John’s Horror Corner: Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995), stop what you’re doing and watch this bonkers 90s goretastic gem!
MY CALL: I love this movie. LOVE IT! It starts horrendously slowly, but oh my Dark Corn Lord does it amp things to new levels for the franchise. The ending is full-tilt amazeballs. If you’ve ever enjoyed a gory bad movie, please make this one a priority. This infernal corn sequel gets a USDA stamp of approval. MORE MOVIES LIKE Children of the Corn III: Children of the Corn (1984)spawned many video-era sequels over the years (1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2011, 2018) leading to the most recent remake (2020). Given that the original was a “loose” adaptation of King’s story, the sequels would likely be yet “looser.” Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992) was dumber but funner, and CotC 3 seems to follow this yet dumber and yet funner pattern.
TIMELINE: Part 1 ended with the cornfields of Gatlin burning with a ghostly evil face screaming in the smoky cloud. Presumably, that ancient Corn God was defeated. But of course, many of Isaac’s disciples remained alive and, even though they turned on Isaac, many may remain devout to “He who walks behind the rows.” So yeah, sequels. CotC 2 transpired in the week following Vicky and Bert’s escape from the town. In CotC 2, the evil is defeated with the death of possessed Micah. Far simpler and less grand of a finish than CotC 1’s crop burning and zombie Isaac coming to drag Malachi to Corn Starch Hell.
Having never before left the farm, Eli (Daniel Cerny; Demonic Toys) and Joshua (Ron Melendez; The Unborn II, Voodoo) are placed in foster care with a couple in Chicago. The couple is nice and affluent, with a big house near an abandoned factory where Eli plants corn he brought from home as a direct offering to “He who walks behind the rows.”
Now I know what you’re thinking. Why are we sending these kids to some metropolis and forgoing our rural kid cult charm for this sequel? But around this time a lot of horror franchises were absconding their secluded cabins in the woods and summer camps to try their hand at horror in the big city. It was seldom successful. Carol Anne moved downtown only to be followed by her haunting in Poltergeist III (1988); Jason takes Manhattan (just five years after the Muppets) in Friday the 13th part VIII (1989); evil tribbles hit Los Angeles in Critters 3 (1991); Pinhead hit the downtown club scene in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992); Candyman (1992) brought dark folklore to Chicago; and Leprechaun 2 (1994) took its diminutive rascal to Las Vegas and then the Hood twice (2000, 2003). This was just the logical next step to give franchise fans a break from Nebraska cornfields for at least one sequel and bring our farm boys to Chicago where they are fostered by Amanda and her husband William Porter (JimMetzler; 976-Evil, Circuitry Man, Waxwork II), a corn commodities trader. Watch out for how that plays into the story.
Our big city theme comes with fish-out-of-water tropes and hokier deliveries—probably even more hokey than CotC 2. Basketball scenes, religious taboos, racial conflicts and Amish jokes abound. If CotC 2 was a fun bad movie, CotC 3 is an awesome solid gold bad movie. This features the weakest acting and writing of the three movies by far. But the death scenes and supernatural antics are oh so fun! Just be warned, for the first 30-40 minutes you will swear I’m lying and think this movie sucks. It doesn’t. Just give it time. The kills in CotC 3 are by far the best, bloodiest, most wild and most inspired. Sad that the overall movies get “cornier” with each sequel. But I’ll take them for the supernatural death scenes alone.
CotC 2’s Micah was no Isaac; and at first glance, Eli is no Micah. Or is he…? Our child cult leaders seem to be getting initially more innocuous while also gaining more supernatural power with each sequel. Case in point, Eli has an ornate corn-bejeweled Bible and conjures evil, prehensile corn plants draw and quarter his abusive father, ripping his limbs from their bloody sockets and stitching shut his eyes and lips. It’s mean. To the contrary, Micah looked and sounded more menacing, but didn’t brandish most of his magical powers until the end; and Isaac was the creepiest and most convincing leader, but never flexed a single supernatural muscle until he was undead against his will.
