When driving home for spring break, two siblings (Gina Philips and Justin Long) encounter a demonic figure lining a church basement with corpses, in this 2001 horror flick they should have called The Florida Church Floor Massacre.

Jeepers Creepers proves an apt title for this creaky American campfire tale, albeit an understated name for a film whose director was convicted for sexually abusing a child. Victor Salva spins a yarn of various genre threads, from the Duel/The Hitcher opening road chase involving a monstrous old truck, to the Lovecraftian turn featuring a man-eating demon. It never goes full Prince of Darkness-style cosmic horror, but has enough weird moments to keep the show on the road.

The film’s shock factor is dampened by its production choices; the corpses are so plastic-looking that it takes some explanation to realise the demon is not just some mannequin enthusiast, while the early reveal of his goofy appearance puts any real scares in the backseat. But this does all add to the movie’s campy charm, driven by its playful sense of humour and genre-fluidity. It also benefits from a convincing, wide-eyed Justin Long, who looks like he believes every mad, plastic moment, and the script takes time to establish the characters and their relationship before driving them into America’s hellmouth (or Florida as it is known).

A welcome spring break from the usual sex-crazed slasher movie, this is a fun fright flick that follows through on its sick joke of a premise, even if its scariest outcome is letting its paedophile director make two sequels. Jeepers creepers.