Short Takes

Every 23rd spring, for 23 days, The Creeper gets to eat. And with his second flick, he gets a heckuvalot more face time. The fortune of that is entirely dependent on how one feels about this gargoyle-ish beast who feeds on fear and select body parts of carefully chosen victims. Writer/director Victor Salva credits pal Frances Ford Coppola for encouraging him to make this second incarnation, which he claims more faithfully follows his initial vision of the original film. Most would argue he got it right the first time. Naturally Jonathan Breck, the man behind the ghoul, is plenty pleased to see his meal ticket back in action -- loads of it in fact. There's nary a scene where the big guy doesn't appear, whether it's lounging on crosses playing scarecrow, swooping through the night like a bat out of heck or sidelining a bus full of footballers with a throwing star made of human bones and teeth. He's sort of a graveyard Martha Stewart. Even if the movie's lacking, Breck's commentary with FX man Brian Penikas and artist Brad Parker is almost as much fun as the appropriately Creeper-centric -- not to mention downright COOL -- motion-video menus. Dig a bit and there's even some behind-the-scenes photos of how those were made. Among the deleted scenes, there's also a really remarkable sequence showing long-withered corpses of knights and other warriors who've attempted to slay this long lived foe a la that parting peek behind the Titty Twister in From Dusk Til Dawn. No breasts. Nine corpses. Psychic teenybopper. Copious spazzing. Homoerotic sunbathing. Gratuitous urination. Decapitation (with ingestion). CGI shenanigans. Excessive "cock" talk. (104 mins, 2.35:1 anam, DD 5.1, Crew and Creeper commentaries, Featurettes [About 70 mins including half-hour "Day in Hell" set visit], Unfilmed storyboard sequences, Image galleries, Trailers.)