"Jeepers Creepers 2" - a textual analysis

 Me and Lauren watched Jeepers Creepers 2 and studied the opening in detail.

The first thing we noticed is that the film follows the typical horror conventions, such as someone dying in the first 10 minutes. Billy Taggert (played by Shaun Fleming), a farmer's son, is the first character in the film to die. He is setting up scarecrows in his dad's field, and one of the scarecrows, the 'monster' in the film that kills everyone, comes to life, spawns wings and flies away with him.
Neither of us particularly enjoyed the film as we felt it was a little repetitive and fairly predictable.


Jeepers Creepers 2 was released August 29th in 2003, a sequel to the 2001 film Jeepers Creepers, and is certificate 15. Jeepers Creepers 2 was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. It was directed by Victor Salva, who also wrote and directed the first and third Jeepers Creepers films, the third due to be released in 2013, and Powder in 1995. Jeepers Creepers 2 runs for 104 minutes / 1 hour and 44 minutes.

The film begins with opening titles. The first title reads "Myriad Pictures". This is the name of one of the studios that helped produce the film. 




The second title reads "American Zoetrope Pictures", again this is one of the studios that helped with the production.

The next title is the name of the distribution company. The title reads "United Artists, an MGM company". 

Once the introductions have been made, the film begins. The first shot is another title, a black screen with white writing that reads "Every 23rd Spring". The following shot is exactly the same, but the writing reads "For 23 days". Again, a black screen with white writing, the third title reads "it gets to eat". At 1:03, this final title fades into an establishing shot of a corn field. On this shot, there are sounds of birds chirping and crickets.  

The shot slowly pans right for 20 seconds, before an overlay title appears that reads "Day 22". As the title appears, a flock of crows fly out from the corn into the sky. Sounds of the crows cawing and their wings flapping are heard. The shot continues to pan right until it comes to a scarecrow rack. As the shot pans across, crunching sounds in the corn are heard. A boy then appears from the bottom, lifting a scarecrow up to the rack, and it quickly changes to a close up shot from the side, showing the boy placing the scarecrow on the rack and tying it up. There is a deep bang as the crow hits the rack, at the exact moment that the shot changes to a close up. The boy is to the right of the screen, and the corn field and two other scarecrows are clearly seen behind him. The focus on the boy's face is clear and the background is blurred. Towards the end of the shot a man's voice can be heard very faintly, leading to the next shot.
The next shot is a mid-shot of an older man. He is to the left of the screen and, similar to the last shot, the background can be seen clearly. He speaks to the boy before jumping over a big farm machine, away from the shot.

The camera then comes back to the boy, this time at a 180' shot with him on the right, facing the scarecrow. The focus of the shot changes as he looks to his right. He becomes blurred and the focus is instead on the background - some machinery further back in the cornfield.

Again, the man's voice is faintly heard. This leads to the next shot, a tracking shot left, following the man walking across, in between various pieces of machinery. He shouts, "make sure they're wired up good!" before picking up a large chunk of what seems like wood. He then walks back the way he came and shouts "I don't want 'em blowing over again at the first big wind!". The shot then returns to the 180' of the boy and the scarecrow, before a crow is heard and he looks to his left to see where the sound is coming from.

The following shot, at 2:10, is a long shot, showing the two other scarecrows in the cornfield. A few crows fly around, still cawing, and land on the shoulders of the scarecrow furthest away.

The shot again returns to the 180' of the boy. He shakes his head, continues tying up the scarecrow and mumbles to himself, "I don't know what good they're doing".

Next shot is a close up of the first piece of farm machinery shown in the whole film. It pans downwards to show the man, carrying the piece of walk, walking right towards the machinery. The angle then changes to a close up of the man's feet, and shows the bottom of the wood being placed on the ground with an audible thud. A very quick mid-shot of the man's back is next, showing him reaching up to the top of the machinery and grabbing a metal cylinder, before the angle changes back down to his feet, and the metal cylinder is also seen being pushed down until it hits the floor with an audible clang. 

The shot then tracks left, following him again as he pulls a lever round on the machinery and jumps into a seat.

An extreme close up follows of the red gear sticks seen in this picture. His hand grasps one of the levers, and as he pulls it down, the shot quickly changes and a sharp sound of creaking and a blow of air are heard.

The angle is now at a long shot of the machinery, the shot seen before with the metal cylinder and the wood, but without the man standing there. A big blow of earthy dust blows out from underneath the cylinder. The following shot is a mid-shot of the man, sat in the chair breathing heavily, before taking his cap off and throwing it in a rage and crying out in frustration. He then sits back in his chair, sighs, and rises from the chair. Here is where we are given the first character's name, the name of the boy. As the man stands up he shouts "Billy?! You been messin' with the Post Puncher?"

The camera shows the boy at a close up from the side, similar to the first shot that we see him in, and he shouts back "No!" before continuing with tying up the scarecrow.


This all happens in the first 02:46 of the film.