Textual Analysis
'Jeepers Creepers'
Director- Victor Salva
Writer- Victor Salva
Release date- 19 October 2001
Genre- Horror
Cast
Patricia (Gina Philips)
Darry (Justin long)
The creeper (Jonathan Breck)
Synopsis- A brother and sister driving home for spring break decides to take the back roads home through an isolated countryside where they encounter a creature with a strange taste for flesh.
The equilibrium stated when we see the two characters driving a blue car down the road. We then hear voices in the distances and as the car gets closer the voices get louder. Darry (Justin Long) was driving the car he was wearing a yellow t-shirt next, it than cuts to a blonde hair girl with her hair push back behind her ears sitting in the passenger seat wear an orange vest top. In the car audience noticed that the two characters are playing game this suggested that they have being driving for a long time and are playing games to pass the time.
The disruption happened when Darry and Patricia got run of the road by a mysterious driver. The audience first saw the driver through the rave view mirror, a big rust copper brown truck coming behind at a very high speed. The mysterious character start blowing its horn which alerted Darry and Patricia who are franticly trying to get out the way. They started to panic shouting at each other on till the truck run them of the road. The mysterious character creates audience interest making them wonder who the character is and why he/she ran them off the road. That also made the film more exciting and engaging. The fact that Darry called the character in the truck a” serial killer” gave the audience a small clue about who the character might be and what are his/her intention. When Patricia clam down she stated talking about Kenny and Darla who die on the same road their driving down. This makes the audience think are Patricia and Darry going to meet the same faith and continue to watch to see what’s going to happen. This was made even more interesting when Patricia said “when heard the story I always thought this was the high road I die on”. This was another clue to the audience of what may or may not happen. As the plot carries on Darry and Patricia drive passed a church and sees the creeper throwing what it seems to be a body down a big pie because of this Darry decided to see what it was and he accidentally feel down the pie and discover the creepers secret immediately the audience knew that Darry have becomes the creepers new victim.
The new equilibrium starts when Patricia was at the police station standing without her brother and her parents came to pick her. Here her body language was intense and dramatic as the film draw to a close the audience began to feel apart of Patricia pain and her devastation of the lost of her brother and the effect the death would have on the family. The use of camera angels and movement also add to the atmosphere. The camera then cuts to an old abandoned oil factory where the audience hears screaming and in a dark room the camera slowly pan up to Darry sitting on a table with his eyes cut out and the creeper looking through them.
Analysis of 2-3 minutes when Darry and Patricia went back to the church to explore what they saw.
They are 3 main characters Patricia Jenner, Darry Jenner and the creeper. These characters are all typical of a horror genre we first are introduced to Darry and Patricia who are brother and sister dressed in typical teenager clothing driving home for spring break this was a perfect start to a horror film. The location of Jeepers creepers in is an isolated countryside with not much people which means even less witnesses this is similar to the location in chainsaw mascara. Directors like making horror films in isolated areas because of the type of image they portray which always means something horrifying happened or is going to happen also the soundtrack makes the film recognizable to the audience as a horror. The music that the director uses allows the audience to telling when something is about happen the music that was used in things film was dark and sinister.
The scene stared when Darry and Patricia saw the mysterious truck that tried to run of them road at old abandon church. Where the camera cuts to a long shot of a strange cloaked figure dumping what it looked like a dead body roped and rapped in a sheet. This caused the two characters to become curious as well as puzzled. The audience would immediately know that their curiosity would eventually lead the two into unwanted trouble and would keep watch to see their faith.
Both characters facial expression was intense the director used a mid-close up concentrating on the characters eyes looking fearfully at the creeper wondering what is it doing. The intensity in the characters eye allowed the audience to connect and feel there fear. The scene became more intense when Darry decided that he wanted to go and see whether the person was still alive. This part of the scene demonstrates to the audience a sense of masculinity by portraying the role of the hero. Whereas Patricia resistance shows the audience that she much more aware of her situation and that female viewers watching the film could relate. The audience will know that in a typical horror film it’s not a really good idea to go and explore the unknown. So they keep watching to see what would happen. The camera began to pan around the church so the audience could get that feeling of the characters surroundings shouting at the screen “don’t go inside”. This is because in most horror films a church is not the symbol of something good it is most commonly associated with death. With the use of camera angles the director used bird’s eye view shot as the car pulled up alone side the church.
The camera then cuts to the pie which firsts catch the characters attention. Then it cuts back to the car where the director used a close up of Darry and Patricia looking around the church yard. Both character got out of the car and walked over to the pie slowly. The effect of this on the audience was that it made them feel scared the closer they got to the pie the more intense the scene gets. The camera then cuts to a point a view shot of both character looking in the pie, here there was not much lightening which added to the horror effect.
The camera then cuts to Darry and Patricia covering their nose this suggest to the audience that something doesn’t smell right. Both characters then walked off as Darry was walking away he heard a faint cry for help which alarmed him. He reach back to the pie and shouted “hello is anyone down there” it then cuts to a warm eye view of Darry shining a flash light down the pie.
The camera then cuts to Darry and Patricia covering their nose this suggest to the audience that something doesn’t smell right. Both characters then walked off as Darry was walking away he heard a faint cry for help which alarmed him. He reach back to the pie and shouted “hello is anyone down there” it then cuts to a warm eye view of Darry shining a flash light down the pie.
Darry decides to climb down the pie to help the person which again illustrates a sense of masculinity. He justifies his reasons for going down the pie by saying “if it was me I would want someone to help me”, Patricia the reply by saying ' you know the part in scary movies when somebody did something stupid and every one hate them for it, this is it'. Here the director cleverly makes reference to what would happen similar in another horror the audience could also relate and agree with what Patricia said. He then climbed into the pie while Patricia holds his legs for support.The peace of the editing started to speed up when the camera cuts to a big close up of something moving up the pie. Darry started kicking and screaming when he saw that there was a lot of rats coming towards him this caused Patricia to get scared of let go of his legs.
Then it cuts back inside the pie as the audience saw Darry sliding down the pie. The director creates effect by using slow motion as Darry fell to the ground. This would immediately make the audience think what chain of event will unfold now because he was not meant to be there in the first place and would be curious to what Darry would found down in the pie and what is his faith now he’s discovered the creepers layer.
The camera then cuts to a point of view shot of Darry falling on the floor. The director used slow motion to add to the effect as Darry fall further engaging the audience keeping them entertained. Now as the audience see the story unfolds before their very eyes they are now certain of Darry's faith and can now predict the ending of the film.
End of 2min sequence.
