The true crime that inspired the horror movie explained

Despite the supernatural elements, Jeepers creepers‘True story sets aspects of the movie in reality. The film, written and directed by Victor Salva and executive produced by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, features then-starlets Justin Long and Gina Phillips as sister duo Darrie and Trish Jenner, who become the targets of a demonic villain known as “The Creeper After witnessing the monster loading bodies into a truck. They are then exposed to the mythology of the terrifying creature that haunts every 23 years, taking various body parts from its victims.

The film’s wild ending, in which the back of Darry’s head and eyes are removed, sets up important “Creeper” canon and ensures some equally popular ones. Jeepers creepers Sequels. Despite the modest budget, the film became a surprise hit at the box office and continued to develop a strong following on video, spanning two Jeepers creepers Sequels and a reboot in 2022. While certain elements can clearly be dismissed as supernatural horror, there are aspects of The Creeper that are taken from a chilling true-crime story, and – disturbingly – some parts of Jeepers creepers are real.

Is Jeepers Creepers real?

How the killer Dennis DePuy influenced the Jeepers Creepers

Although the Creeper’s supernatural background and terrifying appearance is, of course, a work of fiction, much of Jeepers creepers‘ Main plot is grounded in reality. The true elements of Jeepers creepers are derived from a series of Michigan-based events in the summer of 1990With the Jenners’ accidental encounter with the Creeper drawing eerie parallels to the crimes of Dennis DePuy. DuePue’s disposal of the woman’s body along with his subsequent, protracted manhunt are clear influences on the latter. Jeepers creepers Backstory.

In 1990, Michigan resident Dennis Depue was the target of a police manhunt after he killed his wife and disposed of her body behind an abandoned schoolhouse. Different elements of the case were added to the fictionalized version of Salva’s story, and although the movie is still too strange to be considered close to a real account, the DePue case certainly left an impression on the Jeepers creepers Franchise.

Ray and Marie Thornton, a brother and sister (like Darry and Trish) were eyewitnesses who saw DePuy dump his wife’s carcass, with their sworn testimony the primary source material for Jeepers Creepers’ True crime-based story. as in Jeepers creepersThe real Thorntons stated that they saw DePue removing a body before he turned and noticed them in their car. They testify that DePuy then chased them in his van for several miles, mirroring the intense chase scene Jeepers creepers.

A 1991 episode of Unsolved mysteries Covers the DePue case in great detail, with the piece-by-piece re-enactment of the Thorntons’ story presenting something eerily similar to the corresponding Jeepers creepers Scenes. The real crimes of Dennis DePuy do not deserve to be memorialized, with the heinous murder of his wife spawning a manhunt that would ultimately end in DePuy’s death.

Perhaps therefore, this is why Salva added some fictional elements to these Jeepers creepers Movie, Reimagining DePue’s nefarious aura as the Creeper: a terrifying winged creature described by moviegoers as a “Bat out of hell“Although the truth behind the film remains a dark tale of infidelity and evil intelligence, Jeepers creepers Blends the all-too-human elements into a supernatural story that retains the creeping thrill of the true crime upon which it was built.

The crimes of Jeepers Creepers director Victor Salva give it an uncomfortable legacy

The True Story of the Jeepers Creepers isn’t the only shocking part of his story

Although the true story that partly inspired Jeepers creepers Adding to the terror of what’s on screen, there are some disturbing real-life incidents surrounding the movie that give it an unsettling legacy.

In 1988, director Victor Salva was convicted of sexual misconduct in a case involving one of his movie’s underage stars. Clownhouse. Although Salva made other movies after being released from prison, Jeepers creepers was the hit that allowed him to maintain a Hollywood career. This is troubling with many people considering Salva’s ability to continue working as a director as problematic, considering he used the position to commit his crimes in the first place.

Allowing these Jeepers creepers Franchise to continue was seen as a way to give Salva and excuse his past crimes. The controversy of Jeepers Creepers 3 Strengthened as the knowledge of Salva’s past became more known. To add to the uneasy nature of Salva’s association with the franchise, Jeepers Creepers 3 Also included is a character joking about child abuse, a moment made all the more disturbing because Salva himself wrote the movie. Although Jeepers Creepers: Reborn Try to reboot the franchise without Salva’s involvement, it could be tainted beyond saving at this point.

One true crime inspired several horror movies

The True Story of the Jeepers Creepers isn’t the only crime to inspire a horror movie

It’s no secret that there are many classic horror movies inspired by disturbing, real-life crimes. One notable example of this is the infamous story of murderer Ed Gein, a Wisconsin native who was finally arrested in 1957.. When the police searched his farm, evidence of gruesome, horrific crimes was discovered – including human skin drawn over lampshades and furniture, collections of body parts, and the body of a woman dressed as a deer.

Given this, it makes sense that there are many horror movies inspired by serial killer Ed Gein, but the carnage and deviance don’t stop there. In addition to several confirmed and suspected killings, Gein has also admitted to illegally exhuming bodies from cemeteries for his nefarious purposes and was even reported to have created a suit of women’s skin after his mother’s death in order to He should be able to dress like you.

