Jeepers Creepers II (2003)

Jeepers Creepers 2 is a 2003 American horror film written and directed by Victor Salva, produced by American Zoetrope, Capitol Films, Myriad Pictures and distributed by United Artists, a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer division. The film is a sequel to the 2001 horror film Jeepers Creepers.

Plot
3 days after the events of the first film, Billy Taggart (Shaun Fleming) assists his father in erecting scarecrows throughout the corn field. When one of the scarecrows suddenly moves, he notices the talons on its feet, and runs back towards the farm, yelling for help, only for the scarecrow to leap into the air and pounce on him. As his father, Jack Taggart Sr. (Ray Wise), and his older brother, Jack Taggart Jr. (Luke Edwards), rush to his aid the scarecrow drags Billy through the field before sprouting wings and flying off into the sky, as Jack Sr. and Jack Jr. watch helplessly.

The following day (Day 23), a school bus carrying a high school basketball team and cheerleaders back from the state championships suffers a blowout. The chaperons inspect the tire, which they discover has been torn apart by a hand-crafted shuriken made of bone fragments. Back on the Taggart farm, Jack Jr. finds a dagger left by The Creeper. When his father inspects it, it inexplicably flies out of his hand on its own accord.

With the bus back on the road Minxie (Nicki Aycox), has a vision of Darry Jenner (Justin Long), The Creeper's victim from the first film; as well as Billy Taggart, who both attempt to warn her of The Creeper's presence. She then witnesses the Creeper blow out another tire, leaving them stranded alongside the road. They manage to flag down a passing car, whose occupants promise to notify the authorities. As the head coach, Charlie Hanna, lays flares across the road the Creeper quickly swoops down and grabs him, flying off unnoticed.

The bus driver, Betty Borman, becomes worried when she pulls another shuriken out of the tire (which has Darry's belly button in the center) and orders everyone back on the bus, before the Creeper swoops down and flies off with her as well. When the assistant coach Dwayne Barnes returns to the bus, he asks the students what they saw before being grabbed by The Creeper, and the teammates frantically attempt to save him, but to no avail. After hearing police reports on two abductions on East 9, Jack Sr. and Jack Jr. go to investigate.

On the bus, Scotty debates with the others on whether they should leave the bus or not, resulting in an argument with teammate, Deaundre "Double D" Davis. The Creeper returns to the bus to pick out its targets, and manages to jam the doors. After the Creeper leaves, Minxie passes out and has another vision in which Darry warns her that every 23rd spring for 23 days The Creeper eats people before going back into hibernation. Minxie informs them that its last visit was purely to pick out who and what it wanted.

En route to the bus, the Taggarts find the car from one of the passers-by which has crashed into a tree, the roof having been peeled off, and the occupants missing. He radios the students, who are ecstatic about imminent rescue, however, this is short-lived as the Creeper manages to punch through the roof of the bus and grabs Andy "Bucky" Buck by the head. One of the students, Rohnda, impales the Creeper through its eye with a metal pipe, and The Creeper manages to pull it out, ripping off a portion of its head in the process. When the Creeper tries to fly away it falls back down, landing on the roof of the bus. The Creeper is presumed dead, but it wraps one of its wings around Dante, decapitating him, and consuming his head, before flying off again. Scotty manages to pry the doors open, and conflict arises again when he suggest throwing its targets off the bus. The students use this opportunity to leave the bus, and The Creeper returns, and chases them across the field, striking Jake in the head with a shuriken and pinning Scotty to a tree with a dagger. Double D, Rohnda, and Izzy attempt to help Scotty, and they manage to free him seconds before the Creeper grabs him and flies away.

Bucky and two other students, Chelsea and Johnny, get back to the bus, but the Creeper grabs Bucky by the head again. When Taggart arrives with Jack Jr. and Minxie, who they managed to find along the way, he spears the Creeper using a homemade harpoon-like weapon he equipped his truck with. However, the Creeper removes the harpoon from its torso, throwing it back towards the truck, and almost impaling Taggart's son. Taggart reloads the weapon, and once again spears the Creeper, who destroys the bus and Taggart's truck, however the weapon is left intact.

Double D, Rhonda, and Izzy find a truck they saw earlier, but the driver is missing, presumably killed by the Creeper. Izzy and Rhonda get in the truck, and Double D jumps in the back when the door handle breaks. They drive away with The Creeper in close pursuit, and Double D attempts to shoot it with a flare gun. As a last resort, Izzy drives back onto the fields, pushes Rhonda out of the truck, and slams on the brakes causing the Creeper to crash through the window and the truck to flip over. The truck explodes, and Double D having an injured leg attempts to crawl from the wounded Creeper. The Creeper pins D down, but before it can attack him, Taggart, his son and the students from the bus arrive, shooting it in the head with a harpoon. Taggart then repeatedly stabs it, and the Creeper stares up at him in anger as its face closes. Minxie explains that its not dead, it has only gone into hibernation for another 23 years.

Twenty-three years later, a group of teenagers drive to Taggart's farm, where the Creeper is a sideshow attraction known as the 'Bat Out of Hell'. They are greeted by Jack Taggart Jr. (now bearing a scar across his nose from his encounter with the Creeper) As the teenagers ask where the Creeper came from, Jack Jr. unable to answer, simply replies, "My dad killed it." He leads them into the barn, where the lifeless Creeper is tied to the wall. An elderly Taggart Sr. is sitting in an armchair, armed with the harpoon gun, and patiently watching the Creeper. He warns the teenagers not to touch the decaying corpse and when asked if he's waiting for something, Taggart looks up at the Creeper and says, "About three more days, give or take a day or two."

Production
Jeepers Creepers 2 was filmed in Long Beach, California. Filming started on May 10, 2002 and ended on August 9, 2002.

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 23% rating with an average score of 4.2 out of 10. They state that the film: "is competently made, but it doesn't have the scares of the original."

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, the worldwide gross being $63,102,666, slightly higher than the original.

Awards

 * Nomination - Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
 * Nomination - Saturn Award Best Horror Film
 * Nomination - Motion Picture Sound Editors: Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in a Feature Film (David Bondelevitch and Victor Salva)

Sequel
A sequel (third movie in the franchise) titled Jeepers Creepers 3: Cathedral    is being developed, and the director expects it leads up to a TV show, despite initial news that a fourth movie was also being developed, although as of September 2014 nothing has been announced regarding the future of the sequel.

Trivia
Trish and Jezzele from the first film were originally supposed to hunt down the Creeper and the bus was originally goin to be the subplot of the film. However the more Victor Salva wrote on the bus, the more it becomes interesting so he scrapped Trish and Jezzele.￼

Jack Taggart Sr. originally only appeared in the cornfield and it supposed to have Trish seekin revenge on the Creeper.