Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 24
  2. Negative: 5 out of 24
  1. Salva's view of the universe is bleak, but he communicates it with scary sincerity.
  2. 83
    Balancing homage with creativity, the picture is tight, stylishly filmed, clever and, importantly, scary.
  3. As stylish as it is grisly, Jeepers Creepers has cult film written all over it, and it's not for nothing that Francis Ford Coppola has been a staunch Victor Salva mentor.
  4. Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    80
    The movie is good enough to put a chill into the late-summer air. Salva has nasty surprises in the grim, minor-key last third, during which the feeling dawns on you that sleep for the next few nights won't come easily.
  5. It may stir you, it may make you laugh. I am of the stirred variety. I do not want to meet this guy in the dark, though I've been meeting him in my dreams for years. We all have.
  6. The story (what there is of it) doesn't make much sense, but this is a very scary horror thriller that should keep you either on the edge of your seat or halfway under it.
  7. 67
    If "The Others" is this year's paean to “quiet” horror, then Jeepers Creepers is its down 'n' dirty, punk rock, rip-your-throat-out-and-feed-it-to-you bastard child.
  8. Salva spins a backwoods serial killer setup into something really scary.
  9. Horror fans will still find it worthwhile. The ending is also a nice twist on the slasher genre.
  10. 60
    It's a shame that Jeepers Creepers cops out -- as American genre movies have been doing for years -- and plays it safe with an F/X-heavy creature that no one would believe in a thousand years.
  11. Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    Good, ghoulish fun.
  12. The first half-hour of Jeepers Creepers is so frightening that it's almost a relief when the movie subsequently collapses into silliness.
  13. The first half-hour of this movie is sensational, creating an atmosphere of dread that any horror master would envy.
  14. Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    50
    It does survive its 40-minute test drive before turning into a lemon.
  15. Turns into a grab-bag freak show as desperate as it is arbitrary.
  16. 40
    Gets off to a great start and then simply shuts down, like an awesome vintage car on an ambitious road trip.
  17. 40
    Salva falls back on dull, jumbled action and an awkward subplot as he lurches toward a sequel.
  18. Works up a reasonably delicious tingle.
  19. Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    40
    Emerges as the most conventional and least imaginative of the recent crop of high-class fright movies that includes "The Others," "Session 9" and "Wendigo."
  20. Reviewed by: Loren King
    38
    The limp script actually has the characters spout ''Let's get outta here!'' more than once. Or maybe that's just a wise member of the audience talking.
  21. After introducing a provocative opening, the movie settles in for some pretty cheap scare effects, as well as by-the-numbers computer graphic imagery for the actual marauder.
  22. A standard-issue, ineptly executed serving of the genre's staples, from skeptical cops to an all-knowing psychic.
  23. Plays like an amateur debut effort written over a weekend during which its writer wasn't entirely sober.
  24. This tripe, however, isn't worth your time or our ink.
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 62 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 46
  2. Negative: 15 out of 46
  1. 3
    You can't help but laugh at the creature in Jeepers Creepers. The first half an hour is pretty promising but then it just gets ridiculous. The movie has zero scares and not even a shock ending. A very ineffective horror movie. Full Review »
  2. The film opens with great tension and scares, then promptly plummets off a cliff when the killer is revealed to be a ridiculous rubber suit monster and ends with gratuitous disappointment. Full Review »
  3. It seemed interesting at first but really its just another generic horror film that does nothing to seperate itself from similar films in the genre. The acting is ok but thats about as good as it gets. Full Review »