Jeepers Creepers: Reborn is a 2022 horror film directed by Timo Vuorensola from a screenplay by Sean Michael Argo. It is a reboot of the Victor Salva series, the third and final which was Jeepers Creepers 3, and it intended to set up a new trilogy in the Jeepers Creepers franchise.
It is a stand alone movie as far as the events of the other three films go.
Summary[]
Jeepers Creepers: Reborn takes place in a more modern setting, and unfolds as the Horror Hound festival holds its first-ever event in Louisiana, where it attracts hundreds of geeks, freaks, and die-hard horror fans. Among them is fanboy Chase and his girlfriend Laine, who begins to experience unexplained premonitions and disturbing visions associated with the town's past and The Creeper. As the festival arrives and the blood-soaked entertainment builds to a frenzy, Laine believes that something unearthly has been summoned.
Plot[]
An elderly couple is driving through the Florida countryside when an old truck tailgates them before passing. They observe the driver next to an abandoned church placing what appears to be a body wrapped in a blood-stained sheet into a large pipe sticking out of the ground. After the truck causes them to run off the road, they turn around to investigate the pipe and are horrified by what is inside.
In 2021, millennial couple Chase and Laine travel to the Horror Hound festival in rural Louisiana. Chase is a paranormal fanatic, taking a special interest in the local urban legend of "the Creeper", a creature that every 23 years, for 23 days, kills and eats hundreds of people before disappearing. Chase plans to propose marriage to Laine on their trip, and unbeknownst to him, Laine believes she is pregnant. Meanwhile, the Creeper awakens and begins to feed in order to increase its strength. Stopping at a gift shop, Laine has a premonition when she touches a mysterious artifact. Owner Lady Manilla gives cryptic messages to the couple. At the hotel, Laine takes a pregnancy test but is interrupted when a crow slams into the window. The couple then depart for the festival.
At Horror Hound, Laine picks up a mysterious shuriken and finds she is abnormally skilled at throwing it. The Creeper arrives and begins hunting; using its truck, it knocks out internet connectivity. The couple enters into a raffle hosted by festival organizer Madam Carnage, for a chance to win a night at an abandoned plantation house that has been converted into an escape room. Laine begins to have visions of her involvement in a strange ritual within the house. A cameraman and associated crew accompanies them to document the event, along with a local tour guide, Stu.
As the group approaches the house, they travel through an 18th-century graveyard where the Creeper kills the cameraman and abducts Laine as Chase proposes to her. Laine awakens bound to a table where the Creeper pierces her abdomen with a knife. The group enters the house and feuds over their situation; Stu fires his pistol into the air attracting the Creeper's attention. The Creeper leaves Laine and hunts the group throughout the house, eventually killing all of them save for Stu and Chase.
Laine frees herself and joins them; she reveals to Chase that she is pregnant and that the Creeper has specifically targeted her as a result. They discover that Madam Carnage, Lady Manilla, and others have been worshiping the Creeper and luring victims to the house for its consumption. They enact a plan for Laine to lure the Creeper outside so Chase and Stu can push the weathervane onto it. Laine blinds the Creeper with its shuriken, and the falling weathervane impales it. A murder of crows consume the Creeper, while also pushing Stu off the roof killing him, and fly into the night. The group departs, while elsewhere the Creeper regenerates and unleashes a devilish roar.
Cast[]
- Sydney Craven as Laine
- Imran Adams as Chase
- Jarreau Benjamin as The Creeper
- Gabriel Freilich as Sam
- Pete Brooke as Stu
- Al Derado as Executioner
- Karina Kinga Kiss as Cut Throat Girl
- Charlie Bentley as Infulencer
- Lolly Watkins as Fire Performer
- Helen Lauren as Medic
- Dee Wallace as Marie
- Gary Graham as Ronald
- Matt Barkley as Jamie
- Alexander Halsall as Michael
- Jodie McMullen as Madame Carnage
- Georgia Goodman as Lady Manilla
- Romain Faure as DJ Phython
- Darren Kent as Skarsgard Clown
Production[]
Pre-production[]
The first film in the new reboot of the Jeepers Creepers film series, Reborn was written by Sean Michael Argo as part of a new trilogy that would separate it from the original three films written and directed by Victor Salva.
Filming[]
The project began production in December 2020 and was scheduled to conclude quickly by Christmas. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, filming was split into two parts, the second of which began in early January 2021.
The original trilogy is noted for taking place almost entirely in real moving cars or outdoors with minimal sequences taking place indoors or on soundstages. Reborn is the first in the series to be shot almost entirely on soundstages and heavily utilize virtual sets, a process of having actors in an empty room surrounded by green screen.
The production crew and cast stayed at Froyle Park Country Estate, Ryebridge lane, Alton, Hampshire, England, a 16th Century Jacobean manor house, during filming
Post-Production[]
Principal photography for Reborn took place in the United Kingdom at Black Hangar Studios, and in the United States on location and at Orwo Studios, in the city of Jackson, Louisiana.
Marketing[]
At the 2021 European Film Market, Foresight Unlimited showed a promotional reel of footage for international sales.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- A new version of the musical theme "Jeepers Creepers" had to be made because Screen Media Films did not have the license or permission to use the song "Jeepers Creepers" by Jack Teagarden, this because royalties had to be paid to the owner of the song rights. The song has not been heard in the Jeepers Creepers movies since the first movie. This is because previously they did not want to pay royalties on Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) and Jeepers Creepers III (2017). The new version of the song is more focused on classic New Orleans jazz.
- The fact of offering victims to the creeper as an offering or tribute is a nod to the Jeepers Creepers comic where, since the time of the Aztecs, they offered human prey to the creature as a tribute to pacify it and not attack them.
- The opening scene of the film with Dee Wallace and Gary Graham playing Marie and Ronald. It is a reference to the story of killer Dennis DePue, a Michigan resident who was caught throwing his wife's corpse and chased after witnesses. This was one of the bases that inspired Victor Salva in the original film, in addition to the fact that the appearance of the characters played by Wallace and Graham tries to resemble the couple made up of the murderer Dennis DePue and his unfortunate wife: Marilynn DePue. Even Chase sees the fictional portrayal in a show that spoofs Unsolved Mysteries (1987), the investigative series that exposed the case in the 1990s.
- Longtime fans are not pleased with this film being announced; feeling that this outright ends Victor Salva's work and gives no conclusion/death to the Creeper of the original movies as was planned for the true fourth film. Though it is hoped a genuine fourth film may be released in 2024 to match when the events of the Creeper waking up will happen, but that would have to include the original director if it happened.
- It is billed as a reboot, and the script doesn't have any direct connection to the events on the previous movies. The movie may simply be intended to be seen as a branched timeline as Victor Salva didn't write it.
- In March 16, 2021, Myriad Pictures, the production company behind Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) and Jeepers Creepers 3, filed a property fraud lawsuit against Infinity Films Holdings, one of the film's production companies, for producing the film without Myriad's "knowledge or involvement" and selling the distribution rights to Screen Media Films.
- Much of the film's technical and production team have cameos at the horror convention. In turn, there are people with certain costumes that refer to Beetlejuice (1988), It (2017), and The Shining (1980) amongst others.
External Links[]
Jeepers Creepers: Reborn on IMDb