Philips,
26, was a native from Miami, Florida before she moved
to Los Angeles. As a kid,
Philips says she grew up on horror films. " I'm a
horror movie fanatic. My dad made me
watch them when I was really, really young. I just grew
up on them. I always loved them and
I loved getting scared. Not a lot scares me. I won't even
read [the scripts for] some of
the horror movies that I love going to see and I think
they're really fun movies, but,
they just weren't that old school horror to me."
In "Jeepers Creepers," Philips plays Trish,
who, along with her brother Darry, drive down a
stretch of country road, only to recall an old story
of a couple that disappeared twenty
years earlier. When they stumble upon an old church,
a strange figure spots them and chases
them down the road. Trish and Darry find themselves
near an old pipe and climb in when they
see an injured boy.
To their horror, they are led to several mutilated
bodies on the walls, and something more
terrifying than they ever imagined is out to get them.
Sounds like the traditional horror
films you saw as a kid? Gina thinks so. "I read
[the script], the first 20 pages, and I
immediately went "Oh my God, this is the scariest
thing I've ever read, it's so like the
kind of horror movies I grew up with, my dad would be
so proud!" It had the feeling of an
old-school horror movie to me. Once I met with [Director]
Victor [Salva] and talked to him
about his ideas, his thoughts, I realized that was the
direction he was going in.
I think there is a feeling of old Hitchcock in there.
There are parts that are tributes to
some of the old great horror movies and the old great
filmmakers." Philips believes that
"Jeepers Creepers" meets the conditions of
what any good horror film should be. "Number
one is that it just scares people! Your hair is standing
up on your arms, or at least that
there's a few moments when you're jumping. That's what
makes it a good horror movie. All
these horror movies are slasher film now. I like them,
they're fun, but they wink at the
audience and you're really not terrified through the
movie. I think suspense is a big thing.
In this movie, that's one of the things I love cause
there's so much suspense. That's
what makes it fun."
