Deep Cuts Horror Hit List #21 “Jeepers Creepers”

Hey, there are folks. It is Saturday, October the eleventh, and he might be our favorite guest we ever had on GMA three. But even if not that, he for sure gave us our favorite moment ever on GMA three. And he is also in today's number twenty one on our list of favorite horror movies. Everybody, welcome to this episode, Amy and TJ. As we continue to count down our horror hit list, where you are given, we are giving our favorite movies that maybe you haven't even heard of,

Every time we see him in a movie, we know we're in a safe, good place. We're gonna get a hit of some kind. Yes, we're talking about Justin Long. He's amazing and he is the star of the original Jeepers. Creepers released August thirty first, two thousand and one, and it is our number twenty one on our horror hit list. And this movie starts off with a bang. You gotta love a movie. Within the first few minutes you're like, oh, yeah, I'm hooked, and that is this and I had not

And this movie is amazing.

I don't know how I came up on this from in the first plate. This is another one like Lake Placid I own on DVD.

Funny Blu Ray, and those two movies I had never seen. I actually think I made a choice.

To not watch them.

Shame on me, yes, and better late than ever. So any of you were hoping who were like me and avoided it for whatever reason or just didn't was weren't aware of it. This is something to put on your radar. This movie is awesome.

This is a it's yes, obviously a horror movie, but they also call it a mystery thriller. But the synopsis goes like this short movie, we should just ninety minutes. That's a sweet spot for a horror movie. We keep saying what they're rated? Do we have any PG thirty?

I don't think so because it's so funny.

I actually think there are some pretty decent PG thirteen horror movies. But every time you see the rating is PG thirteen, you're like, pass, no, thanks, don't want to watch it. I'm over twenty one or over seventeen. I think I can watch rated R movie.

I what the thing is? They have to do certain things in a PG thirteen horror movie that make it not so horror, Like you remember Megan. Yes, this is a good example. Megan. The original Megan was supposed to be a rated R movie, but it caught on and caught fire online on social media with everybody passing around the memes and this and that, and they go, whoa, we have a much younger audience that's checking this out.

But that's a brilliant marketing move.

It is.

Didn't they release an uncut version or a.

More Yes they did, Yes, like I was over more adult version, I was over.

You want to rate it R?

So yes, we should go back. And I don't think we have.

Oh I think all of our movies are rated R. That's got to be one. No, I'll have to check.

It was the original conjuring Radar.

I believe, so okay, I believe.

So okay. Let me give you the synopsis here for Jeepers Creepers. Rate it R yes, and here it is. After making a horrific discovery in the basement of an old, abandoned church, Trish and her brother Darry watch their routine road trip home from college turn into a heart stopping race for their lives. They find themselves the chosen prey of an indestructible force that relentlessly pursues them and gives a new and chilling meaning to the old song jeepers Creepers.

How you like those peepers? Is that how it goes?

I like those peepers jeepers. It's a little song, but yes, it plays a central theme in this movie. Now, the box office not bad. This movie made thirty eight million dollars domestically twenty one million internationally for a total of fifty nine million on a ten million dollar budget. So this is a little sleeper hit.

How did I miss this? I mean, honestly, I'm trying to think about what was going on in my life. I think maybe I don't know, but I my loss but my gain later in life.

To watch it again for the second, third, and fourth time.

What do people know justin Long from what would be the first thing? You see him and you know him and everything, But is he most known for something? He was just in weapons not too long ago. But justin Long is a face you know not just no, you know it well. You have seen him in so all Barbarian that was recent.

So good.

But they say he's known for him. I just did like a whole search on him. He's known for his roles in comedy and horror films including Galaxy, Quest, Jeepers, Creepers, Dodgeball, I See Alvin and the Chipmunks. He's just not that into you, Barbarian tuss. I mean, he has a wide ranging film like just Anthology that he's a part of, but it's mostly comedy and mostly horror.

And you have our word. You know who he is as soon as you see his face.

Oh immediately know who he is.

