The Cherry Hill Chainsaw Massacre

"Every 23rd spring, for 23 days, it gets to eat." So warns the opening white text against a black background, in case you forgot that those exact words were spoken aloud by psychic Jezelle Gay Hartman, played so affectingly by Patricia Belcher, just two years prior in Jeepers Creepers 1 .  Following this written line of basic exposition regarding the Creeper (Jonathan Breck), Jeepers Creepers 2 picks up on day 22, one day before it's forced to retreat into hibernation for another 23 years, on the farm of the Taggart family, which consists of father Jack (Ray Wise), oldest son Jackie Jr. (Luke Edwards), youngest son Billy (Shaun Fleming), and their dog, Mac. This introduction kicks off Jeepers Creepers 2 on a promising note, with returning writer-director Victor Salva creating an ominous atmosphere through setting, camera movement, and shallow depth of field. Cinematographer Don E. FauntLeRoy pans his camera slowly across the cornfield in broad daylight, painting the sunny...

In 1990, Coldwater, Michigan, siblings Ray and Marie Thornton witnessed Dennis DePue, who, moments earlier, had caught their attention after speeding past them, disposing of a blood-stained blanket behind an abandoned schoolhouse. Catching the pair spying on him, DePue got in his car and began tailgating them for two miles. After he drove off, Ray and Marie returned to the schoolhouse to investigate, discovering the blanket and reporting their findings to the police. The following day, DePue committed suicide during a shootout with police in Mississippi.  While Victor Salva has never confirmed whether the DePue case served as the framework for his supernatural horror film, Jeepers Creepers , he did say that the opening act was based on "a true story that I was told, only it was an elderly couple, and they went back to this pipe to see what he was throwing down there. I thought that was a tremendously brave thing to do, but I also remember, when I heard it, thinking 'If that wa...

In his introduction for his review of Rick Rosenthal's Halloween 2 , Roger Ebert memorably bemoaned, "It's a little sad to witness a fall from greatness, and that's what we get in Halloween II ." That exact sentiment can all too easily and distressingly be applied to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 , Tobe Hooper's 1986 sequel to his own 1974 groundbreaking teen slasher masterpiece. Halloween 2 and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 share a few things in common: both are 1980s sequels to 1970s slasher landmarks, both increase the graphic displays of their villains' carnage, neither comes close to living up to the suspense, horror, and artistry of their predecessors, and most astonishingly, both sequels are at least co-directed by the same director as the originals. It's profoundly upsetting and more than a little disconcerting to consider the fact that Tobe Hooper, the director and co-writer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , is once again seated in the director...