Neon Maniacs (1986)

October 21, 2018

Directed by: Joseph Mangine

Written by: Mark Patrick Carducci

Starring: Clyde Hayes, Leilani Sarelle, Donna Locke

Budget: $1,500,000

Quote: "Now let me get this straight. You're telling me that these, these things are inside the Golden Gate Bridge, one. Two, that they only come out at night. And three, that they're responsible for the death of fifteen or more kids and three of my police officers?"

Trivia: Some of the "maniac" characters are credited as two different performers. The film production shut down for three months due to financial difficulties. When shooting resumed, many of the performers were unavailable and were recast as such.

Oh man, this one had all the potential of a really great, weird eighties monster movie! It sounds like something that Clive Barker would have dreamed up with bizarre monsters, elaborate makeup and costumes, and a violent script. However, due in part to enormous budget problems and poor directing on the part of Joseph Mangine (this movie will pretty much help to end his career) the movie comes across as cheesy and disorganized to the point where it becomes an incoherent mess. Somehow, the director even made New Wave look cooler than Metal, a feat never achieved since. The movie supposedly had a $1.5 million budget, by no means a tiny budget. While the costumes and the monsters are pretty cool and there are a couple of great scenes, the movie feels unfinished (because it is) without any mythology to make the neon maniacs interesting. Oh, and water kills them? The heck? Stupid.

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

September 20, 2018

Directed by: Victor Salva

Written by: Victor Salva

Starring: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck

Budget: $10,000,000

Quote: "You know the part in scary movies when somebody does something really stupid, and everybody hates them for it? This is it."

Trivia: Victor Salva has always said the Creeper legend is complete fiction but the scene where Trish and Darry witness the Creeper dumping a body down a well by an abandoned church was inspired by the case of Dennis DePue, a former Michigan Property Assessor who murdered his wife and was seen by witnesses near an old school house with a bloody sheet.

Jeepers Creepers came out the year I graduated high school and was really big with a lot of my friends but I never gave it a chance. After watching it seventeen years later, I'm kind of bummed that I missed out on a fun film with an incredible beginning. The film does lose a lot of steam towards the end and the more the show of the creeper, the less creepy he gets, but it is still a pretty unique and entertaining movie. I also really like that the two main protagonists are brother and sister instead of boyfriend and girlfriend, which has been done to death in teen horror flicks (the director Victor Salva chose this to avoid sexual tension and instead focus on them trying to survive). I also am fascinated by mythologies and Salva creates a really interesting one with the Creeper. We have a modern myth in the vein of Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil.