Main Cast:
Justin Long is Darry
Gina Philips is Trish
Jonathan Breck is The Creeper
Director: Victor Salva
Rating: 1 STAR - NOT WORTH THE TIME.
Plot Summary:
Darry (Justin Long) and his sister Trish (Gina Philips) are traveling home from college by car. On the long straight empty roads, they don’t meet many other cars and only see the odd farmhouse along the route. Without warning a big old dark van with blackened windows roars up behind them and blasts the horn. Instead of overtaking them it practically runs them off the road and roars ahead of them into the distance. After a few miles, Darry and Trish notice the same van parked beside an abandoned church. They see a man taking what looks like bodies wrapped in sheets from the back of the van and throwing them down an old drainage pipe. Darry and Trish drive on but the van driver has seen them and races after them…
Review:
This old-style horror starts off well and after the first twenty minutes expectations are high. The suspense and tension build up at a steady pace but unfortunately, after this tense and dramatic start the story becomes ridiculous and all suspense is lost. The movie becomes a corny “slasher movie” with no real plot or characters. Once this happens the whole atmosphere of the movie is gone and with it the scariness that is fundamental to any horror movie.
Sci-fi and horror movies are a great excuse to have plenty of special effects because almost anything goes. There are only a few low-key special effects in this movie and certainly nothing to marvel at.
Justin Long and Gina Philips are quite good playing the brother and sister role, especially at the start when they are traveling along the road where their sibling rivalry is apparent. The banter and name-calling is quite convincing. Once the movie starts to become silly the opportunity to put in a good performance disappears.
In the end the scariest thing about The Creeper is his van, which really does look menacing. It certainly won't pass a road-worthiness-test!