‘Jeepers Creepers’: Original Finale Falls Flat After Budget Cuts

The original ending of ‘Jeepers Creepers’ reportedly involves The Creeper truck, a train, and a more heroic Darry. And here’s the reasoning behind the change.

Jeepers Creepers….where’d you get that third-act!

On the feature, Jeepers Creepers: Then And Now, which you can find on Scream Factory’s stellar release of Jeepers Creepers, Director Victor Salva gets candid about changes made to the 2001 film’s finale.

Here’s what the writer/director said on the disc:

"Suddenly we were a million and a half over budget, before we started shooting. Due to anyone…er…ah..there’s all kinds of stories as to how and why, but I was broadsided by it. And ah, I had to remove a lot of pages. And Francis said hey, don’t worry, give it an emotional ending instead of a big powerful ending. Because the true ending of Jeepers 1 is the kids narrowly escape from the police station as The Creeper is taking on all these cops. And they jump in The Creeper’s truck, which is the only.. it’s still sitting there idling and the only thing that will run. And they take off down the road, and The Creeper flies after them, after his truck."

Salva, who also directed the film’s 2003 sequel, went on to elaborate:

"And pulls Gina out, stiffs her and throws her and tries to drag Justin out of the truck as this train goes by. There was a great set-up in act-two with a train going by they had to wait for and it comes at the end. And Justin in a totally suicidal, but save-the-world thing, just literally turns The Creeper truck, with The Creeper still on top trying to pull him out and it explodes. We had built a train just for that”"

Now that’s something Horror Heads. While I love the film’s actual ending, as the last 3 minutes are truly one of the best of all-time, this sounds great. It would be an action-packed thrilling finale if history saw Salva receiving the $1.5Mil to do what he was intending; The director seemingly wishes it had been different too.

Then again, he shouldn’t beat himself up too much. Stuff like this happens all the time in the film business. Money dries up; concessions made. Either way, while I’ve always been slightly lukewarm on Jeepers Creepers‘ third-act as a whole, I’m glad we have the great ending regardless.

Next: How ‘The Walking Dead’ Was Almost an Awful NBC Show

So, are you wishing we would have got the third-act as intended? Jeepers Creepers is now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory.

Wish the ending were different? Loving the recent Scream Factory release? Comment in the section below and start letting the other creepers know what you think of the film below.