Jeepers Creepers Page #14

DARRY:

We will do it you know? We

will get home.

TRISH:

(recognizes her own words

being used mockingly)

Shut up!

In from the night steps JEZELLE GAY HARTMAN. Heavy set. Late

forties. Sweet, plump face. In Capri pants, sneakers and a

sweatshirt, she is a woman on a mission.

DESK SERGEANT:

Jezelle.

The DESK SERGEANT is not happy to see her. She walks right

past him.

DESK SERGEANT:

What can we do for you

tonight...

The Sergeant out from his desk. Moves after her.

DESK SERGEANT:

Jezelle!

Jezelle steps up to Trish and Darry. Studies them.

DESK SERGEANT:

Come on Jezz’, they been

through a lot, okay?

She extends a plump hand. A tiny hint of a drawl in her husky

voice.

JEZELLE:

You the kids, then? Darry and

Trish, you them?

DESK SERGEANT:

Jez' Goddammit

JEEPERS CREEPERS

JEZELLE:

(shaking Trish’s hand)

Jezelle Gay Hartman, how do

you do?

DESK SERGEANT:

Jezelle’s maybe a little

confused about what’s going on

down here tonight-

JEZELLE:

Less confused than Jerry here

would like to think.

(shakes Darry’s hand)

If you were talking to his

Captain? Captain John Develle

who is off duty tonight? He’d

tell you different.

DESK SERGEANT:

Jezelle likes to think she’s

the resident psychic around

here.

Behind her back, the Sergeant signals to the kids that she is

not to be taken seriously.

DESK SERGEANT:

She helped us on a missing

persons a few years ago-

JEZELLE:

You think you could just let

me talk to these kids for five

minutes by myself?!

THE PHONE AT THE DESK CHIRPING INCESSANTLY. The Sergeant

moves to answer it.

DESK SERGEANT:

Go home, turn that Goddamned

police scanner off and go to

bed.

JEZELLE:

And you go do something

useful, you got officers

missing!

DESK SERGEANT:

I mean it Jezelle, leave 'em

alone.

Trish and Darry left staring at the woman.

JEEPERS CREEPERS

JEZELLE:

You don’t have to believe I’m

psychic. But I can tell you

something these cops haven’t.

(off their look)

That dust they got off your

car back at Delroy’s? It

tested as human skin over a

hundred and fifty years old.

Darry and Trish listen to her.

JEZELLE:

That didn’t come in a dream. I

heard it on the police

scanner. I got more to tell

you and I come a long way to

do it.

DARRY:

You know I’m really not sure

we should be talking to

anybody right now-

JEZELLE:

I know what it is.

Her voice a sudden and urgent whisper.

JEZELLE:

I know what’s chasing you.

She has their full attention now.

JEZELLE:

You found a lot of bodies.

(off Darry’s incredulous

look)

Down in that cellar. I saw ‘em

too.

(swallows)

You see the cats yet? I saw

you with cats too. Lots of

cats-

DARRY:

You called. At the diner, that

was you.

JEZELLE:

I saw those bodies just like

you did. That poor boy with

the stitches all down him... I

saw you there with him.

JEEPERS CREEPERS

DARRY:

How?

JEZELLE:

Dreamed it.

(waits for a response)

I dream a lot of things.

The woman's self-assuredness is dissolving. She stares at

them with eyes flickering with fear and sadness.

JEZELLE:

Those bodies down there. You

found its house of pain.

Darry doesn’t know why but his blood runs cold.

JEZELLE:

I don’t know how I know that,

I just... know that’s what it

likes to call it.

DARRY:

What ...likes to call it?

JEZELLE:

It’s got a whole lotta names.

From a whole lotta different

times and places.

Eater of the Dead... That’s

the one that keeps coming to

me.

DARRY:

Eater of the...

(off her nod)

What does that mean, it eats

people?

JEZELLE:

It has to.

(off their stunned looks)

It has incredible power.

That’s how it stays that way.

How it's lived so long.

Trish tries to leave. Brother holds her arm. Won’t let her.

JEZELLE:

I don't like having this in my

head. I don't like knowing

this and not knowing why I

do...

(MORE)

JEEPERS CREEPERS

JEZELLE (cont'd)

Every twenty-third Spring. For

twenty-three days. It gets to

eat.

Whatever it needs. It eats

eyes so it can see. It eats

lungs so it can breathe...

TRISH:

(standing, pointedly)

I’m gonna be sick. Darry would

you come and help me throw up,

please?

DARRY:

Look this thing has had

chances to kill us, and it

didn't.

This makes Jezelle even more uncomfortable. What she now has

to say.

JEZELLE:

(swallows, her eyes

dampening)

It's very particular. Only

wants ...certain parts from

certain bodies.

One of you has something it

might like.

(Darry swallows)

It won't stop following until

it knows for sure.

DARRY:

By trying to run us off the

road?!

JEZELLE:

(shakes her head 'yes', her

voice a cutting whisper)

It needs to scare you.

(find's Trish's eyes)

There's something in fear.

Something it can smell.

Brother and sister stare at her.

JEZELLE:

Makes it easier for it. To

know if there's anything in a

person it might ..like.

JEEPERS CREEPERS

TRISH:

Like?

JEZELLE:

Wants.

DARRY:

Wants?

JEZELLE:

....to eat.

TRISH:

Oh f*** you!

EXT. POHO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT. NIGHT. SAME TIME.

Many off duty patrol cars. TWO OFFICERS just sitting down in

theirs. Coffee cups in hand. Engine turns over and they roll

out of the lot.

While at the opposite end, an old dark van rolls into view.

Its familiar license plate vibrating slightly with the rough

idle of the engine:

BEATNGU:

BEATNGUBEATNGU:

Now we think about the other way this plate could be read: Be

Eating You.....

JEZELLE (V.0.)

I don't know what it is

exactly. If it's a Demon or a

Devil or just some hungry

thing from a wicked place

somewhere in time.

The van door swings open. Engine still running as one of the

Creature's feet sets down on the asphalt. It's black shoe

marred with a tire track.

JEZELLE (V.0.)

I just know it's been doing

this for a lot longer than a

hundred and fifty years.

And it is not gonna stop.

Coming after you or anyone

else it wants to.

The other leg swings out awkwardly. Out of a tattered pant

leg the foot hangs -barely attached. Only by a length of dead

flesh and a torn sock...

JEEPERS CREEPERS

JEZELLE (O.S.)

'Cause once it has the scent

of something it likes...?

With this horrid handicap, the Creature starts a grizzly,

almost comical limp across the shadowy parking lot....

JEZELLE (O.S.)

It can't. It can't stop.

INT. POHO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT. NIGHT. SAME TIME.

Jezelle pleading with Darry and Trish. Her voice an urgent

whisper:

TRISH:

And you don't know how you

know that, you just do,

right?!

Jezelle stares at her. Eyes welling. Looks so sad. Like her

heart is breaking. Like there is something else she knows.

Something too terrible for her to say.

DARRY:

What?

Jezelle shakes her head no. Can't speak it.

DARRY:

What else?

Darry takes her by her plump arms. Forces her to look at him.

Rate this script:3.5 / 8 votes