Jeepers Creepers 2

Plot

Three days after the events of the first film, the Creeper, disguised as a scarecrow, abducts young Billy Taggart in front of Taggart Sr. and Billy's older brother, Jack Jr. The following day, a school bus carrying a high school basketball team and cheerleaders suffers a blowout, after one of the wheels is hit by a hand-crafted shuriken made out of bone.

Cheerleader Minxie has a vision of Billy and Darry Jenner, the Creeper's victim from the first film, who both attempt to warn her about the Creeper, which then blows out another tire, disabling the bus. With the party stranded, the Creeper abducts the coaches and the bus driver, and singles out several of the occupants: Dante, Jake, Scotty, Bucky, and especially Double D. Minxie has another vision in which Darry explains that every twenty-third spring, for twenty-three days, the creature emerges from hibernation and hunts victims for specific body parts which it then consumes in order to replace those of its own, which she relays to the others.

After hearing numerous police reports, the Taggarts go hunting for the Creeper and make radio contact with the school bus. The Creeper attacks Bucky and is injured, and then kills Dante, using his severed head as a replacement for its own. The students leave the bus, where they are again attacked and chased into a field, where the Creeper kills Jake and takes Scotty. After the Creeper attacks Bucky at the bus again, Taggart shoots it with a home-made harpoon; however the Creeper escapes and flips the truck. Izzy, Rhonda, and Double D attempt to escape in a truck and are chased by the Creeper, causing the vehicle to crash. Despite missing an arm and leg, the Creeper continues to stalk Double D until Taggart intervenes by shooting it with a harpoon again. Taggart repeatedly stabs the Creeper in the chest and face but the creature goes into a hibernation state before it can die.

Twenty-three years later, a group of teenagers drive to Taggart's farm, where the Creeper is a sideshow attraction. They notice Taggart watching it with a harpoon gun at his side. When they ask him if he is waiting for something, Taggart looks up at the Creeper and says, "About three more days, give or take a day or two."

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 23% of 122 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "Jeepers Creepers 2 is competently made, but it doesn't have the scares of the original." Metacritic rated it 36/100 based on 29 reviews. Andy Klein of Variety wrote, "Few things are scarier than a sequel to a bad movie, but, in fact, Jeepers Creepers 2 is substantially better than its predecessor, even while staying strictly within the genre's well-defined boundaries." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "The sequel has got the creepy bits down cold but lacks a fair share of scares." Roger Ebert, writing for The Chicago Sun-Times, rated the film one out of four stars and said, "Victor Salva's Jeepers Creepers 2 supplies us with a first-class creature, a fourth-rate story, and dialogue possibly created by feeding the screenplay into a pasta maker." In The New York Times, Dave Kehr wrote that creature lacks personality when the concept is retooled into a film series. Gene Seymour of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the sequel lacks the mood of the first film, and the teen protagonists are too annoying to draw the audience's sympathy. However, Seymour praised Wise's performance. In a positive review, Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club called it "the rare sequel that's not only bigger than its predecessor, but also better".

Box office

Jeepers Creepers 2 opened in 3,124 theaters and had a U.S. domestic gross of US$ 35,667,218. Other international takings were $27,435,448, and the worldwide gross was $63,102,666, slightly higher than the original.

It displaced its predecessor, Jeepers Creepers, to become the new record holder for the highest ever Labor Day opening weekend four-day gross, holding the record until the 2005 release of Transporter 2. After the 2015 Labor Day weekend, Jeepers Creepers 2 still holds the #5 spot with the #7 spot still held by Jeepers Creepers. Allowing for films that had been released prior to Labor Day, Jeepers Creepers 2 holds the #9 spot after the 2015 Labor Day four-day weekend.

Awards

Sequel

In September 2015, Jeepers Creepers 3 was officially greenlit. The film was slated to begin filming in April 2016 until production was halted when Victor Salva was boycotted from filming in Canada for his criminal past Victor Salva returns as director, Jonathan Breck returns as "The Creeper", and Gina Philips, from the original Jeepers Creepers, is believed to be returning for her first screen role in five years. Production was set for February 2017 in Louisiana. The film is currently filming in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A release date has not been confirmed yet, nor if the film is being released theatrically or straight to DVD. Actress Adrienne Barbeau had joined the cast but has been replaced by Meg Foster.