Jeepers Creepers 3

Jeepers Creepers 3 is a 2017 horror film directed and written by Victor Salva. The film stars Johnathon Breck, Meg Foster, and Stan Shaw. It is the third installment in the Jeepers Creepers franchise and chronologically takes place in-between Jeepers Creepers and Jeepers Creepers 2.

Plot

1978

A man is running from the Creeper, just missing being hit by a shuriken. The Creeper eventually catches him and flies off with him. Another man watches this happen from inside his truck. He gets out of the truck to see what happened. Suddenly hearing the Creeper's shriek from high up. Suddenly the machete the man was wielding falls on the hood of the truck, startling the man. He looks up to see a hand fall from the sky.

Day 19, 2001

The police have the Creeper's truck and are investigating it. An officer is first injured by the back of the truck by booby trapped spikes when he is looking into the truck. The sheriff, Dan Tashtego arrives on the scene. He gets a quick briefing from officer David Tubbs. While the two are talking, a spear shoots out of the tailpipe of the truck, impaling Tashtego's hat and a car. It then pulls back into the pipe. The two go investigate the area from which the Creeper flew off. While they are talking, an officer comes up to them and tells them that the truck has been taken to impound. Tashtego, very angry, runs back to his own truck. He yells at Tubbs, telling him that the Creeper did these things before and that it destroyed the church from the first movie because it was trying to hide information that it didn't want the officers to know. Tubbs reasons that this is why they should dismantle the truck in impound but Tashtego yells at him that the truck will not make it to impound.

The flatbed tow truck taking the truck to impound is driven by Frank and Deputy Dana Lang. In transit, it is suddenly attacked by the Creeper. It unchains the truck and slides it off the bed. When the officers in the tow truck get out to look around, they see the Creeper standing on top of the truck as it drives away, seemingly on its own. When it turns, the Creeper soars towards the duo, abducts Frank and leaves Lang standing, frozen in fear.

Day 20

The mother of the boy who was killed by the Creeper in the opening sequence, Gaylen Brandon , is visited by the vision of her son. He talks about an object that Gaylen has hidden on her farm, and strongly urges her to leave the farm. Gaylen refuses, however. Her son, Kenny Brandon urges her strongly, warning that the Creeper cannot be stopped and will kill her, her granddaughter and anyone else in its way in order to get the object. Kenny walks away, revealing his back which was mutilated and then sewed up by the Creeper. This causes her to begin sobbing. Her granddaughter, Addison Brandon notices her crying on the hill top. She then goes to feed her horse, only to discover she doesn't have any hay for it. Riding the horse, Rocket, Addison goes to speak to her grandmother. At first, Gaylen won't answer. She just sits on the tractor and looks lost. Addison tells her she is going to take the truck into town to buy hay and Gaylen indicates they are broke and have no credit. She urges Addison to sell the horse, to which Addison responds that it would be like selling her child. Gaylen tells her that a good mother must make difficult choices for her child.

Tashtego, talking to Tubbs, indicates that he is going to destroy the Creeper one and for all. He has put together a task force in order to do this.

Addison heads over to her friend Gracie Mathers' home in order to get some hay for her horse. Her brother Kirk Mathers comes out of the house and walks over to his truck, passing a wild rabbit caught in a trap. Gracie complains about the rabbit being trapped and when her mom, Beth Mathers comes out of the house, they both demand that Kirk release the rabbit. Kirk insists that the rabbit is not in any pain and with wild animals, it is kill or be killed. He leaves in his truck with his dirt bike. Beth confirms they don't have any hay, so Addison tells them she is headed over to get hay from Buddy Hooks, who Gracie insists Addison has a mutual crush on. When Addison leaves, Gracie tries to release the rabbit but cannot.

Kirk, along with his friends Luke, Red and Jody, are riding on their dirt bikes. They come across the Creeper's truck. The booby traps scare the boys, who all jump on their bikes and try to flee. A spear goes through his leg and drags him back to the truck. Red flees and when the Creeper arrives, Luke and Jody flee too. The Creeper impales them both on one spear through a tree. Later, the Creeper abducts Red before he can get help.