But he stars alongside Gina Phillips who plays his sister, and his movie director and this one was Victor Salva. The rhyme Tomato score uh not a doozy forty seven percent from the critics.

I take issue with that. Once again, I don't agree.

Forty nine percent shocking. I know where it's coming from. When you start reading through, I can totally understand, and I land on, come on, y'all, you take in.

The movie tho serious exactly?

Because yes, the movie starts out so tense. Oh you are on the edge of your seat, and it does devolve into something that some people would call silly.

Yeah maybe, and I accept.

That, And that does happen with a lot of horror movies. There were some horror movies that almost made our list, and I would say, eighty five percent of it is just amazing, and then the last fifteen percent you lost me.

We have a couple of those. Maybe one day we'll.

Go through those, like the almost great horror movies, like if you just had changed the ending, or if you just hadn't made that choice in the last ten minutes, that would have been like the most amazing horror movie ever. There are so many like that. They just didn't know how to end it, They didn't know how to button it up. I could see where people could make that argument with this one, it gets a little silly.

Uh, And here is my argument with that. Yes, you're supposed to have a few of those.

It's a horror It's okay.

Of course she didn't trip over the one stick in the road. Of Course he's walking and she's in a full sprint. But somehow he caught up. Of course not. There's just some silliness to a horror movie. When it's this one, you.

Just have to accept exactly when people get upset about bad decisions people make in order to get themselves killed.

Yeah, it's a horror movie. That's part of it.

This is our best one on the list for that.

I was screaming at the TV.

Get people together, if you want to scream, and hey, you idiots, don't do that, this is the movie for you.

Do you know what happens when I do that?

Sometimes it's funny, even like Eva, my oldest daughter will go, mom, it's a horror movie.

Of course they do that, Like.

It wouldn't be a movie if they didn't make that choice. And that is a fair point. So every time I find myself yelling at the at the scenario, I'm like, but if they made the choice that actually made sense.

We wouldn't have a movie.

Yeah, And we were doing this with a recent movie, I think two movies ago. Was it Sinister. When we were talking about dude, just turn on the lights. There's a scar He's going through the house in a scary scene. He's scared of everything. What is that making a noise? And he walks past like twelve lights switching.

You're like, he's walking past the light switch right now.

But you know what, I would actually say, that's part of the fun and watching a horror movie with the group. You can point out all the stupid mistakes they make, and it's part of the enjoyment of the movie. So don't take it so seriously. Don't take yourself so seriously, and understand what you've signed up for.

That is what this movie is. This is one that I would watch with the group, and I don't mind them yelling. Usually I'm like, ah, everybody shut up. So this is one where it's okay, y'all, y'all, can y'all. Yeah.

So the critics consensus Jeeper Screepers has a promising start.

Yes, it absolutely does.

Unfortunately, the tension and suspense quickly deflates into genre cliches as the movie goes on.

That's kind of fair, that's very very fair. But we're okay with that.

As we just pointed out, we've got some critic reviews, and they again run the gamut.

But here's one of them. Jeeper's Creepers might.

Have a stylish, stylishly sinister look, but the goods are rudimentary.

You know. Even the vehicle to that point that the bad guy is in is menacing as hell.

Oh my god, the noises it's making. It's scary as hell, and you don't know who's inside and why it has such supercharged power to overcome a modern vehicle even though it's ancient, or.

As Justin Long says, it must be souped up or something.

All right, Another another critic, though it's creepy, well firmed, well filmed, first half fuels this psychological process.

Jeepers.

Creepers degenerates from a realistic and frightening story into silly, supernatural shangans.

You know what, Some of the shenanigans were fun. The scene in the road where he's avoiding the car. Some of that it's terrifying and fun, and some of it even is silly. This menacing creature does like some ridiculous funny stuff. You don't know what to do with that and some of it. Yes, I agree with every criticism.

I do too, and we accept it and we embrace it. All right, Jeepers Creepers is better setting things up than following through. It must resort to psychic mumbo jumbo that has to be played straight and doesn't work.

