angry that her cats were in danger, ran and got her shotgun. She shot at the man, who inhumanly jumped up and crashed through the roof of her house. Angry, the woman hit Darry in the crotch and ran into the house. After hearing shotgun blasts, it appeared that the woman was coming outside, but they saw that instead the man had impaled her with the gun.
Darry and Trish finally saw the man's monstrous face and quickly got into their car, intent on fleeing. Trish, however, tries to attack the beast by hitting him with her car but is able to jump over and evade it. Trish puts the monster's guard down as she pretends to struggle with the gears, she finally hits him. Then, she ran over him over three times until Darry forced her to stop. Afterwards, they see a wing appear out of the body and further realize it is some sort of strange creature before they proceed to drive off running over it once more.
They arrive at the Poho County Police Station, they called their parents, who insisted they wait there to come and get them. The woman from the phone call appears and is introduced as Jezelle Gay Hartman, a woman who claimed to be a local psychic. She warned Darry and Trish that they are still in danger and then tried to reveal the true nature of the mysterious creature. She announced that it was an ancient demon known as The Creeper, which rises every twenty-third spring for twenty-three days to feast on human body parts which, upon consumption, form part of its own body. She also told them that it seeks out its victims through fear, and that by smelling the fear from Trish and Darry, it has found something it likes.
Capture[]
Darry is finally captured by the Creeper
The wounded Creeper attacked the police station and gained entrance to the cells. After it feasted on prisoners to heal, it was swarmed by police, but killed a number of them. Jezelle guided Trish and Darry upstairs, telling them one of them will die, screaming in the dark for the final time while the song "Jeepers Creepers" played in the background. Darry demands Jezelle tell who does the Creeper want, she averts looking at Darry and to Trish, thinking it is after Trish. Darry then demands to know if her predictions are ever wrong. However, the Creeper shows up and Jezelle orders them to run upstairs. The Creeper headed towards Jezelle and sniffed her out, but lets her go, heading off to find Trish and Darry.
The Creeper finally caught up with Trish and Darry who hid in an interrogation room, the Creeper was able to see them through a one-way mirror from the outside. He busts the wall in and grabbed Darry and Trish, starting to smell them and even tasted them to decide on who it wanted. The Creeper then tosses Trish aside, the Creeper smelled Darry more and realized he was in its lair and fears him more, deciding to take him before being confronted by a SWAT team. The Creeper used Darry as a shield and revealed his monstrous form, yelling out a powerful screech. Trish, in an effort to save her brother, told the Creeper to take her instead. Darry yelled at her to not be a hero. Trish explained that Darry was weak and that she would not fight him. The Creeper listened to her pleas and gave it some thought; however, he wasn't interested in someone who was not afraid of him. He flew out of through the window, taking Darry with him into the night. Trish runs and screams out for Darry, but he is gone.
Eventual Death[]
Darry's corpse as seen at the end of the first film
After leaving the Police Station with Darry, the Creeper flew to an abandoned meat packing factory plant. The third film revealed Darry was left in the factory while the Creeper goes out to reclaim his truck and hunt some more victims during that night. It is unknown how long Darry fared, but he probably watched or heard victims being ripped apart right in the dark dripping factory. He may have witnessed victims getting tied to the wall and ceiling, only to suffer the same fate the next morning. The next day showed the Creeper in that hideout, where the sound of Darry's horrible screaming and crying was heard as it goes deeper into the lair. Darry's screaming suddenly ceased, and the Creeper's lab is revealed and what the Creeper wanted. He sawed off the back of Darry's head and had taken his eyes, leaving Darry's body a naked eyeless, corpse while "Jeepers Creepers" was playing on a record player in the background. It then showed the Creeper holding a long needle implying that he was going to sew the back of Darry's skull back on. The Creeper then appeared one last time as his new eye was seen peering through Darry's empty eye socket - the very eye socket upon which it once closed.
Jeepers Creepers 2[]
Darry in Minxie's dream
Darry appeared on Day 23 at night in Minxie's dream. The dream showed a very bright daylight, the bus still moving. Then Darry appears standing by the road with the same set of clothes he wore when he fell in the House of Pain, looking sternly at Minxie's side window. He points into the corn field just as the bus passes him by. When Minxie looks ahead Darry now furiously shouts at her and "He's in the farm!" However, his voice cannot be heard and Minxie observes his torn shirt and rose tattoo on his bellybutton. Then Billy Taggart, another victim appears and comes to his aid, but their warnings are not heard. Darry still continues shouting "Stop before you die...!" The Creeper eventually appears in the corn surrounding the farm, whether he senses the psychic abilities that Minxie has and Darry's presence in the whole affray, he acts quickly and throws a star at the same damaged wheel, awakening Minxie in the process to find that the dream and the reality were happening simultaneously.
Betty and Coach Dwayne study the star thrown to the wheel and find Darry's bellybutton and his rose tattoo on the weapon. Minxie only recognizes the rose tattoo as she had just seen it on Darry in her dream.
