I hadn’t seen Victor Salva‘s Jeepers Creepers II in a while so I recently rewatched it.

And it’s better than I remembered.

Jeepers Creepers II takes place after the original 2001 film with a new story that reveals more information about The Creeper and by my reckoning is one of the best sequels ever made, independent of genre because it does what great sequels to, which is to say advance the narrative in an organic fashion while introducing engaging new characters and situations. 

In fact Jeepers Creepers II is so well done that if someone had told me that Salva had directed Poltergeist instead of Tobe Hooper it would make sense – despite having made his first short in 1986 (Poltergeist came out in 1982).

And speaking of Poltergeist, I’m still not convinced that Hooper directed it because, visually and narratively, it’s not only unlike anything he done in his entire career, it looks like something done by Steven Spielberg, who co-wrote the story as well as produced.

But that’s a discussion for another day.

As far as Jeepers Creepers II goes, when you add a very engaging story – also written by Salva – I can’t see how one can’t love the the movie though I imagine a lot of people have more issues with the director than the movie, especially if you give even a cursory look into his background.

So if someone decided to never watch his films again, I could understand it though the first two Jeepers Creepers films are good enough that I think they deserve a watch despite Salva.

He did a third movie in the series and while I did see it, I have virtually no memory of it.