But supernatural deaths populate this sequel. A deliciously hokey death scene befalls a hobo that stumbles across Eli’s urban harvest; watch out for when someone spits a distinctly plastic roach from their mouth and vomit pestilence to death; there’s an utterly bazonkers-dumb face-melting death scene; we have an undead cornfield scarecrow; and every scene with a “corn attack” gets more bloody, more intense, and more awesome than the last. By the finale the corn has graduated to full Evil Dead tree status (yes, in EVERY way you might imagine). Yup, Charlize Theron (you read that right) gets violated by an evil plant. I doubt she’ll be reminiscing her “start in the film industry” for her Oscar speech.
The killer corn “decapitation scene” is 90s epic goretastic awesomeness as a kid’s head is slowly and brutally “pulled” over ten feet into the air with his spine forming a bloody elongated stalk. As of this moment, I love this movie. Again, the first 30-40 minutes were a slog, but this has proven to be well worth the wait!
We learn that Eli was somehow a foster child as far back as the 1960s. Eli implies that he might be the actual devil, which seems to disregard the first two movies. I also wonder why the devil (or some other Biblical fiend) would be tied to a corn harvest unless we’re tying to the Native American folklore from CotC 2 (which goes totally unmentioned here in CotC 3). But the events of CotC 1-2 occur in 1984… so was Eli another corn cult leader operating in the 60s as well as at the same time in 1984? Eh, probably not. More realistically, CotC 3 isn’t paying much attention to canon or franchise continuity.
The finale treats us to a long montage of crazy “evil assault corn” death. Kids are getting strangled and impaled left and right by prehensile corn vines all under the control of a huge hulking malformed, fleshy aberration of a “He who walks behind the rows” Hellbeast! This thing looks awesome. Some shots are stop-motion, including when it is eating a girl represented on-screen by an action figure! YES. An obvious ACTION FIGURE!. OMG I love this movie. It starts slow but oh my Dark Corn Lord does it amp things to new levels with every 30-minute block. The ending is full-tilt amazeballs.
Did I mention that I love this movie? If you’ve ever enjoyed a bad movie, please make this one a priority. This infernal corn sequel gets a USDA stamp of approval.
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MY CALL: Not gonna’ lie. I thought this would be unwatchable drivel. But it was some solidly fun, laughable, B-movie fun. Unintentionally funny death scenes and hokey over-the-top-ness made me glad I bought the 6-movie DVD set. MORE MOVIES LIKE Children of the Corn II: Children of the Corn (1984) spawned many video-era sequels over the years (1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2011, 2018) leading to the most recent remake (2020). Given that the original was a “loose” adaptation of King’s story, the sequels would likely be yet “looser.” This movie also reminds me of the more deliberately silly Dr. Giggles (1992), The Dentist (1996) and The Granny (1995).
TIMELINE: Part 1 ended with the cornfields of Gatlin burning with a ghostly evil face screaming in the smoky cloud. Presumably, that ancient Corn God was defeated. But of course, many of Isaac’s disciples remained alive and, even though they turned on Isaac, many may remain devout to “He who walks behind the rows.” So yeah, sequels. And this sequel begins right after the events of part 1 (i.e., still 1984).
Look, Children of the Corn (1984) was a legit serious film of humble budget and minimal gore. Meanwhile, from the very first scene, this video-era sequel has mangled grimy corpses instantly eclipsing the gore factor of the original. We hear mention of the child leader Isaac being responsible for this massacre of Gatlin’s adult population after it was reported by a young couple passing through (Vicky and Burt from 1984). So this 1992 movie apparently takes place immediately following their departure from Gatlin.
With all of Gatlin’s children now orphans, Angela (Rosalind Allen; Ticks, Pinocchio’s Revenge) is trying to find people to house all the displaced kids. She takes one such teenager Micah (Ryan Bollman; The Granny, Only the Strong) in her bed and breakfast, where she also hosts visiting teenager and his journalist father (Terence Knox; From a Whisper to a Scream) there to report this bizarre mass murder story.
Our mysterious child-worshipped Corn God, clearly not defeated from part 1 (which happened “last week” in this movie) is harbingered by unnaturally rapidly forming storms over the corn field and Predator-like (1987) infra-red vision.
