director's statement
Once committed to the idea of making a sequel, something I had promised myself I would never do, I suddenly wanted to find a way to make the film feel like something new and different.

Using some of my favourite films and books (Melville's Moby Dick and Hitchcock's The Birds and Lifeboat) -as my templates, I started writing what I thought would be an intimate "confined spaces" thriller with the Creeper as the invading force. But as the story grew I realised the possibilities of combining elements that could create something I hadn't seen in a long while but had always wanted to try. Somewhat of a large scale action horror film.

One that could be very frightening but still remain a very fun ride.

Jeepers Creepers 2 became the opportunity for me to make what I had wanted the original film to be.  With more stunts, special effects, actors and special make-up effects than I have ever had to deal with before, my sequel proved to be the most challenging and physically demanding shoot of my short career.

Striving to create a completely new movie that could stand on its own without its predecessor, and still continued the strange legend of the enigmatic character of The Creeper -I can easily say became the greatest filmmaking adventure I have yet to experience.

Victor Salva

In writing the screenplay for the follow up, Salva sought to expand on the groundwork laid by the original film. Specifically, he wanted to broaden the focus of the sequel by creating a larger cast of characters and exploring the relationships among them.

"I really wanted to make a sequel that felt like a brand new film, " says Salva. "I wanted to make this a very different experience in the world of sequels - specifically, horror sequels. I wanted to create a totally new film with the same creature, but with a totally new cast of characters. The creature even has a few new tricks up his sleeve."

"Victor is a very good storyteller," says producer Luce. "He tells stories not only with words, but also with his images in a very classic style of filmmaking that has genuine appeal in a time when there's a lot of flash and less substance in horror movies and other genre films. Jeepers Creepers stressed the values of good acting and storytelling. Unlike a lot of films that are aimed at the same audience, Victor tells a story that has a horror element to it, more than telling a horror story."

In an early draft of Jeepers Creepers 2, Salva created the schoolbus and its riders as a subplot, but as he developed the story, he found himself more and more intrigued by the dynamics at play on the schoolbus. In exploring that possibility, Salva drew inspiration from two of his favourite Hitchcock films, The Birds and Lifeboat. Salva began to shape an ensemble piece where each character's relationships with the others add to the tension and the suspense of fighting for survival while trapped in a particular location.

"I wanted to see if I could I make a film like Lifeboat which has twelve characters trapped in one location and captures all the drama that goes on among them," says Salva "In that film, the threat is just survival, because they don't know if they're going to die or not. In this film, however, we have kids trapped on a school bus with something outside that wants to destroy them. I wanted to see if I could make a movie that could sustain suspense with just a scattering of characters trapped in a long, thin tube, basically, which is what the schoolbus is."

In writing the scenes for the ensemble of kids on the bus, Salva employed his natural flair for characterisation, incorporating the bravado of high school athletes, the intensity of adolescent rivalries as well as the unpredictability of teenagers when faced with a crisis to set the stage for the night's events. Then Salva gave The Creeper an added dimension of evil by way of a simple, but incendiary gesture: the beast indicates to the frightened teenagers whom among them it prefers. The tension explodes and the teenagers turn on each other in their desperate attempts to escape from The Creeper.

Upon completion of the script, Salva storyboarded the film while assembling much of the same production team from the first film. Make-up and creature effects specialist Brian Penikas, cinematographer Don E. FauntLeRoy and editor Ed Marx were all on board to bring the sequel to the big screen. Bennett Salvay, the composer on the first film, also made himself available to work on the sequel. New to the production was Peter Jamison, a production designer with experience with a wide range of genres.

the creeper
In the screenplay, Salva wrote more scenes involving The Creeper, involving more complex interactions between the voracious creature and its prey. He also envisioned an unprecedented athleticism for his action in the film. The filmmakers turned to stunt co-ordinator Monty L. Simons to bring The Creeper to life. Salva worked closely with Simons to heighten the threat of the beast through the stunt work by making the creature's physical presence as well as its movements imposing and realistic, in spite of its fantastic appearance and unearthly actions.

Says Simons, "One of the first things Victor said to me was that we wanted to do this in camera as much as we can. On other pictures, The Creeper would have totally been computer generated, but what Victor wanted The Creeper to be as real as possible. It was a challenge to pull all this stuff together to do on the set and not rely entirely on the CGI department."

Although the filmmakers wanted to create a realistic vision of The Creeper, they also wanted to take advantage of the latest technology to enhance its visual impact. While writing the script and storyboarding the film, the writer with a director's eye had a keen insight on the possibilities that digital effects would afford the production, visualising more intricate movements for the camera, in capturing the beast in action. Says Salva, "The realm of digital effects has literally opened the door on people's imaginations. The new technology, I think, has made it just incredibly easy to tell a story. It's really wonderful what you can do now, breathtaking. It really lets you write whatever you want to write."

