TV Alert: With this horror cucumber, a scandal director drove an entire franchise into the wall!

Let’s face it: Jeepers Creepers 3 is not a good movie. Our FILMSTARTS review gives the third part of the horror series about a demonic serial killer only a measly one and a half stars. In conclusion, we call it an uninspired collection of clichés and lousy CGI effects. That alone should really be enough to keep you from turning on. But the inventor and director of the franchise also built in a story element that isn’t scary, just extremely uncomfortable. More on that later, but first the obligatory note:

If you still want to watch the film despite our warning: “Jeepers Creepers 3” is on Tele 5 today, July 12, 2023 at 10 p.m. A repeat airs on July 14 at 11:55 p.m. The comic can also be streamed for free in the broadcaster’s media library from 13 to 20 July. You can also get the FSK 16 title as a Blu-ray, DVD or paid video-on-demand:

“Jeepers Creepers 3” on Tele 5: That’s the story

State Trooper Tubbs (Brandon Smith) and local sheriff Tashtego (Stan Shaw) come across an abandoned old pickup truck in the middle of the road. When they open the rusty cart, they find numerous badly battered corpses inside. A short time later, four young bikers are brutally murdered by a mysterious creature, while teenage Addison (Gabrielle Haugh) is kidnapped.

The experienced Tashtego knows for sure: the Creeper must be back. The heart-devouring demon struck en masse 23 years ago, but then suddenly vanished. At the time, the creature had an arm chopped off in battle, which Addison’s (Meg Foster) eccentric grandmother keeps in her shed. Together with the police, the old woman wants to save her granddaughter and put an end to the ghost once and for all…

flops and tastelessness

The not exactly earth-shattering good “Jeepers Creepers 1 + 2” were real hits in 2001 and 2003 with no less than 60 and even more than 100 million dollars in worldwide box office earnings. However, “Jeepers Creepers 3”, which was only added in 2017, mutated into a complete flop. The frugal budget of only 6.2 million could only be earned back by just over half. But this disaster was not only due to its flat story and the poor quality of the visual execution.

Journalists who previewed “Jeepers Creepers 3” criticized not only the narrative and staging flaws or the cheap-looking special effects in their reviews. They were also annoyed by the pedophilia subplot built into the plot by Victor Salva. The director and writer was sentenced to three years in prison in 1988 for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old actor while filming his debut film Clownhouse.

Before the start of the screen, a line of dialogue has been removed from the theatrical version (or slightly modified for the DVD release), expressing sympathy for a man stalking his underage stepdaughter. But the rest was still there. The whole leaves a very bitter aftertaste. Mainly because this segment is completely irrelevant to the primary storyline. Apparently not too many people wanted to see a movie that came with so much negative publicity.

After that, the franchise should be over, you might think. But far from that. In 2021, a reboot trilogy was announced – but this time without Salva’s participation. Instead, “Iron Sky” creator Timo Vuorensola sat in the director’s chair for the first installment. However, “Jeepers Creepers Reborn” didn’t get any better than its predecessor, as you can read in the FILMSTARTS review. As a result, most cinema seats remained empty this time as well. Whether the planned sequels ever come to us is more than uncertain.

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