This sequel is a much hokier, rather “bad movie” iteration of its source material. But it does likewise deliver on the hokey horror fun. The evil corn “paper-cut slits” a man’s throat, harpoon-impales another with a corn stalk through the chest, an old lady suffers a “wicked witch” death, and the “syringe” death scene is B-movie solid gold. We also enjoy some Lawnmower Man-esque (1992) CGI as Micah is possessed by the Corn God as if by demonic viral infection and DNA cloning. There are definitely giggles to be had. Don’t even get me started on the best bloody nose death in horror history! Lol. It was so blood-spewy. And the “wheelchair” death scene… bad movie chef’s kisses.
As silly as it is, this sequel puts forth some effort to develop the CotC mythology. We learn that many generations ago the children of a corn-growing Native American tribe rebelled against their lazy agrarian adult generation, killing them all. Moreover, it was prophesied that from the corn would emerge a leader, and that this leader has yet to emerge. So it apparently wasn’t Isaac in CotC 1. Micah is a suitably over-the-top 90s bad horror villain. But let’s be clear—he’s no Isaac.
In this second CotC installment, the evil is defeated with the death of possessed Micah. Far simpler and less grand of a finish than CotC 1’s crop burning and zombie Isaac coming to drag Malachi to Corn Starch Hell.
This was WAY better than I thought it would be. Let’s be clear, though. It’s a 90s bad horror movie. It’s just the kind of bad horror movie that plays well with the likes of Dr. Giggles (1992), The Dentist (1996) or The Granny (1995), even if those three were all “deliberately” silly whereas director David Price’s (Son of Darkness: To Die For II, Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde) CotC 2 plays its zany hand with a Poker face. This is no hidden gem among B-horror, but it’s just enough of a semi-precious stone to be worth a watch. Trust me. After 30 minutes of a rough opening act, it’s laughably enjoyable.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 486: No Time to Die, Henchmen Survival Tips, and Daniel Craig
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Mark and Niall (@Elniallo on Twitter) discuss the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, and starring Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, LashanaLynch, and a large secret island lair, the movie focuses on what happens when James Bond is forced to stop another supervillain from destroying the world. In this episode, they also hand out henchmen survival tips and rank the five films that feature Daniel Craig as James Bond.
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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MY CALL: A classic that ages just well enough, even if far from the likes of fine wine. The major child characters are harrowing, the story is simple and well-executed, and the premise primes us for a series of deliciously bad sequels. MORE MOVIES LIKE Children of the Corn: This movie spawned many video-era sequels over the years (1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2011, 2018) leading to the most recent remake (2020). I haven’t seen all of them, and for those I’ve seen it’s been too long to recall. Given that the original was a “loose” adaptation of King’s story, the sequels would likely be yet “looser.” So watch at your own risk! You might also try Village of the Damned (1960, 1995).
Driving across the country to start a new life together, Vicky (Linda Hamilton; Terminator, Terminator 2) and Burt (Peter Horton) end up trapped in Gatlin, Nebraska after hitting an already mortally wounded child with their car. With all the adults dead and buried in the corn fields, Gatlin is a ghost town festooned with corn stalk décor and cob crucifixes. Those remaining are the murderous kids and their religious cult leader.
This is a film that was excellently creepy at the time of its release, but it doesn’t age as well as many other classics of the era. A product of its time and generally slower-paced as a result, director Fritz Kiersch’s (Gor) early 80s classic holds up just well enough that I enjoy this nostalgic revisiting… even if less so than my last revisit over ten years ago.
The more minor child actors’ performances rather undo the gravity of the opening massacre scene (when the kids kill all the town’s adults). Maybe this is part of why I remembered this being a heavier movie—because I was a kid when I first saw it and that young experience sculpted my nostalgia. The Muppet-like chirping of the occasionally self-moving corn further diminishes any dire sense cultivated in the opening scenes. Thankfully the ghostly choral music stitches some creepy unease back into the mix… and then there’s Isaac and Malachi.