The filmmakers approached visual effects supervisor Jonathan Rothbart and were delighted when he was able to commit the resources of his company The Orphanage. Salva and Luse began working closely with Simons and Rothbart to determine which aspects of the creature would be done physically and which digitally. The team used Salva's storyboards and Rothbart's animatics to plan the shots involving The Creeper carefully to the finest detail.

Says Luse, "Victor makes a photo-realistic film. He's not interested in having a story of that is a comic book in any way. We're very excited about [working with] Jonathan Rothbart, on our digital effects. Victor has endeavoured to make the digital effects organic to the show. In other words, he doesn't want to draw any attention to the fact that it's a digital effect. We want it to feel like that everything that's happening to the audience is real before their eyes, and that is the great art, I think, of quality digital effects."

bringing the creeper to life
The filmmakers began selecting the actors and actresses to bring the script to life. They were thrilled when actor Jonathan Breck, the actor who created The Creeper for the first film, was able to commit to the production.

Says Breck, "It frees you up a great deal to work with a director you've worked with before, and one that you trust, one that you have so much confidence in. If the story doesn't work, the best the movie can ever be is marginal. They can throw effects on there, they can shoot it nicely, they can throw great costumes on there, but if the backbone of the film -- the script -- is not good, you're never going to have a great movie. And that's the strength of the first Jeepers Creepers and even more the case with this one. Victor's such a talented writer. He doesn't just write a horror movie. He writes a smart horror movie."

Once Breck was able to commit to the film, stunt co-ordinator Simons began working with him and stunt double Darrin Prescott to insure a seamless transition between their individual performances. The trio worked closely to define the vocabulary of The Creeper's body language and movements. Simons explains, "I got Darrin together with Jonathan probably two months before filming. First, they just talked about the character over dinner one night. Jonathan spent time with Darrin, going over how The Creeper would stand and how he would fly and so on."

Simons also arranged for a two-day rehearsal with Prescott a couple of weeks prior to the start of production, with Salva, Luse and Breck all in attendance. Says Simons, "We ratcheted Darrin over and over and over, [exploring] different body positions and different ways of flying and different ways he held his body as he was flying through the air just to see what we liked, what we didn't like, what worked, what didn't work, etc. Not only did we find body positions we liked, but we also found out what worked [in terms of] wardrobe as he's flying through the air -- what kind of coats and what kind of fabrics flew behind him in a way that looked scary."

As the actor and stunt double collaborated, they began their transformation into character with the help of make-up effects specialist Brian Penikas. Penikas created the Creeper outfits for both the actor and the stunt double. He also put together a seven person crew to work on set to help manage the various make-up effects and to help outfit Breck and Prescott each time they performed, a laborious process which could take up to four and a half hours. Because very little time had elapsed since Breck had been fitted for the first film, Penikas was able to make use of four of the body suits made for Jeepers Creepers as well as the original production molds. In addition, Penikas made five new suits and over thirty prosthetic appliances for the sequel. He also designed and sculpted new feet for the creature.

While Breck prepared to reprise his role as The Creeper, the filmmakers continued to cast the supporting roles and were delighted to add Diane Delano, Thom Gossom Jr. and Tom Tarantini to the cast in supporting roles. They also had the extreme pleasure of casting Ray Wise as Taggart, The Creeper's rival in the film. Wise was drawn to the script and the opportunity to play such an active role in a thrilling project.

Comments Wise, "It was non-stop action, non-stop horror and my character would be participating in all of it, a hard-working, sincere man on a collision course with the Creeper who is determined almost to the point of obsession. A great portion of the story is very dramatic...very heartfelt. It's a modern horror story with real characters, good people that you can recognise and identify with, and so you share the story with them."

the effects
In preparation for the shoot, the filmmakers enlisted the help of John Gray of Reelistic FX Inc. to manage the special effects for the production. Gray dissected and plotted out the special effect events in the film, assembling a four-man crew to take with him to the set to execute them. Whether choreographing the implosion of the bus as The Creeper slams into it, or rigging Taggart's truck to be dragged and then flipped over by the ungodly creature, Gray worked closely with the other departments to create effects that would catch the lens as well as they capture the thrill in the events being depicted.

In order to maximise the filming possibilities of the special effects, the art department, using forced perspective, recreated the lonely country road as a set as well as the meadow surrounding it, bringing literally tons of dirt and vegetation, even laying down asphalt in the middle of an airplane factory in Long Beach.

Principal photography for Jeepers Creepers 2 began on June 4, 2002. The film was shot over the course of forty-seven days in and around Los Angeles, using such locations as Ventura Farms in Westlake, Tejon Ranch, as well as the hangar in Long Beach.

The lively cast performed very demanding action and made the most of what could be, at times, a physically taxing shoot. Says Wise, "It's fun. I did as many [stunts] as I could get away with -- jumping on trucks and running through cornfields and shooting off shotguns and that sort of thing and more. Of course, the really dangerous stunts are left to the professional stunt people but I enjoyed the physicality of the role, especially since I have stayed in fairly good shape for my age."