It’s not Halloween without Sam, the cute little button of a mascot. It’s also not Halloween without Michael Myers. I can’t imagine the season without Jason Voorhees. But it’s always Halloween whether Victor Salva’s Jeepers Creepers is programmed or not. I promise the holiday will endure without booking a slot for Salva’s only reasonably good movie, yet every year, big streamers and distributors make it a point to spotlight Jeepers Creepers among their scheduled Halloween programming. Enough.
Salva, like so many men, largely avoided any considerable consequences for his 1988 conviction of sexual abuse and possession of child pornography. He’s continued to make movies, and even knowing what we know now, has continued to inexplicably occupy an esteemed role in horror history. But he doesn’t need to, right? I’m not daft. Jeepers Creepers is a good movie. It’s handsomely made, scary, and features a stellar pairing of Gina Philips and Justin Long.
But guess what? There are just as many movies like it that don’t incentivize criminality or financially support sexual predators. This year, please skip Jeepers Creepers and check out one of these curated deep cuts instead.
And Soon the Darkness (Shudder)
Per Shudder: Two young English women go on a cycling tour of the French countryside. When one of them goes missing, the other begins to search for her. But who can she trust? Director Robert Fuest’s chilling favorite stars The Legend of Hell House’s Pamela Franklin.
Robert Fuest’s And Soon the Darkness might seem an odd match for the rural, monstrous terror of Jeepers Creepers, but once you’ve been seduced by the hazy summer vibe and Sluizer-like tension, you’ll be on the edge of your seat. While reasonably predictable by today’s standards, And Soon the Darkness is otherwise an evil, dangerous film (complimentary). It’s not affected or embellished, opting instead for an austere approach to classic slasher mechanics. It’s a beautiful film driven by a chase, and one I encourage you to seek out as soon as you can.
Carnival of Souls (Tubi)
Per Tubi: Twenty years after witnessing the rape and murder of her mother by a circus clown, a woman becomes his next target upon his release from prison.
Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls is a classic. It’s one of the scariest movies ever made, an ethereal, haunting state of suspended dreaming chock full of nightmarish imagery and a gauze-like grip on reality. It’s deeply unsettling, and earnestly a film I’m not often keen to revisit simply because it messes me up. Adam Grossman’s remake, on the other hand (if you can even call it a remake), is a gonzo monster movie dolled up with all the analog vibes you’d expect from a 1998 limited release. It’s very different, but still retains the same penchant for haunting imagery, arbitrary logic, and hypnotic terror. It’s flown under the radar for quite some time, though, and within the broader canon of horror remakes, it’s one of the most interesting ever made.
How to Make a Monster (YouTube)
Per IMDB: An evil video game comes to life and hunts the group of developers.
You can watch George Huang’s How to Make a Monster free on YouTube now. Fair use is a beautiful thing. And Huang’s How to Make a Monster is a beautiful thing, too. One of five Stan Winston-produced creature features that aired on Cinemax in 2001, How to Make a Monster is an ultimate forgotten cable gem. It’s gnarly, nerdy, digital, and features Clea Duvall of all people. The thrust is a video game monster come to life… and that’s really it. Still, there are giant swords slicing people in half, and for as dated as its tech feels, it’s a better conceptualization of early aughts angst than anything Salva has helmed.
Frogman (Tubi)
Per Tubi: An aspiring filmmaker returns to Loveland, Ohio, with friends to find undeniable proof of the Frogman, the cryptid he once encountered.
I’m not quite sure why Jeepers Creepers endures the way it does, though I think it’s on account of two key variables: nostalgia and cryptids. For the former, it’s unfortunately a defining, often introductory horror film, the stuff of slumber party dares and secret late-night streams. For the latter, the eponymous Creeper is basically a meaner, nastier Mothman. There are better cryptid horror movies out there, however, and Anthony Cousins’ underrated 2023 Frogman is among them. Silly title aside, Frogman is an earnest love letter to cryptid lore alongside a genuinely frightening bout of found-footage terror.
Castle Freak (Tubi)
Per Tubi: A father struggles to save his family from the hideous and deformed creature he finds living within the walls of the castle they’ve just inherited.
Who cares about the Creeper when Castle Freak is around? I certainly don’t, and I’d much rather watch famed director Stuart Gordon’s weird gothic slasher than any of the Jeepers Creepers films. There’s some unpleasant violence that threatens to erode the goodwill Castle Freak otherwise generates, but as a time capsule of nasty, direct-to-video schlock from the 1990s, Castle Freak is basically a classic. Bonus points for Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs.
We Can Do Better
It’s not my intention to finger-wag but rather to redirect. I can’t do anything to substantively shift the public at large away from a movie they’ve otherwise grown up with. I can, at least, recommend several other titles, ones you may not have seen, that are even better than JC. It’s important. We can’t avoid problematic art entirely, and I’m aware that Salva isn’t the only contemporary filmmaker who doubles as a sex offender. It’s not easy to navigate this era of art, and while everyone has their own line—their own boundary—this one is mine. Nothing about those films warrants even tacitly excusing Salva’s behavior. Frankly, they’re gross, and I want to be as far away from them as possible, even if Halloween watchlists always, inexorably dredge them back up.
So, check these other titles out, and be certain to check in with me over on Twitter @Chadiscollins to let me know what you think of these choices.
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