Our child cult leader Isaac (John Franklin; Children of the Corn 666) is deliciously evil. The casting couldn’t have been more perfect. When he watches the initial slaughter of the town’s adults in the prologue, he looks cold and empty. When he issues orders, he does so with intense arrogance, pride and piety. And when Isaac accuses someone, it’s chilling. He also looks eerily mature—as John Franklin was 25 when he played the teenager Isaac. Whereas Malachi (Courtney Gains; The ‘Burbs) looks like the homicidal embodiment of teen rage. A lanky, shaggy redhead with a vicious scowl, Malachi is Isaac’s enforcer. He’s neither the biggest nor oldest of the kids, but readily the most feared.
There’s definitely a folk horror vibe to the cornfield sermons, Isaac’s preaching, and scenes of sacrifice. Most satisfying is when Isaac’s leadership is brought into question. Scariest in this film is the very real manner in which religion can be bastardized and zealots groomed into murderers; even children. The brutal violence is mostly implied, with little stabbing or throat-slitting occurring on screen. The vehicular manslaughter scene was by far the most brutal or graphic on-screen occurrence, and it was impressive. I would have enjoyed a better budget for this film. The lack of on-screen violence/gore is a typical budgetary submission. And the stop-motion prehensile corn stalks don’t hold a candle to the Evil Dead trees.
And now the big question: what’s out there in that cornfield? A demonic mole created by Earth-warping, man-made fertilizers burrowing the corn rows? A blob of pre-CGI bad-rotoscoped colorful energy? Whatever it is, Isaac sure fears it. In fact, “He who walks behind the rows” is clearly a real supernatural force. We see enough to know that much, even if we never get any real answers.
The concept of murderously evil children, possessed or brainwashed alike, is one that morally stings. But our acceptance of this threat is limited by the ability of the child actors to deliver that evil gravity. The more kids you have on screen, the less this works. Thankfully, the twisted personalities of Isaac and Malachi overcast any doubt that Vicky and Burt are in grave danger, or that this wild religious cult isn’t something to be feared. Thank the Dark Corn Lord Isaac wasn’t the Admin on a Facebook group or a religious viral TikTok influencer. Phew.
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Mark and Zanandi (@ZaNandi on Twitter) discuss the 2023 horror sequel Scream 6. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and starring Courteney Cox, Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, and a convenient ladder, the movie focuses on what happens when Ghostface goes to New York City. In this episode, they also talk about horror sequels, plot twists, and the excellence of Mason Gooding. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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MY CALL: I’ve always been a Shyamalan fan, and this is exactly the brand of weird I wanted. Great performances and a radical theological vision deliver a lot of delusional (or perhaps prophetic?) heart along with grave decisions. MORE MOVIES LIKE Knock at the Cabin: Probably Signs (2002) and The Village (2004).
Opening shots of a beautiful pristine forest introduce us to a little girl Wen (Kristen Cui) catching grasshoppers in her jar-terrarium and assuring them “it’s okay, relax, I’m not going to hurt you, I’m just going to learn about you for a little while.” The movie wears its paralleling intentions on its sleeve, as we will be doing the very same to our cast of morally conflicted characters in this stressful cabin just as Wen would—though with more innocent intentions—to her grasshoppers. The movie wastes no time. Just as we find ourselves fondly smiling at Wen’s love of nature and fart jokes, a large man ominously approaches from a distance through the trees.
Leonard (Dave Bautista; The Man with the Iron Fists, Guardians of the Galaxy 1-3, Kickboxer: Vengeance, Army of the Dead) is a gentle giant. Covered in tattoos and speaking softly, he asks to be Wen’s friend. But we quickly learn that while Leonard seems to truly have compassion for Wen, he also harbors a dark secret and clearly is fearful of and regretful of what he knows is coming.
Once Leonard is joined by his “friends” Redmond (Rupert Grint; Harry Potter and the… all of them), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird; Old, Jupiter Ascending, The Omen) and Adriane (AbbyQuinn; Torn Hearts), they demand entrance into their vacation cabin. Wen’s fathers Andrew (Ben Aldridge; Pennyworth) and Eric (Jonathan Groff; Mindhunter) are naturally taken aback by claims that they must let them in and help them make very difficult decisions to save a lot of people. It sounds nothing but suspicious and, well, insane!
