This time around, the action takes place on the last days of the Creeper's 23 day feeding spree. A group of high school basketball players, their coaches, and cheerleaders are stranded on the highway. In a departure from the original "Jeepers Creepers," the Creeper indicates to the high school kids just who among them is targeted for death.
Finding the right young actors to portray the students/victims was a huge task. The filmmakers looked at more than 2,000 actors before deciding on a handful, some of whom are making their feature film debuts with "Jeepers Creepers 2." Salva explained his choices by noting his cast is chosen carefully with an eye on personality, and the ability to become part of the film's 'family.'
As part of the "Jeepers Creepers 2" publicity tour, a handful of cast members were present at the 2003 San Diego Comic Con. The Creeper himself (Jonathan Breck), joined Ray Wise ('Jack Taggart'), Nicki Aycox ('Minxie'), Al Santos ('Dante'), Marieh Delfino ('Rhonda'), Lena Cardwell ('Chelsea'), Kasan Butcher ('Kimball'), and Travis Schiffner ('Izzy') for an informal interview to promote the movie.
What can "Jeepers Creepers" fans expect from this sequel?
JONATHAN BRECK: It takes the first one and doubles the budget. They used the money in the right place. It’s a better movie, a lot more action, a lot more adrenaline, and a lot more stunts.
RAY WISE: [It has] state of the art special effects.
KASAN BUTCHER: And non-stop action.
Do we get to see you fight a lot, Ray?
RAY WISE: Oh yeah, I get my fill. Thank God I was in shape when I started the movie or I would have been a dead man for sure (laughing). There was one day when all I did was run up and down a cornfield chasing after this guy (pointing at Jonathan).
JONATHAN BRECK: And he didn’t get me either.
RAY WISE: He’s quick. He’s fast; the Creeper is fast. This is a non-stop relentless action movie. It never lets up. It picks up you and then it keeps going. The first one I know sort of began slowly.
JONATHAN BRECK: Creepy, moody...
RAY WISE: And then it built to where you see the Creeper. Then it had its high points. We don’t do that.
JONATHAN BRECK: There’s not a low point in this one.
What sort of weapons do you use to fight the Creeper?
RAY WISE: I make a weapon from a Post Puncher 500 farm machine. I fashion this weapon after much backbreaking sweaty work to get it into shape. Essentially it’s a harpoon gun – don’t tell anybody that (laughing). It’s just about the only thing that’s effective against this guy. And I’m an incredible shot with it. I didn’t know how good I was until I read the script.
JONATHAN BRECK: Whoa boy (laughing).
RAY WISE: I’m a great harpooner.
So you’re a good guy?
RAY WISE: Yes, and I provide the comic relief in the film.
What about the weapons the Creeper has this time around?
JONATHAN BRECK: I use a bunch of different weapons that were really intricately made and hand-carved. Throwing stars made out of all kinds of different interesting material as you can imagine – teeth and skin and bone and everything else. Nice daggers, I’ve got a whole arsenal of stuff. A lot of the stuff we were going to do in the first movie but didn’t get a chance to we brought back into the second one, as far as the weapons are concerned. There’s a scene in the first one where I have a whole truck full of weapons. We never got to it in the first one so we got to roll them out in the second one.
Is there more than one Creeper in the movie?
JONATHAN BRECK: No, that’s an Internet rumor. I read about that, about a gang of Creepers.
AL SANTOS: One wreaks enough havoc.
Difficult Scenes, Piling Into a School Bus, and "Jeepers Creepers 3"