Darry showing Minxie what became of him
Darry appears once more to Minxie after she passes out. Minxie walks towards the Creeper pretending to be a scarecrow. At first, Minxie turns around to see Darry and so many voices were being heard from his mouth as if hundreds of people are sharing their knowledge of the Creeper. Darry then feeds her with information regarding The Creeper. And to show how ruthless The Creeper was, he even shows her the state that his corpse was in, and what the monster took and did to him before the Creeper sprouts his wings to wake Minxie up from the dream.
Personality[]
Darry was shown to be a cocky young man. He had convinced Trish that they should return to the church to see if anybody needed help, just after they were attacked by the old truck. Although this might have been driven into his mind by Trish having earlier told him about his selfish existence.
He did try to save the young man he found wrapped in a sheet and probably saw how ruthless the Creeper was. He had shown that he had the element of patience, being able to slowly explore the basement. This can be seen when he ties his shoe given everything that was going on. He was struck with horror to find what he thought was a bedtime story was actually real; finding a couple dead, and sewn up together, he thought this torture was just an old wife's tale.
Even after death, Darry worked with Billy to warn Minxie about the Creeper and had a lot of knowledge about the nature of the demon aside from Jezelle.
Darry getting captured by the Creeper
However, Darry is shown to possess so much fear after he escaped the church's basement and was more silent than ever, clearly shaken to the core by what he had seen; not just Kenny and Darla, but the whole basement's walls covered by the bodies sewn together. This is likely why The Creeper was more drawn to him rather than it was to Trish, the fear telling it that it needed the eyes that saw its House of Pain.
Before these events, Darry seemed open to the world, with too much sense of humor, as seen by the brother-sister relationship he had with Trish. He also had a taste for tattoos, as he had the one of a small rose near his belly button.
Trivia[]
- Victor Salva admitted that the abrupt ending of Jeepers Creepers was done due to budget cuts, and the only way to do a reasonable ending was for Darry Jenner to die at the hands of the Creeper, which was also said to happen many times in the film. However, in the original script of the movie, Darry and Trish were supposed to flee from the Police Station in Creeper's truck with the Creeper giving chase. The chase would end with Darry throwing Trish out of the truck, sacrificing himself with the Creeper by driving the truck into a train, eventually blowing them both up. The ending was still more or less similar, with the Creeper sewing Darry's eyeless body to another corpse in the meat packing factory. Everyone, including Trish and Jezelle, would just think the Creeper died with Darry when the train collided with the truck.
- The Creeper's eyes changed upon Justin Long dressing up as the Creeper, from the seemingly milky blind eyes into Darry's profound peepers - this was also because Creeper taking Darry's eyes at the end, presumingly eating them for his own blind ones.
- When Darry appears to Minxie in Jeepers Creepers 2, he is dressed in the same way as he was when he fell in the House of Pain, with his clothes dirty and torn. But his hand isn't bandaged as seen in the first Movie.
- There is a slight difference between the eyeless corpses of Darry Jenner that appears in Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2, with Darry's eye holes smaller in the second movie, and the blood being brighter, as compared to the first movie.
- Victor Salva would go on to say the ending of the Jeepers Creepers was terrifying when Justin Long (dressed as the Creeper), looked through the eyehole of the corpse created for that scene.
- In versions of Jeepers Creepers 1, Darry's screams at the end could not be heard as the camera moves through the rusty factory, but in other versions, the screams are heard - the heard screams are also shortly ended once the "Jeepers Creepers" song starts plays.
- In Jeepers Creepers 3, it is implied that in the first part of the movie while the cops are towing the Creeper's Truck, Darry Jenner is still alive at the meat packing factory. Even when the Creeper took the truck back, Darry was still alive. Unfortunately, no one knew where he was, and he was killed the following morning.
- The initial plans of Jeepers Creepers 3 was supposed to take place 23 years into the future after 2, Trish was supposed to have a son, Darry Jenner Jr., in honor of her now-deceased brother, whom Trish fears and would have nightmares of him sharing his late uncle's fate at the hands of the Creeper.
- Interestingly, the Creeper ends up no longer having Darry's eyes in the third film as the Creeper loses one after being jabbed on the side of the head by his own booby trap, knocking his right eye off. His left eye was lost in the second film after Rhonda Truitt jams a javelin right through it, tearing the left half of his head off.
- The Creeper ends up lastly having Dante's eyes with the rest of his head by the end of his hunting cycle in 2001.
- Both Jenner siblings have gotten cameo appearances after the first film.
- Darry reprises for a cameo in Jeepers Creepers 2 as a ghost in her dreams to warn student Minxie Hayes of the Creeper coming after the bus.
- Trish makes a cameo in Jeepers Creepers 3, 23 years in the future, writing on a blog to reveal the Creeper's existence and recruiting people to come together to fight the monster that took many loved ones including her now deceased brother, Darry.
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