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Jeepers Creepers: Reborn Ending Explained-What Are The Crows, Laine’s Connection, And Where Future Movies Could Go

Everything is getting retconned or rebooted, so we might as well add Jeepers Creepers to the mix, right? The original, starring Justin Long and Darry Jenner, is a good movie regardless of the controversy surrounding writer and director Victor Salva. The following two were far less successful but still watchable. This retooling of the story is meant to give the franchise someplace to go and renew interest in the central Big Bad. Jeepers Creepers: Reborn successfully reminded everyone why the Creeper is such a great visual character but did little to further the franchise.

As is usually the case with stories like this, Laine(Sydney Craven) and Chase(Imran Adams) are on their way to an event in the middle of nowhere. He is a lover of conspiracy theories and urban legends. She is not. She is reluctant but loves Chase and agrees to accompany him on the trip. Little does she know he is going to propose, and he doesn’t know she is pregnant. A tacked-on cold open shows an elderly couple driving in the country and being harassed by the Creeper driving a truck with the license plate BEATNGU. It’s a nod to the original’s opening but serves little purpose otherwise. The crucial bits come slightly later. Here is everything you need to know about the ending of Jeepers Creepers: Reborn, the crows, and Laine’s connection to the Creeper.

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn
Courtesy of Screen Media Films

The ending of Jeepers Creepers: Reborn

After winning a rigged completion, Laine, Chase, a YouTube celebrity, her film crew, and Stu head off to a Creeper-themed escape room set in a cemetery and abandoned plantation. Laine shows remarkable prowess at the booth and has had a few weird visions of herself with a bloody symbol surrounded by creepy cult people. She also cuts her hand on one of the weapons at the booth. Rather than worry about that, she forges ahead with Chase, and things quickly go south. The Creeper kidnaps Laine and begins picking off everyone one by one. The Creeper stabs Laine with a knife in the stomach, and she manages to escape when he leaves to kill the rest of the group.

In the final act, everyone dies, but Stu and Chase, who stabs the Creeper through the throat with a weathervane after Laine lures him outside and stabs his eyes out. The crows, including the albino one, begin swarming everyone and make Stu fall off the roof to death. Laine and Chase are saved, but the Creeper is missing when the crows fly away. As Jeepers Creepers: Reborn closes, Laine sits in the back of a police car, and her eyes turn black, and the Creeper is reborn someplace else.

What is with the white and black crows?

There is very little explanation given for the crows that pop up at opportune times in Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. A strange albino crow acts as a leader of sorts conducting traffic and overseeing everything that happens. At the end of the film, after Chase and Laine had stabbed out the Creeper’s eyes and presumably killed him, a murder of crows comes and surrounds the monster. Crows symbolize the afterlife and death. Considering the Creeper’s obsession with hunting and killing for twenty-three days, I’d say the crows act as familiars. The Creeper has crows like a bat to vampires or a witch and her black cat. The extremely intelligent birds could be worse pets.

Who and what are the cult?

The cult at the center of Jeepers Creepers: Reborn is led by Lady Manilla, who also ran the shop Chase and Laine stumbled into at the film’s beginning. Little is known about the group beyond the fact that they think by bringing innocents for slaughter to the Creeper, they can help him power up. Lady Manilla has some loose psychic abilities that allow her to see that Laine is pregnant. How she can do that and whether or not that matters is never fleshed out.

The cult gets very little screen time and even less explanation. We don’t know how long they have been worshipping the creature or what they get out of the deal. The only thing we can know for sure is humans are idiots, and where there is something to be exploited, they will take advantage. For example, they want the Creeper to eat Laine’s baby, so he can become immortal. They probably thought they would also become immortal or use his powers to benefit themselves.

The Creeper’s rules

In the previous movies, the Creeper would emerge every twenty-three years and could wreak havoc for twenty-three days before being forced back into hibernation. During that life cycle, he can regenerate by eating a human’s similar body part. For example, when his hand is injured, he pops it off and eats a human hand. This allows him to regrow his hand.

It’s a handy ability that makes him difficult to kill. This is important in the final act to remember when he eats Carrie’s(Ocean Navarro) brain. The ramifications of this are intriguing, as he’s always been an intelligent but somewhat restricted threat. By eating Carrie’s brain, he may have gained valuable knowledge about how technology works. This was something he previously did not have knowledge of. This could factor in future movies assuming anyone wants to see more of the Creeper.

In Jeepers Creepers: Reborn, the rules remain similar except in the final act. When we think Chase and Laine have beaten the Creeper, her eyes blacken, and he is reborn in some unknown location after crows carry him away. Whether the crows aid in the Creeper’s removal and rebirth or they provide cover for his magic, we don’t know. We also don’t understand why he regenerated somewhere else. It seems the rules have changed for him, and other films could explain that.

Why did the Creeper want Laine in Jeepers Creepers: Reborn?

We know Laine is important because of some connection with the Creeper that is never explained and her unborn baby. If the Creeper consumes unborn babies, he becomes even stronger and more unstoppable than ever before. The movie’s ending seems to indicate that he will no longer be restricted by the twenty-three years cycle and be able to roam free untethered. Somehow eating unborn babies makes him immortal. No explanation is given if it is Laine’s baby specifically that is needed.

The cult wanted Laine because her unborn child could make the Creeper immortal. However, the Creeper seemed to have different motivations. He took Laine early and tied her up before stabbing her in the abdomen. Assuming he wanted to eat her unborn baby, this makes no sense. A clue of what he really wanted is Laine’s throwaway conversation with Chase towards the beginning of the movie about love bugs. Love bugs were introduced originally to control insect pests like mosquitos, but the loving creatures could not take time out of mating to do their intended tasks. As a result, they spend their two or three-day life cycle mating.

The Creeper is preoccupied with Laine throughout the movie despite being given an entire festival’s worth of victims. Likely he wants to mate with Laine and make future Creeper babies. What her connection with the Creeper is, we don’t know. She can sense things about the cult, and the Creeper and her prowess at the target booth seem to hint at a genetic connection that could possibly be explored in future movies. Maybe she is a descendant of an original cult member or the Creeper family? Halloween 5 made this mistake and barely recovered.

The Creeper is a great horror creature. The mythos behind the cyclical monster is compelling. Unfortunately, Jeepers Creepers: Reborn is not and possibly sets the film back instead of providing possibilities for future stories. Come for the Creeper but don’t expect too much. You can stream it right now on HULU.