Okay, And now I agree with you. At the there's some mumbo jumbo, and the mumbo jumbo er is not very believable and just comes out of nowhere. And that's again I agree with all this. I'm just saying it is still a fun movie experience.

Yes, there's a menace to it that creates a lot of tension, and the direction makes all the right moves, but the proverbial big reveal makes the whole thing seem more than.

A little ridiculous.

Yeah, all ridiculous.

So here's the way I take this, because I agree with everything they're saying.

So I like this movie because of all of what they just said.

So you've got the fear, you've got the heart racing, you're totally invested.

The acting is great.

We love justin long, Long and then when you get the big reveal and all, it actually ends up making it lighthearted enough or silly enough where you're not shaking under your covers at night. So I actually think it's such a digestible horror movie that it makes it safe in a way for you to watch with family and friends, and no one's gonna walk away scared to death like this is the antithesis of Sinister, which leaves.

You feeling this like unbelievable dread and fear.

This actually, in a way makes it digestible, and there's some fun.

There are even some funny moments in this one as well. Yes, this is a campy, this is a bubblegum if you will horror movie.

Yes, all right, So here's the positive review. Leave the reviews with on a high note. Instantly suspenseful from the start, agreed and bolstered by the tremendously believable performances from the two leads.

One hundred percent.

This unique flight of dark imagination is a terrific variation on the cycle from Hell formula and a memorably gruesome horror fantasy.

I love that it was good enough to also spawn at least two and maybe a third sequel, The.

Box office success speaks for itself.

Yeah, but yeah, it's hard to disagree with even right, you'd say what you think about a movie and can still recommend it, Like I can point out so many faults and flaws and all this with the movie, but I would a hundred pit tell you to go see it.

It's something I love about the horror genre that it comes in so many different forms, And that's part of the reason why we wanted to make this list for some of maybe the lesser known horror movies that still give you something really good. Some of them have comedies, some of them have fears, some of them have entertainment, some of them have Like there's just so many different sub genres of horror movies, and I think it all depends on the mood you're in to pick which one

Again rogues talking about great performances. Justin Long is a solid accomplished guy and the I didn't really piece it together until we started doing this series. Just how many movies we like have not just good but stella and even superstar actors in it.

Yeah, you give me anything with Patrick Wilson in it, anything with Justin Long in it, anything with even there's so many what are some of the female Jessica Chastain, Jessica Chastain, Rose Byrne. I mean, I just there's so many Vera Farminga. I can ever say her name, but yes, there are just certain people you look at you like, oh, if she's in it, I'm watching one hundred percent. All right,

Movie will give you a hint of what it is going to be.

But robes. We also need to tell you why Justin Long created our favorite moment we ever had while working at Good Morning America.

Continuing now with our Deep Cuts, Amy and TJS Halloween Horror hit list coming in at number twenty one, we have jeepers, creepers, and we started this episode talking about why we love Justin Long so much. We already loved him for his performances in all of the movies we know and love, But we actually got to interview him on GMA three one particular day, and he you know, when you meet somebody that you think you are going to love, or you get to talk to them and they disappoint you,

He delivered for us and this was this it had to be COVID.

I think it was during COVID. It was everything was on zoom, yes.

So we had him on zoom. You know, I can't even remember what he was promoting at the time, but there was something that drove us crazy that our producers did. When we're interviewing somebody, I think it was the last segment. Usually of the interview, we'd have the person's face up on TV. We're talking to this person we're interviewing, but then at the bottom our producing team would put up a graphic teasing the next guest the next day. And we thought it was incredibly It's rude.

You're sitting there talking to Justin Long and on the lower third you're actually telling the audience to stop paying attention to what Justin Long is saying. Because we're gonna talk to someone different and more exciting, even maybe tomorrow.

Okay, So Rose and I complained about We hated it, and we complained about it. And this was the one that made that forced the change because it happened while we're interviewing Justin Long and if he's how he is in his movies, that's his personality. He has kind of

Because it's rude.