The shocking crimes inspired multiple classic horror movies, such as 1991’s Silence of the lambsThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking 1960 thriller Psycho. All the protagonists of these films are clearly based, in part, on different aspects of Gaines’ crimes.

Other iconic horror movies inspired by true stories

The Conjuring franchise and Wes Craven draw inspiration from true stories

The horror genre is prolific with a lot of subgenres, and some of the most iconic movies to make these subgenres have continued to spawn sequels and remakes, leaving a legacy, or even still holding up years later, just like Jeepers creepers. Some of the iconic movies were also inspired by true stories.

The Conjuring Franchise is expansive, including the original Conjuring Movie as well as those about The nun And Annabelle. All movies in the franchise are inspired by the work of Ed and Lorraine Warren, real-life occultists. While some insisted that the Warrens were scam artists, others would call them to investigate real supernatural events, leading to the inspiration for the movie starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson. Artifacts in their home museum inspired the spin-off movies in the Annabelle Series.

Many of the iconic horror director Wes Craven’s projects are also inspired by real storieslike The hills have eyes. The 1977 movie and its less successful sequel is about a family terrorized by cannibals while on vacation. They discover that the cannibals have been operating for what seems like decades. The story is inspired by a 16th-century Scottish family. The Scottish lore is that a family led by Sawney Bin killed thousands of people and cannibalized them, although some doubt the validity of the legend.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Made a whole generation of kids afraid to fall asleep. Craven got the idea for the movie from a real-life story as well. Raven told Cinemablend That he was actually inspired by the story of a young boy whose family moved to the United States from Southeast Asia as refugees. The boy had nightmares about someone chasing him every night after they moved. Crabbe explained, “He was afraid that if he slept the thing that was chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time..”

Although his family could usually wake him from the nightmares, one night, he died in his sleep after his family heard him screaming. This was the basis for Freddy Kreuger chasing teenagers in their dreams, and then, in the real world.

More surprising than either of these is that The iconic Play child’s play Franchise is actually inspired by the “most haunted doll” in the world. In the early 1900s, a young boy in Key West was gifted a doll by his grandfather. According to family stories, Robert Eugene Otto blamed childhood mishaps on the doll, and when he left to study art, the doll was supposedly stored in the family home, but disappeared, only to reappear when Otto and his wife moved in with the family. Home.

Key West residents now hold the doll and say that Robert the Doll is responsible for job losses, broken limbs, and even car accidents if not treated with respect. The doll has inspired other movies, including a 2016 film titled Robert.

Another famous horror movie with material based on a true story is the 1973s the exorcist Which led to sequels of its own. The film’s demonic possession and subsequent exorcism attempts mirror the story of Ronald Hunkeler (who was previously referred to as “Roland Doe” by the press until his name was revealed decades later). At the time of his exorcism in 1949, Hunkeler was 14 years old and allegedly experienced a possession somewhat similar to the film’s fictional character of young Regan McNeil.

As all of the aforementioned films (and many, many more) demonstrate, Jeepers creepers Certainly not the only horror movie loosely based on a true story.

Are the Jeepers Creepers sequels also inspired by true stories?

How Jeepers Creepers 2 & 3 moved away from its true story roots

There were real-life elements that inspired the first one Jeepers creepers movie, but that’s not the case with the sequels. Jeepers Creepers 2 was released in 2003 and took place days after the events of the first movie. It follows the students on a high school trip who get stranded on the side of the desert road and are preyed upon by the Creeper. Jeepers Creepers 3 was released in 2017 and technically serves as a prequel to the second movie, as it takes place the day after the original 2001 movie.

The sequels did not draw on any known true stories, and leaned more heavily into the supernatural aspects of The Creeper.. The sequels explored the mythology, including that the Creeper is an ancient being, and also revealing that its victims can reach others from beyond the grave to deliver warnings of its coming. In 2022, the US Jeepers creepers Franchise is rebooted with Jeepers Creepers: Reborn Which opens with a similar scene as in the original of a couple witnessing the Creeper dropping a body down a pipe behind a church, bringing it back to Dennis DePuy’s real crimes.

How the true story differs from the movie

The supernatural elements make Jeepers Creepers a very independent narrative from the true story

While the idea of Jeepers creepers Being a true story adds another horror element to it all, the real story of Dennis DePue is quite different from what is seen in the movie. That should come as no surprise to those who have watched the film, vi Jeepers creepers Quickly turns from a disturbing thriller about a couple of killers who are hunted by a supposed killer to a supernatural horror movie about an ancient demon.

The idea of ​​DePue removing a body and then following the eyewitnesses in his car is the inspiration for Jeepers creepers comes from, but the similarities stop there. for example, The movie has the siblings return to the scene of the crime to see what the Creeper is up to, only to find a cave filled with his countless victims. From over the years plastered to the wall in a distorted mural. This was not part of Dennis DePue’s story, as his wife was the only victim of his crimes.

The movie takes the idea of ​​a killer caught in the act and pursuing the innocent people who happen to see him. However, by adding in the supernatural element, Jeepers creepers Takes the already chilling idea to another level. It begs the question, what if the killer that was pursuing them was something that simply could not be stopped? So while the true story only serves as a small inspiration for the overall story, it helps to kick things off Jeepers creepers Off on a scary note.