For students across America, Spring Break is a time for fun, relaxation, and making memories. But for horror fans, Spring Break 2024 carries a more ominous significance – it marks 23 years since the events of the original Jeepers Creepers film, meaning that the Creeper has awoken from its hibernation.
The original film hit the silver screen way back in 2001, depicting the Jenner siblings’ horrific run-in with this terrifying abomination during Spring Break season. If you do the math, then Spring Break 2024 marks precisely 23 years since the Creeper fed.
While this creature’s origins are shrouded in mystery. All that is known is that every 23rd spring, this nightmare emerges from its slumber, driven by an insatiable hunger. For 23 days, it stalks the unsuspecting, a predator unlike anyone has ever faced. Its single purpose is to survive and to feed.
But this creature we have come to know as the Creeper, doesn’t just kill to eat. This patchwork monstrosity hunts with intent. As we learned in the original film “It eats lungs so it can breathe, and eyes so it can see. It all becomes a part of it. Whatever it eats, becomes a part of it.”
This seemingly immortal and unstoppable killing machine survives by consuming the body parts of its victims in order to replenish its own damaged and deteriorating body. These parts are then not simply digested, but rather become gruesome additions to the Creeper’s grotesque form.
But how does the creature choose its new intended organs you might be wondering. Well, this monster chooses its victims based on smell. It smells your fear.
The Creeper will intentionally invoke a fear response in you, whether it’s by its mere monstrous appearance or by playing with its food, in the case of the Jenner siblings where it stalked them with its large foreboding truck, a vehicle that bears the ominous license plate “BEATNGU” or better known as “Be Eating You.” Then once it gets a smell of something it likes, it will stop at nothing to make you its next meal.
If that isn’t, terrifying enough then you may not want to continue reading, for though the Creeper is a patchwork of parts, this monstrosity is not akin to Frankenstein’s monster, this creature is cunning and capable of strategic assault.
As previously identified, not only is this abomination capable of driving, but it is also skilled in using weaponry, including being known to forge its own instruments of death, oftentimes using pieces of its previous victims as part of its weapons.
Now while you should take heed of this warning and be on the lookout, you can take little comfort in the fact that the Creeper is currently in the middle of his 23-day feeding cycle, so at this point, it’s more selective of its meals. During this time, it also stops to enjoy its other passions, which include its love of art and taxidermy. In between meals, the Creeper will use the portions of its victims that it doesn’t eat as additions to its house of horrors, where the walls are lined with the corpses of its victims, like some sort of morbid tapestry.
But know this, as the days dwindle and its 23 days nears its end, the Creeper will begin to abandon its casual eating habits, choosing instead to engage in a full-on feeding frenzy. After all, it must ensure that it has enough to sustain its body for another 23 years. While you might be able to avoid being part of the menu now, all bets are off as April approaches.
Now you might be saying to yourself that you have the advantage of technology on your side. For while the Creeper has been laying dormant there have been numerous advancements in technology. Unlike 2001, when it last walked the earth, everybody now has a phone in their pocket and can call for help at a moment’s notice, but should you really take comfort in this false sense of security, because let’s be honest, is there anything that can save you once the Creeper catches your scent. The short answer is no.
This is where I would like to offer up some advice on how to potentially ward off this unholy menace or possibly defeat this evil, but as we learned in the original film “It’s eaten too many hearts for its own to ever stop.”
So, this Spring Break abandon all your plans of fun and relaxation, and look for the deepest, darkest hole you can find and stay there. Let all those other partying fools be the Creeper’s next victims, while you wait out the next couple of weeks, praying for the month to end. Because in the end that’s all you can do is run and never stop running, but if you hear that foreboding song then may God have mercy on your soul.
For a limited time, both the original Jeepers Creepers and Jeepers Creepers 2 are available for free on Tubi, but like the Creeper their days are limited, so check them out before they too go into hibernation.