It's like when you're telling somebody something and they're talking about someone else and have completely ignored what you just said. That's what it felt like visually, and he pointed it out. We died laughing, and we're like, thank you for saying that. That is so rude that we just told we're telling people don't listen to Justin long right now, But get excited about Nelly coming on Good Morning America on Monday.

Isn't that the equivalent of being at a bar talking to one person but then looking over that person's show the more attractive person.

And you know what's happening. It's like, I can see where your eyes are going right now. So anyway, we love that he pointed it out us and actually enacted real change to the show's format at that point. All right, So why this Jeepers? Creepers made our list. We've said it, it's fun. Don't overthink this movie. If you want to be you know, if you want to find some cinnamon ptography and some artistic I don't know, like you want to be elevated in the form and the this isn't

A little silly in the end.

But you know what, we were all in and we loved the format. We loved the ridiculousness of it.

It was just fun. So go into it with that attitude and you'll love it.

But we promise you it is worth the ride off the top. The first the opening sequence of this movie is as amazing and it was not vogue. It's not violent, it's not horrific.

But your hart is racing.

It's a highway scene. It's wonderful.

Okay, so yes, we think we now have established who It's not for anyone who's looking for some sort of just introspective script that's creative and yes and keeps you guessing it.

No, that's not for you.

This is just fun, just good fun, horror film fun. All right, what would you pair this with TJ food drink atmosphere?

I'm thinking of something convenient. I'm thinking of something that you're going to get outraged, Like, you should have a drink that has a seal on the top. You should have something you don't mind spilling onto the carpet, because it's you almost want to throw things at the screen. I think even there's the scene in which the young lady, the lead actress, she acknowledges this is the part in the movie where people say, stop doing this stupid thing.

I actually appreciated that she said it, because I had already been saying it a couple of times to the justin long character. Why are you going to go back there? Why do you need to investigate? Just keep driving? Silly she's actually saying what we're thinking, which I appreciated. So to your point, I would say Champagne would be great because it's kind of a fun movie bubbles, and if you spill it, oh good. I can't really tell that some champagne spilled in anyway, it'd be a spill of honor.

I think that's fun.

But again, this is another popcorn movie. This is just your classic on entertaining movie. I wouldn't overthink it, just enjoy. And I do think this is one. And you've pointed this out to watch with the group. You can watch it by yourself, but this is a fun movie to watch in a group setting.

Would you go on the again, righted R. I'm not saying saying bring your six year old in to watch this one, but it's if you're going to bring a younger person into a horror movie, this is a not so horrible way to do it.

I would say teenagers and op would be totally fine with this movie.

I know people think we're crazy, but.

It has become my parents are like, what are you doing?

Amy?

But my kids have grown up loving horror movies, and I will say they they get it, they know it's a movie. And I've never ever had to deal with nightmares or any of that stuff because they've just always been around it. And I think there's real perspective as to what we're watching, which is entertainment, not a documentary, and there is a distinction between the two. So to each his own, but I do think this is one that is fun. Like on Christmas Day, what do we

Or if on DVD, like I too, pull that old DVD player.

I love that you still have your DVD player. Watch our DVD player.

Now, how else are we going to watch our seasons of twenty four? You know what?

That is something else we shared we didn't know. We both loved Princess Bride and we both loved twenty four. Never missed an episode of that unbelievable keep for Sutherland juggernaut of a show.

We own every season on DVD.

Love that all right, So our next episode, we're gonna tease it, all right, The next movie on our list, which will be number twenty, will make you rethink the next dinner party you're invited to.

Oh my god, Okay, I forgot what we were doing there, And.

I would say that that tease could apply to a couple different movies. So I think it'll leave you guessing still, because there have been a couple dinner party I've seen.

I think there were at least three that.

Come to mind's in this one specifically because we both loved the well it's it's dark, it's exceptionally dark, and we can't wait to share it with you. So thank you for listening to us Simmy Robot alongside TJ. Holmes.

We'll talk to you soon.