Addison ends up at Buddy's father's business to get some hay. Buddy's father refuses to help Addison and when Buddy offers to pay for the hay, his father tells him he can do better than Addison. Buddy gives her some hay. While they are feeding the horse, they see Gaylen digging something up under a tree. Kenny shows up and tells her to stop, but she insists she needs to know what the Creeper is and why it killed him. Tashtego tries to get in touch will Gaylen and he tells Tubbs the story about Kenny and Darla, telling him it was the first time he met Gaylen. Gaylen unearths an old hand of the Creeper, which lifts her into the air and gives her a vision.

Buddy takes Addison on a hay delivery. Arriving at their destination, they find the owner and others hiding under cars. The Creeper then shows up and abducts Addison. Buddy is left terrified.

Tubbs and Tashtego go to see Gaylen. They notice her hand is hurt and ask her what is wrong. She explains to them how Kenny found the Creeper's hand the night before he died. He had kept it in the barn, but the horses wouldn't stay in the barn as long as it was there. Gaylen tells Tashtego that when you touch the hand, you see how the Creeper came to be. She shows them an overturned urn that she had the hand trapped under. Tashtego touched the hand and was being lifted the same way as Gaylen and put in a trance.

Meanwhile, Addie finds herself tied up in the Creeper's truck and sees Kirk also in the truck alive as well. They both try to find a means of escape, with Kirk warning how the backdoor has the spike booby trap. Addie accidentally blows the truck horn, Kirk still having an injured leg, tries to crawl towards the passenger side door that does not have a seat. However, on the driver's seat hid another booby trap which Kirk accidentally triggers. This causes a spiky metal pipe to impale his head, killing him instantly to Addie's horror.

Back at the Brandon's farm, Tashtego made it out of the trance and shocked at what he has seen. While drinking a whiskey, he told Tubbs and the team not only is it centuries old, but it is also ancient. They get a lead of the Creeper's location, Tubb's tries to stop Tashtego as he still needs to recover. Tashtego, however, insisted to continue the pursuit, driven by desire to avenge for the squad and everyone who lost loved ones to the Creeper. He was very driven to destroy the Creeper because he fears if he lets it get away now, next time, he will either be dead or too old to stop it when the Creeper comes back in its next cycle. With that, they head off, along with the squad captain, Michael.

They find the Creeper driving down the highway, but when they shoot at it, the bullets bounce off and deflect back at the shooter. The Creeper then dispatched an explosive mine that follows its target, Tubbs was able to shoot it. Tashtego tries to warn Michael, who is coming from the other side to head the Creeper off, but the signal gets jammed, and Michael tries to shoot at it and gets killed. A small explosive is ejected from the Creeper's truck and Tashtego and Tubbs' car lands in a field. The Creeper gets out to go after them, Tubbs attempted to shoot the Creeper with the shotgun but the Creeper quickly tossed his shuriken to jam it. Tashtego orders Tubbs to retreat while he gets the Creeper's attention. Tashtego gets ready to shoot him with the minigun, it was jammed and the Creeper is ready to lunge at Tashtego. However, Tashtego was able to release the minigun and shoot at the Creeper but the bullets have little effect on it. The Creeper jumps on Tashtego and kills him with an axe. Tubbs witnesses this and the Creeper ignores him walking away while telepathically calling his axe off Tashtego's head and back to him. With most of the team gone, Tubbs retreats.

That night, the Creeper discovers Kirk's dead body and smells something off. He discovers Addie is alive and got out of her bindings, but before he can kill her, Addie backs away into the seat and uses his own booby trap against him, impaling him in the head. The Creeper loses his eye in the process while Addie was able to jump out of the back before the spikes in the back door could get her. The Creeper then tries to throw his spear at her, but could not aim properly due his missing eye and only getting her jacket. He tries to throw a shuriken at her but Addie trips, narrowly missing her. He could not fly to catch her as his fight with Tashtego resulted in his wings being damaged. Out of options, he chases her down with his axe but gets hit by a truck. The driver gets out to investigate, and the Creeper kills and eats him to heal his injuries, ultimately losing Addie and allowing her to escape. Addie hides in a field where she is found by her grandmother Gaylen and Buddy.

