Few horror films feel as unsettling as the ones rooted in something real. The killer in “Jeepers Creepers” may be a supernatural creature, but the terror at the heart of the story likely came from a true crime — one that played out on a 1991 episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” and needed no supernatural elements at all.
The segment is about Easter Sunday 1990. Ray and Marie Thornton were out for a drive when a large van tailgated them, passed them, then pulled over near an abandoned schoolhouse. They watched the driver dump a bloody sheet. When they doubled back to catch his plate number, they found more disturbing evidence, and the man came after them.
After the Unsolved Mysteries segment aired, a viewer recognized the man and called in a tip.
The driver was Dennis DePue, who had murdered his wife of 18 years, Marilyn. On the run, he sent long letters to friends and family blaming her for her own death. “Marilynn had many, many opportunities to treat me fairly during this divorce, and she chose to string it out, trick me, lie to me, and when you lose your wife, children and home, there’s not much left. I was too old to start over,” he wrote. He died by suicide before he could be arrested.
The “Unsolved Mysteries” segment aired March 20, 1991. Writer/director Victor Salva has never confirmed it inspired “Jeepers Creepers,” but fans have long connected the two, right down to the original working title: “Here Comes the Boogeyman.”
