`JEEPERS 2': ABOVE-AVERAGE CHILLS, PLENTY OF GUTS SPILLED.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

IT WAS A BIG surprise two years ago when ``Jeepers Creepers'' actually eked a decent box-office weekend out of the Labor Day holiday stretch. This was natural enough, as the last long weekend of summer is traditionally a time for outdoor activities, not sitting in dark theaters watching the last dregs of a burnt-out commercial movie season.

But if the first ``Jeepers'' was as well put-together a horror film as its sequel ``JC2,'' then its success was no accident. Nor will it be if part two repeats the trick over this Labor Day frame.

I don't want to oversell the thing here. ``JC2'' is your basic flying- monster-from-hell eviscerates bus load of indistinguishable young people exercise. It doesn't boast anything resembling the metaphorical punch packed by ``28 Days Later.'' But after the murky, mud-brained repetitiousness of the recent ``Freddy vs. Jason,'' a straightforward fright flick, shot in ways that actually develop the scares through visual and pacing means, seems a marvel of good craftsmanship.

For a movie that's big on decapitations, anyway.

There's a legend involved, the specifics of which are rather too, well, involved. But anyway, every 23 years, a batwinged man-monster awakens in some deeply rural part of the country to feed on human prey for 23 days. There is supposedly some reasoning he uses for picking out his victims, but whatever it is was lost on me. Anyway, the Creeper, whose skin looks like burnt leather, likes to dive-bomb out of the night sky, sink his claws into the meal of the moment, shoot back up into the stratosphere then drop whatever remains he did not find appetizing.

It's Night 22 of the Creeper's latest binge. Conveniently enough, a school bus full of meaty champion athletes breaks down on the road through nowhere. Their coaches are picked off first, leaving the kids to their own, increasingly desperate devices.

Writer-director-series creator Victor Salva spends the middle third of the movie exploring the terror-tweaking possibilities of enclosed space. Almost the entire third act reverses the balance, as the dwindling number of survivors try to make their way across unprotected open space toward safety.

That much appreciated, I really couldn't care who among the kids got eaten and who didn't. They're not differentiated enough for it to make any difference (the only character with any degree of memorable complexity is a vengeful farmer played by ``Twin Peaks'' veteran Ray Wise). That acknowledged, Salva deserves credit for hammering realistic wedges of racial and sexual tension between the teens.

The latter may be too realistic for some. Salva served time for molesting a boy, and while it's a kind of long-overdue genre reversal to see the young men in this film going shirtless rather than the nubile cheerleaders, those whose tastes in limb-ripping cinema are guided by certain moral standards may not approve.

But there is no denying the care that Salva lavishes on every effect - special, nerve-jarring, darkly humorous or otherwise - in ``Jeepers Creepers 2.'' It's a movie that tries to stand out from the formulaic pack without skimping on any of the thrills that fans expect. For the most part, it succeeds, and in the ugly world of gory horror, that's kind of a beautiful thing.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 - Three stars

(R: violence, language, children in jeopardy)

Starring: Ray Wise, Jonathan Breck, Eric Nenninger, Garikayi Mutambirwa, Nicki Aycox.

Director: Victor Salva.

Running time: 1 hr. 46 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: The usual supernatural mayhem, more artfully done than average.

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Photo:

Drew Tyler Bell, left, Billy Aaron Brown and Lena Cardwell witness a scene of carnage in ``Jeepers Creepers 2.''