The Creeper returns to Gaylen's house where he finds a sign that says 'We know what you are', along with the hand. The Creeper breaks his severed hand and howls in anger, causing the crows and ravens around him in the sky to fall and die. The next day, Addison says goodbye to Buddy as they embrace in a kiss before being picked up for the high school basketball championship game in the same bus that is attacked by the Creeper before its hibernation.

The film ends with a narration about the damage the Creeper has done throughout all its hunting cycles, emphasizing on the loved ones that the Creeper has taken away. It is revealed to be the narration from Trish Jenner who is now older, in the year 2024, exactly 23 years later. She is writing an open letter on her computer telling the world of the Creeper's existence and that it will return and awaken from his hibernation soon. After sharing stories and legends that were caused by the Creeper, she calls for people to bravely join together and to fight against it while vowing to get revenge on the Creeper for the death of her brother, Darry.

Cast

Jonathan Breck as The Creeper
Meg Foster as Gaylen Brandon
Gabrielle Haugh as Addison Brandon
Chester Rushing as Buddy Hooks
Stan Shaw as Sheriff Dan Tashtego
Joyce Giraud as Deputy Dana Lang
Michael Papajohn as Frank the Tow Truck Driver
Jordan Salloum as Kenny Brandon
Ryan Moore as Kirk Mathers
Brandon Smith as Sergeant David Tubbs
Gina Philips as Patricia “Trish” Jenner (cameo)

Trivia

It's revealed a special team of people who have lost loved ones to the Creeper has been around for at least 23 years. Their leader is Tashtego, though after his death, Tubbs might succeed him.
Tashtego implies he's between his 50s-60s at least. Stating he'd be "either dead or too damn old" when the Creeper returned again.
The Creeper is shown to love his truck, rescuing it and killing a boy who peed on the grill.
Someone knowing its origins is made the Creeper angry and perform a howling shriek so powerful it kills the crows and ravens around it. Hence why all the crows were falling out of the sky. This reveals the strong attachment he may have with them and also imply his origins may carry secrets of his weaknesses or ability to kill him.
The newspaper clippings at the end of the film imply Day 1, 2024 has arrived.
This film is the first to prominently feature the Creeper's truck's full capabilities.
Gina Philips returned in a cameo as her character Trish Jenner, her first time returning to the franchise since the original film in 2001.
- This is the opposite for actor Brandon Smith, who played Sergeant David Tubbs in the first film for the final act in the police station, while his role gets extended to a main character in the third film, also his first time returning to the franchise since 2001.
Despite the perfect chance to release Jeepers Creepers 4 in 2024 to complete the saga, it could not come to be due to various legal issues with Victor Salva.
- The original writer wanted to avoid a sequel taking place during "the Jetsons" future. Largely due to not knowing how much technology would change in 20 years.

Development

As Jeepers Creepers 3: Cathedral

In the original script, the story was to take place 23 years after both films and will feature both Lunden and the origins of the Creeper. The film would have continued the story of the original film with Trish who ironically now has a son named Darry, after her late brother who was killed by the Creeper in the first film. Trish suffers from a recurring nightmare that her son will suffer the same fate. Trish, who is now rich and powerful sets out with Jack Taggart Sr. and Jack Taggart Jr. on a mission to end the Creeper's reign of terror once and for all. The film would have also featured the infamous Creeper truck. The movie was set to be released in 2015.

Back on track

On September 11 2015, Victor Salva announced that Jeepers Creepers 3: Cathedral is in production and will be back on set in early 2016, but they did not announce any cast members or plot details.

On February 14, 2016 the Jeepers Creepers 3 poster art came out for selling.☀http://moviepilot.com/posts/3777192

On March 25 2016, Trish from Jeepers Creepers is coming back to the ThIrd Installment to fight off the creeper once and for all. The movie began production April 2016. http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3384303/gina-philips-returning-jeepers-creepers-3/

Final Product

The story was rewritten in order for it to act as an interquel taking place in-between the original two films, due to the original Cathedral story being over a decade old. As the story was completely rewritten, the expected cast did not make the cut, except Trish who starred in a cameo role.