Our home invaders are very polite, nervous, and mysteriously determined. They seem completely transparent, and they want to ‘help.’ In tone, Leonard speaks patiently while clearly conflicted, leading and trying to calm his colleagues as a pastor tending his riled-up congregation of zealots. Only these zealots, however fanatical they may be, also clearly do not want to do what they “have to” do. The themes are strongly Biblical, as in Revelations. These four have seen it all in visions, and know what must be done. Or… are they just all mad, sharing a wild mass delusion?
Based on the Paul Tremblay book The Cabin at the End of the World, director M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Village, Devil, The Happening, The Visit) approaches this film as if The Strangers (2008) was less about violence and more about emotional trauma. That’s what we have here. A tale of self-sacrifice, emotion, and extreme moral turmoil. And yes, there is brutality in this film. However, it is almost entirely implied off-screen.
Whether from the original story or M. Night’s own staging and screenplay punch-ups, his movies always lean heavily into his characters’ backstories. What traumas haunt them and what challenges they have or yet need to overcome tend to be thematic to their plight in the story. This story is all about hard choices, love and free will. Whether heart-warming or heart-wrenching, the sincerity and touching nature of this film is undeniable.
This film is heavy. Not the gut punch of The Mist (2007) or Hereditary (2018), but heavy like Signs (2002) or The Village (2004). And I really enjoyed this film for that. The premise is on the verge of silly, yet I feel it is presented in a tactfully grounded manner. I would have preferred a more grounded, harrowing and overall ambiguous ending than the one I was given. But I greatly enjoyed this nonetheless.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 484: Legend (1985), Tim Curry, and Unicorns
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and John Leavengood (@MFFHorrorCorner on Twitter) discuss the 1985 fantasy film Legend. Directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Tom Cruise, Mia Farrow, and Tim Curry, the movie focuses on what happens when a creature named Darkness has it out for some unicorns. In this episode, they also talk about practical effects, chicken feathers, and the excellence of Tim Curry. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: Jeepers Creepers 4: Reborn (2022), this empty, soulless reboot is the worst movie of the franchise… by far.
MY CALL: This is to JC movies what Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) was to Indiana Jones movies (1981-1989). And if you’re too young to have suffered to understand this reference, consider yourself lucky. MORE MOVIES LIKE Jeepers Creepers: Reborn: I’d recommend seeing Jeepers Creepers (2001) and Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) instead… and (not that it was awful, but) I’d skip the next sequel Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017), which was really a mid-quel taking place between JC1 and JC2.
The Creeper Timeline: JC4 begins just like JC1, but with an elderly couple playing license plate road trip games in lieu of Darry and Trish (Jeepers Creepers (2001)). And like JC1, they are harassed on the road by a truck with the unmistakable Creeper’s license plate, and subsequently witness the driver at the side of the road dumping bodies. As the early scenes continue, this feels more and more like a scene for scene remake. Oh but wait… this is a scene of the “Jeepers Creepers movie” within the movie. So this sequel-reboot (rebootquel?) needs not follow the rules or events of JC1-JC3 as canon.
We enjoy the tactful exposition as young couple Laine (Sydney Craven; Slotherhouse, York Witches Society, EastEnders) and Chase (Imran Adams; Hollyoaks) bicker about cryptids. The characters are likable and playfully written. Unfortunately, this only applies to the early scenes. After that, the writing and acting is pretty crappy. This tends to be the case when the opening scene (or some “good concept scene”) is essentially the idea that spawned the screenplay in the first place. And like many such cases, the scene in question and the idea it presents are far better than the movie built around it.
The Creeper emerges from an abandoned shack in the woods like a rigid, quivering insect from a cocoon, covered in tattered chunks of monster chrysalis. This should really set a tone for us. But sadly, the visual effects are not impressive at all. It eats a handful of worms (that have no business being there on the soil’s surface like someone dumped a can of fish bait nightcrawlers there) and I’m starting to fear this movie is going to suck. Spoiler alert, I’m apparently more psychic than the psychic in JC1-JC3.
