What's happened to the horror genre?

Nowadays, movies that can put a genuine scare in you are a rare breed indeed. A chiller like The Others pops up every once in a while, but weakly-scripted, unfrightening pictures like Jeepers Creepers are much more the norm.

Jeepers Creepers tells the story of siblings Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry (Justin Long), who are driving home for Spring Break. As they're cruising down the highway, they notice a strangely-dressed figure dumping a couple of bodies down a chute next to an abandoned church. They decide to investigate, and are soon running for their lives, chased by something that may be an organ-eating demon ... who happens to drive a truck with the licence plate "BEATNGU." Later, a psychic inexplicably appears, cryptically warning the kids about the creature's true nature.

Since that's basically the plot, Jeepers Creepers obviously doesn't have a whole lot going for it. The brother and sister protagonists spend most of their time bickering and are so annoying that you don't care whether they end up on the monster's menu or not. The creature itself is shamefully low-tech -- initially, it consists of a Halloween fright mask and a lot of dirty clothes (although it does look much more impressive once it sheds its street bum look).

The cliche-ridden film also takes some feeble stabs at Scream-like self-awareness. When Darry takes an ill-advised look down the slimy chute, Trish says, "You know the part in scary movies when somebody does something really stupid and everybody hates them for it? This is it." Plus, the movie's few scares are strictly of the cheap variety -- the ones where something jumps out suddenly from off-camera.

So what's good about it? Director Victor Salva (Powder) sets a fairly disquieting tone early in the film, when Trish and Darry are on their own and happen upon the monster's hideout. Parts of the climax are also effective, and deserved a better movie around it.

But you know a horror film's in trouble when people laugh at the trailer -- which is exactly what happened on two different occasions when I was out at the movies.

Speaking of unintentional laughs, Jeepers Creepers has a whack of them -- such as when the monster french-kisses a policeman's decapitated head, and when we discover it likes to play the cheerful title ditty when it's carving people up in its "House Of Pain," and that it's onto Trish and Darry's trail after it takes a whiff of their smelly laundry.

Alas, that's not all that stinks here.

(This film is rated R)

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