michael messinger

As far as horror movies go, this one isn't terrible. In fact, I think it had some good ideas but I suspect a lot of those ended up on the cutting room floor. OBLIGATORY SPOILER ALERT (because after 2 years since the movie came out) For instance, In the opening scene, we see an elderly couple (Ronnie and Marie) driving an old Pontiac Safari Station Wagon. Their experience encountering the Creeper is similar to that of Darry and Trish 56 years later. (run off the road, discover the Church of Pain, , Trish's car is also a vintage vehicle, etc). There is no explicit timestamp overlayed but as the scene progresses, we can assume it is the 1950s (the 23-year JC math would put it around 1955). And while this is a nice homage to the original, they should have instead made the couple be Darla Cleeway and Kenny Brandon, the couple mysteriously disappeared along that same highway in 1978, who Trish and Darry talk about in the opening. So the movie flips to the present time and it has a few interesting concepts that should have been fleshed out better. It takes place at a Horror Hound, which is apparently the Coachella of Cosplay. You also have an Escape Room arc. Either of these could have been the single point of interest. A bunch of people picked off by the Creeper at Cosplaying event where every other person is dressed like a serial killer or a bunch of people locked in an Escape Room would work fine on its own. If you like the Jeepers Creepers franchise, this isn't a complete waste of time. As far as kills go, they were all middle of the road: not too gory, not too lame. What didn't make sense was the Cult of the Creeper (Checkov's gun) and the psychic connection Laine has with the Creeper. As for the characters, while there is scarcely any time to do much development in a horror movie, there was nothing to make me care about any of them, even pregnant Laine and her horror geek boyfriend Chase.

If you cannot find anything else to watch, there are worse ways to kill two hours. This movie had good potential with a fresh take on the classic Family moves into a Haunted House story. Instead of wasting time proving there is a ghost to skeptics, hey we got it on social media! Unfortunately, it's a mess because you have different subplots going on that are more of a distraction than a cohesive story. Nothing gets appropriately fleshed out. This movie isn't scary. It isn't really funny. The language is a bit crude and a few adult themes that don't lend to the plot make it problematic to let younger kids watch it. The mystery of the ghost's identity seems thin. I would have liked it to focus more on Ernest's backstory and the dad's attempt to monetize the event. The CIA subplot is just annoying and shows that writers often have no idea how government or intelligence agencies work. And don't get me started on that silly slapstick with Judy Coolidge (she did the best she could with what she was given).