Not gonna’ lie. As soon as I realized that this was a reboot and not the re-emergence of the Creeper (as we knew him) 23 years after JC1, I was disappointed. I want the mythology to build. I want callbacks to what happened before. More problematic is that this seems to have the lowest budget of the four movies. This just feels like a movie that wouldn’t/shouldn’t get a theatrical release—even though, admittedly, worse films still do.
The first kill is weak. Very weak. Just bad. Then there are Laine’s premonitions—yup, more empty psychic crap that leads nowhere satisfying. The wardrobe, sets and general shots are akin to an unskilled student film. I wish this wasn’t happening.
I don’t mind cheap movies. I often enjoy them. But when a “part 4” (or reboot) is the distinctly cheapest looking movie of the franchise, this just feels phoned-in and like a waste of my time. Moreover, the cash-grabbiness is even more obvious because the producers clearly didn’t care about the fans… not that I’m pretending they typically do.
This movie can’t seem to find any momentum. Falsely presented as an escape room experience our lead couple ends up in an old “haunted” house, trapped inside with the Creeper. I despise how this was clearly chosen for cheap barren sets. And there’s a cult angle to the plot that feels just plain dumb, uninspired and (I’ll say it again) phoned in.
The special effects behind the Creeper continue to wane. The ears are sloppily made and part of a rubber mask. I don’t think it looks very good—at least, not as good as any of JC1-JC3. But it is more “monstrous” looking, even if lower quality. I don’t care for this take on the Creeper. But some may like its less “cheesy and cheeky” behavior and expressions, which are toned down in JC4. Almost nothing substantial is happening on-screen. And just when you thought it would: blurry CGI as the Creeper swoops in and grabs someone. Truly terrible.
The best parts of this movie include a thrown hammer impaling someone in the head and a couple other impaling stabs—brief but well-executed. Too bad nothing else was. Most of the horror action was of complete throwaway quality for me. This all really surprised me. I am quite fond of director Timo Vuorensola’s (Iron Sky, Iron Sky: The Coming Race) past work, yet this film seems to have none of his fingerprints on it. I’m assuming this was meant to bring him into more mainstream movies, and that he settled on a crap budget and script for the opportunity. Oh well…
Sadly, after the two opening scenes, I thought this movie was bad. And while certainly enjoyable for anyone seeking a bad movie deliberately, this absolutely does no justice to the JC franchise, it didn’t scratch my JC itch, and it fell way too far below my acceptable expectations for a formerly good franchise. This would be best enjoyed by folks who have not seen the previous three movies. Because if you have, this new movie will only disappoint you… a lot. That was my unfortunate experience. However, if this is your first JC movie, they only get better as you work in reverse!
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MY CALL: Not as good as parts 1 and 2, but still a fun ride even if things are getting silly (even for the already very cheeky Creeper and his feisty antics). Probably a good sign to stop making these movies. But who ever listens to that kind of advice? MORE MOVIES LIKE Jeepers Creepers 3: I’d recommend seeing Jeepers Creepers (2001) and Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) before seeing this sequel—maybe even instead of seeing this sequel. But I’d recommend a hard pass on Jeepers Creepers: Reborn (2022).
The Creeper Timeline: In Jeepers Creepers (2001), we learned that The Creeper is a creature of unknown origin that emerges every 23rd Spring to eat for 23 days… and once it finds a scent it fancies, it will stop at nothing to devour it! Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) take place on days 22 and 23 of the infernal feast, shortly after the events of Jeepers Creepers (2001). Now part 3 takes place between parts 1 and 2.
So after The Creeper ate Justin Long in part 1, Sheriff Tashtego (Stan Shaw; The Monster Squad) assembled a team of Creeper hunters who recruit Sgt Tubbs (Brandon Smith; Jeepers Creepers) to stop the monster’s murderous rampage in rural Florida. They’ve all seen what this creature can do, and understand it is not of this world.
