Jeepers Creepers (15) reviewed by Richard King THE claims that Jeepers Creepers is the best/scariest horror movie for the past ten years are completely false.

Jeepers Creepers is a competent enough shocker but I can think of several movies that blow it out of the water on the scare-o-meter (Blair Witch Project, Sixth Sense, Stir of Echoes anyone?)

I must admit though that Jeepers Creepers is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of horror cinema and has scares a plenty.

Where it falls down is its failure to deliver what the first 30 minutes promises -- one of the most intense (if not entirely original) set-ups I've seen in years. In short, gone are the creepy, often disturbing situations and along comes the bogeyman.

Darryl and Patricia Jenner (Justin Long and Gina Philips) are heading home from college along a road that has been featured in various urban myths, including one unnerving tale concerning a missing head.

As (bad) luck would have it they are almost run off the road by a crazy driver in a truck rejected from Mad Max 2.

Further down the road they witness said driver dumping what appear to be bodies wrapped in sheets down a sewage pipe.

They are spotted, pursued and forced into a field. Cue horror movie stupid idea number one -- they head back to check if the "bodies" are still alive.

Of course Darryl falls into the pipe and what he discovers can only be described as one of the most disturbing rooms to hit the big screen since the lounge in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

It doesn't take long to figure out who the mysterious driver has at the top of his murder list and the siblings are soon battling it out with a demon dressed like the singer from the goth-rock band Fields of the Nephilin.

It's a shame that director Victor Salva saw a chance to create a franchisable movie villain instead of delivering a truly scary and original horror movie.

The first half-hour really does work wonderfully and only makes the Creeper (Jonathan Breck) seem silly in a totally disgusting sort of way. Still, thanks to the fact that the movie is played totally straight from beginning to end, even some of the chase sequences are quite effective and it has to be said the tension never lets up. Be warned also that plot holes abound and according to the Creeper "Legend" we shouldn't have a sequel for another 23 years. But somehow I think he'll be back in something with a bigger budget, less style and no brains whatsoever. Look forward to that one then!