Summary

• The Creeper from Jeepers Creepers is a supernatural being who harvests and eats human organs to sustain itself.
• The Creeper has been around for centuries, participating in human sacrifices and feeding every 23 years.
• Jeepers Creepers: Reborn hurt the franchise by making The Creeper less interesting, straying from his original ruthless and sadistic nature.

The 2001 horror hit Jeepers Creepers introduced fans to The Creeper, a terrifying monster that harvests and eats the organs of human beings. While the Jeepers Creepers franchise has never managed to hit the heights of the first film again, it was a popular smaller-scale horror movie franchise that earned most of its popularity from introducing a terrifying new movie monster into the pop culture sphere. However, as he is not as popular as some other horror movie icons, there are still a lot of people wanting to learn more about The Creeper.

Jeepers Creepers first established The Creeper as a seemingly human killer who was introduced riding around in an old truck and wearing a long coat and a hat. While Jeepers Creepers is loosely inspired by a true-crime story, The Creeper is confirmed to be a supernatural being in the first movie. Each of the subsequent entries has revealed a little more about The Creeper while still leaving a lot of mystery surrounding him and where he came from. The Jeepers Creepers' monster isn't just a rampaging beast – he has some rules to follow and a method for his murder.

Jeepers Creepers Monster Backstory & 23-Year Rule Explained

The Creeper Feeds On Organs To Replace Its Own

The Creeper is an ancient monster who is shown to hunt its prey sometimes disguised as a human in broad daylight. However, when it sheds its disguise, it is revealed to be a terrifying beast with large bat-like wings. Exactly when The Creeper was born, or exactly what it is (many believe it to be a demon of some kind) remains unclear, but a deleted scene from Jeepers Creepers 2 confirms that the monster has at least been around and claiming victims since medieval times.

Taking that idea further, licensed Jeepers Creepers comic books reveal that The Creeper participated in a human sacrifice during the time of the Aztecs and that it was actually responsible for the infamous disappearance of settlers from America's Roanoke colony in the late 1500s. As for how he operates, it thankfully mostly lives in hibernation, coming out only every 23rd spring, and hunting for 23 days.

To sustain itself, The Creeper needs to harvest organs from humans and use them to replace whatever happens to be failing inside its own body. This cycle has clearly been going on for centuries, and while he has been challenged many times, he seems to be nearly impossible to kill. He's also quite intelligent, as revealed when he's shown to be able to speak English in a deleted scene from the first Jeepers Creepers.

What Jeepers Creepers: Reborn Explained About The Monster

The Reboot Introduced Followers Of The Creeper

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn was a reboot of the franchise, not connected to the original three movies. However, it presented The Creeper in a similar way, with his standard creepy appearance and his need to feed every 23 years. The movie also introduced some new elements into the franchise that gave a little more context to the legend of The Creeper. The reboot establishes that The Creeper is something of a folk legend, with the story being widely enough known that there was a horror franchise based on it (a nod to the original three movies).

The movie also links to the idea introduced in the comics that there were human sacrifices made to The Creeper...

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn is also the first time in the franchise that the audience sees The Creeper emerging from its slumber, weak, small, and frail. It begins by eating animals until it gathers the strength to be able to hunt humans. The movie also links to the idea introduced in the comics that there were human sacrifices made to The Creeper, as the modern setting of the reboot reveals that a group of worshippers lure victims to a house where The Creeper comes to feed.

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn Hurt The Franchise Overall

The Reboot Ruined Many Aspects Of What Made The Creeper So Memorable

While Jeepers Creepers: Reborn was meant to be a new beginning for the horror franchise, it may have resulted in the end of the Jeepers Creepers movies. While the Jeepers Creepers films have never been critically acclaimed, Jeepers Creepers: Reborn received the most negative reaction out of the series with a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and only a slightly better 8% audience score. While franchises have been able to come back from critical disasters in the past, Jeepers Creepers: Reborn also damaged the brand by making The Creeper less interesting.

It makes sense that a new movie in the franchise would want to introduce some new elements to The Creeper's backstory, but Jeepers Creepers: Reborn didn't seem to understand what audiences liked about the monster in the first place. The Creeper is a relentless and ruthless killer which makes it seem odd that he would ever form a partnership with humans such as he seems to have with his worshippers.

There is also a sense in the previous films that The Creeper enjoys the hunt. He is shown to be sadistically playful, whistling a tune as he handles the corpses of his victims and taunting his victims to inspire more fear in them. For Jeepers Creepers: Reborn to have him simply hunting victims who have been lured to an old abandoned house robs him of these qualities and makes him into a mindless beast only interested in feeding. While the Jeepers Creepers franchise might move forward in some way, The Creeper may not be as interesting anymore.