Part 2 really amped up the action to something awesome, enjoying developments in affordable CGI for the wild flying action shots. However, I fear by this Part 3, writer and director Victor Salva’s (Clownhouse, Jeepers Creepers 1-2) now-overreliance on CGI conveniences have limited the creativity of some kills and flight scenes. I also think the “severed hand gag” was over-milked beyond its worth. Still this sequel offers improvements to the franchise in the form of deepening mythology and folklore among the locals (though more in the form of deepened mystique than actual answers). They even find a way to commune with the monster through its severed remains from decades past (i.e., from its last buffet rampage 23 years earlier).
Every JC movie has its psychic, and in this movie it’s Meg Foster, mother to a teenage farm boy taken in The Creeper’s last binge in the 70s. The nature of these psychics was never explained in the movies. They’re just a device for exposition and harbingers. That’s a shame because I feel like that’s a lost opportunity—like, what if only those who had a brush with The Creeper and survived would be cursed/gifted these visions.
So our psychic bereft mother (Meg Foster; Stepfather 2, They Live, 31, Lords of Salem) whose visions involve her dead son seems to be our main character story. But then there’s also Sheriff Tashtego and his Creeper hunters, which comes with a lot of exposition as the character explains his relevance to the movie on-screen to other characters. And then there’s Sgt Tubbs and his little yarn… and it all gets tangled together. This sequel seems to have too many people crossing paths with their own stories for us to keep track—at least, for what should have been a simple horror movie part 3.
I much preferred the strong link between parts 1 and 2. They each focused on a core group of victims, and the psychic in part 2 had visions of the victims of part 1. Simple, connected, satisfying—even if unexplained. This third movie felt like it was trying to do too much.
Another shortcoming of this sequel is the lack of substantial “answers” regarding the monster mythology. We find more weaponry from the Creeper’s arsenal that harken of Biblical origins (as in part 2). But we lack any satisfying explanation of why; no more hint than the illustrations on the weapons themselves. We learn that The Creeper travels with ravens and crows in its wake as it migrates to new hunting grounds. A nice touch of flavor. Still, I’d like more. And with this being the second sequel, I feel like I’ve earned it.
Now for an odd turn. I felt like The Creeper’s truck got as much attention as the Creeper himself. This heavily booby-trapped truck smacks of the Predator’s ship (i.e., Predator 2 (1990)), boasting a skull trophy of something not of this earth as we know it. Like the Fast and Furious movie series, this later sequel comes with new-fangled toys for our monster, who now has a self-driving truck (yes, you read that correctly—SELF-DRIVING) with a retractable harpoon gun and bulletproof tires and windows. I suppose this tricked up truck wasn’t fully functional in parts 1 or 2 for some reason… because there were certainly scenes where this would have come into play! The bulletproof car results in some hokey shenanigans, and the car releases Mario Kart bomb-shells. It’s almost cartoonishly silly to watch. That vehicle is a 1940s truck suped up into a future-tech war wagon.
The final confrontation has some nice visuals, but overall lacks the flair and ghoulish heart of its predecessors. The creature seemed like it felt defeated in the end, but we don’t really understand why. At this point, I’m not sure I even cared. The movie was fun and all, but I never felt invested in the outcome. The movie ends with Trish (part 1’s survivor; Gina Philips; Jeepers Creepers, The Sickhouse) taunting the next 23rd year emergence of the beast. I suppose we were to expect a JC 4 taking place 23 years after JC 1-3 and hopefully teaming up with our farmer dad (Ray Wise) who defeated the monster and waited 23 years for The Creeper’s resurrection at the end of Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003). But alas, why would they give us the movie we deserve?
This is not nearly as good as JC 2, which might have been better than it deserved to be. For me, most to least entertaining would be JC 2, JC, JC 3. Still, this was a fun jaunt, especially when viewed in close proximity to the others for appreciation of the timeline.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 483: Scream (1996), Wes Craven and Matthew Lillard
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Mark and Zanandi (@ZaNandi on Twitter) discuss the 1996 horror classic Scream. Directed by Wes Craven, and starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard and a blue plaid shirt, the movie focuses on what happens when horror goes meta. In this episode, they also talk about 1990’s horror, Norman Bates, and the excellence of Matthew Lillard. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
Movies, Films & Flix 