Summary
- The ending of Jeepers Creepers reveals the true nature of the monster and its attraction to fear, which saves Trish from its clutches.
- The Creeper removes Darry’s eyes to use as body parts for his own regeneration every 23 years.
- Trish’s brave and selfless actions in the ending prove that she is the true horror heroine of the movie.
While 2001’s Jeepers Creepers was a surprise sleeper hit, the horror movie’s ending doesn’t explain much about its monster. Jeepers Creepers was a 2001 horror movie by director Victor Salva. The movie followed the story of siblings Darry and Trish who were accosted by a creepy, malevolent driver as they road-tripped across the country. When Darry followed their attacker to an abandoned church, he found a slew of corpses there and realized that the other driver was a serial killer. A threatening phone call warned Darry and Trish to steer clear of the driver, but it was too late. The duo was now being followed by a mysterious being.
After chasing them and being repeatedly run over by Trish, the Jeepers Creepers movie monster revealed its true form. Rather than the human serial killer that Darry and Trish expected, the villain turned out to be a supernatural monster with wings and a bat-like visage. The woman who called earlier, Jezelle, explained that the Creeper only awoke for 23 days every 23 years. This meant sequels had to get inventive, with Jeepers Creepers 2 set three days after the original and Jeepers Creepers 3 set one day after the first film, for example. However, it all traces back to the original movie’s ending twist.
Why The Creeper Doesn’t Kill Trish in Jeepers Creepers’ Ending
After pursuing the pair to a local police station, The Creeper killed a handful of prisoners and cops before hunting down Trish and Darry. After trapping them in an interrogation room, the Creeper decided to fly off with Darry and spare Trish’s life. While Justin Long’s horror movie hero was annoying, Darry’s brutal fate still came as a shock to many viewers. However, it was justified by Jezelle’s explanation for the Creeper’s behavior. Jezelle said that the Creeper was attracted to fear and fed off it, with the elderly psychic telling Darry and Trish that following the monster into his lair was what attracted him to them.
In Jeepers Creepers’ ending, Trish offered to take her brother’s place. This proved that she was not afraid of dying and thus ironically detracted from her appeal to the monster. The Creeper didn’t just want to kill and eat people but specifically wanted to feed on their fear. Darryarly was scared of dying, as evidenced when he shamelessly asked Jezelle whether it would be him or Trish who didn’t survive the night. In contrast, Trish is selfless and brave, which ends up saving her from the monster. Trish even returned in the controversial sequel Jeepers Creepers 3, reprising her role from the original movie.
Why The Creeper Removes Darry’s Eyes
The last shots of Jeepers Creepers reveal that the Creeper took Darry to an abandoned factory where the monster removed his eyes. This might seem like wanton torture, but there is a reason for this specific nastiness. Jezelle explains that the monster uses the body parts it salvages from victims to construct a new body for itself every 23 years. This explains how the Creeper could recuperate after Trish drove over him with a car numerous times since he ate several prisoners upon his arrival at the police station. Thus, the monster removed Darry’s eyes so that it could see its next victims.
How Jezelle Knew The Creepers’ True Nature
Jezelle knew the true nature of the Creeper because she was a psychic, which also explains how she knew what song would be playing when Darry died in the movie’s ending. The Jeepers Creepers saga indulges in an annoying horror franchise trope with this subplot as the movie never explains how Jezelle’s powers work. It is unclear whether she is linked only to the Creeper or if she can also sense the thoughts of other characters, and it isn’t clear whether she knows the future or if Trisha and Darry’s decisions impacted their fate during the story.
How The Title “Jeepers Creepers” Foreshadows The Movie’s Ending
The title Jeepers Creepers is a reference to the classic jazz track of the same name whose chorus includes the lyrics “Jeepers creepers, where’d you get those peepers?” The Creeper, appropriately, literally gets a new set of eyes from Darry in the movie’s ending. Thus, although a famous real-life crime inspired Jeepers Creepers, it is fair to assume that a macabre pun on this chorus influenced the plot of the movie. The Creeper spent most of Jeepers Creepers looking for a new set of peepers and eventually picked one in the gruesome finale.
How Jeepers Creepers’ Ending Fits The “Final Girl” Trope
In Jeepers Creepers’ ending, the resourceful, resilient Final Girl Trish survives while her goofy brother dies. However, these predictable events feel justified since Darry was the one who insisted on scoping out the abandoned church earlier in the movie even though his sister wisely warned him against the idea. Although a lot of horror movies lazily employ the Final Girl archetype since it is a crowd-pleasing slasher staple, Jeepers Creepers manages to make the trope feel fresh since Trish sends much of the movie warning Darry not to act like a stereotypical horror movie victim. Some reviewers even compared her frustration to the meta-gags from Scream’s heroes.
While the Creeper is a terrifying horror villain, the pair of siblings might have been able to avoid its wrath if they stayed out of its way. Their first run-in with the Creeper has nothing to do with them since they were just unfortunate enough to share a road with the monster. However, it was Trish who told Darry not to explore the abandoned church and Jezelle later confirmed that this was where the monster picked up their scent and decided to pursue them.
What Jeepers Creepers’ Ending Really Means
Even though Trish was understandably afraid of exploring a killer’s lair, she proved to be brave when it mattered most. Darry died so that Jeepers Creepers’s ending could prove that it isn’t moments of daring machismo that make a person brave, but rather courage in impossible situations. While Darry goes out of his way to explore a morbid location, he balks when Jezelle suggests that he might pay with his life. In contrast, when she is seemingly safe, Trish offers her life in his place. The ending of Jeepers Creepers shows that she is the movie’s real horror heroine.
#Jeepers #Creepers #Explained