Jeepers Creepers is a 2001 horror film with plenty of terrifying things going on behind the scenes. Most people are aware that writer/director Victor Salva was convicted of sexually abusing a minor and having child pornography in 1988.
Salva rose to prominence in the film industry in the 1980s with the 37-minute horror short Something in the Basement (1986). He became friends with Francis Ford Coppola, who offered Salva $250,000 and lent his name and talent as a producer to the slasher movie Clownhouse (1989), which Salva wrote and directed.
It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance that year, even though Salva had been convicted the previous year of sexually abusing the film's star. Eventually, public outcry caught up with the people involved, and an attempt was made to remove Clownhouse from public view, thereby ending the distribution of the film.
The question that has lingered in the minds of many viewers is whether the eerie events depicted in the movie are rooted in reality. In this article, we delve into the origins of “Jeepers Creepers” and unravel the mystery behind its connection, or lack thereof, to real-life events.
Is Jeepers Creepers Based on a True Story?
While The Creeper's supernatural origins and horrible looks are, of course, fiction, much of Jeeper Creeper's fundamental plot is based on fact. The true aspects of Jeepers Creepers stem from a sequence of Michigan-based incidents in the summer of 1990, with the Jenners' fortuitous meeting with The Creeper striking spooky parallels to Dennis DePue's murders.
The disposal of DuePue's wife's remains, as well as his following, lengthy manhunt, had an obvious influence on the final Jeepers Creepers storyline.
Dennis DePue, a Michigan resident, was the subject of a police manhunt in 1990 after murdering his wife and disposing of her body behind an abandoned schoolhouse.
Different aspects of the case were incorporated into the fabricated storyline of Salva's story, and while the film is still too bizarre to be regarded as close to a true account, the DePue case has had an effect on the Jeepers Creepers franchise. Ray and Marie Thornton are brothers and sisters who, like Darry and Trish, witnessed DePue dumping his wife's body, and their sworn testimony served as the primary source material for Jeepers Creepers' true crime-based plot.
As in Jeepers Creepers, the real Thorntons said they witnessed DePue disposing of a body before he observed them in their automobile. They claim DePue then followed them in his vehicle for several miles, recreating the tense chase sequence in Jeepers Creepers.
A 1991 episode of Unsolved Mysteries delves further into the DePue case, including a piece-by-piece reenactment of the Thorntons' story that is remarkably identical to the comparable Jeepers Creepers scenes.
Read More: Is Can I Tell You a Secret Based on True Story?
Dennis DePue's genuine actions do not deserve to be remembered, with his wife's terrible murder sparking a manhunt that ultimately led to DePue's death. Perhaps this is why Salva added some fictional aspects to the Jeepers Creepers film, reinventing DePue's ominous aura as The Creeper, a terrible winged creature characterized by moviegoers as a “bat out of hell.”
While the film's true event remains a terrible tale of betrayal and evil motivation, Jeepers Creepers combines these entirely human aspects into a supernatural fiction that keeps the creeping chill of the true crime on which it is based.
