Jeepers Creepers 5 – 23 Years Later feels less like a sequel… and more like a quiet, haunted epilogue to a curse that never truly ended.

Set more than two decades after the original nightmare, the film returns to the franchise’s core idea — time itself is the monster’s greatest weapon. The Creeper no longer feels like a roaming slasher creature. Here, it becomes something closer to a legend that breathes, waits… and chooses.

What works best is the atmosphere.
The movie leans heavily into empty highways, abandoned towns, long static shots of fields and rusted buildings — visual callbacks to the first two films, but shot with colder, more restrained horror language. Instead of constant attacks, the tension is built around anticipation. Every sound in the distance feels like a warning.

The story focuses on a new generation — children of survivors, people who grew up hearing fragments of what happened 23 years ago. That emotional angle is surprisingly effective. Trauma, denial, and inherited fear become real themes, giving the film more weight than Jeepers Creepers 3 and Reborn ever attempted.

However, the biggest weakness is the Creeper itself.

While the creature’s design remains iconic, its screen presence feels… limited. The film is clearly more interested in mystery and psychological dread than creature-driven horror. Fans expecting long chase sequences and brutal set pieces may find the middle act slow and restrained.

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