RELEASED in October 2001, the original Jeepers Creepers was a ridiculously entertaining low budget shocker about a brother and sister battling against an age old demon called The Creeper, who appears every 23rd spring for 23 days to feast on human body parts.

Writer-director Victor Salva continues the story in this sequel-by-numbers, set on the penultimate day of The Creeper's feeding frenzy.

A school bus carrying a varsity basketball team, cheerleaders and teaching staff breaks down on a remote country road.

The driver is shocked to discover a star-shaped projectile, seemingly made of bone, embedded in the lacerated tyres.

Calls for assistance on the two-way radio go unanswered and the teachers debate what course of action to take.

Meanwhile, the students grow increasingly unnerved by radio reports of newly discovered human remains in the surrounding areas.

As night descends, so too does The Creeper (Jonathan Breck), picking off the two team coaches before turning its flesh-eating attentions to the terrified teens. As paranoia turns the school kids against one another, captain Scott Braddock (Eric Nenniger), school reporter Izzy (Travis Schiffner) and clairvoyant cheerleader Minxie (Nicki Aycox) struggle to maintain calm.

The students must band together to survive until dawn, when The Creeper will be forced back into hibernation for another 23 years.

Jeepers Creepers 2 lacks a single spark of originality and settles for a succession of cheap shocks and gory special effects as the students are picked off one by one. The shrieking teens try their best to fend off The Creeper, including thrusting a javelin through its eye socket, but for the most part, the players and cheerleaders abandon all common sense and wander blindly to their doom.

Salva appears more preoccupied with the glistening flesh of his young male cast than orchestrating any genuine thrills and spills.

Ray Wise, who played Laura Palmer's psychotic father in Twin Peaks, co-stars as a vengeful farmer, whose youngest son is snatched by the winged demon in the film's taut opening sequence. His performance is lively, which is more than can be said for the relative unknowns who have Dead Meat tattooed on their foreheads.

See it at UCI, Odeon