Jeepers Creepers 3 will air twice this weekend on the SyFy channel as part of its “31 Days of Halloween 2017.” The new movie will air on Saturday, October 28th at 9 p.m. EDT and on Sunday, October 29th at 7 p.m. EDT.

If you don’t catch it on SyFy this weekend, the DVD isn’t going to be out until December 26th, 2017.

When I heard that the new movie was going to be shown on the SyFy channel, I was a little worried. After all, the network has a history of airing unnecessary straight-to-their-channel sequels from titles like Anaconda, Lake Placid and any sort of Shark-hybrid name you can shake a stick at. But after doing a little digging, it looks like the movie is still being produced by Myriad Pictures, which co-produced the last one.

Jeepers Creepers 3 was also shown in theaters for “one-night-only” on September 26th… and then again on October 24th. So much for “one-night-only.” They might want to work on their marketing because, not only are those dates a Tuesday and a Wednesday, but I don’t remember ever seeing any trailers for the release or the encore showing.

Those of us who’ve seen the movies in this series have been waiting quite a while for the next installment. Jeepers Creepers came out in 2001, Jeepers Creepers 2 came out in 2003. That’s 14 years ago! Sure, it’s not the 23 years that The Creeper has to wait before going on its 23-day killing spree… but that’s still a long time.

A winged, humanoid, demon-like creature, The Creeper has cemented itself among the new wave of horror icons. Considering most of the recent horror icons are slasher-killers or trap-makers who want to play a game, it’s refreshing to have a supernatural-based killer in the mix — especially since it’s been awhile since we’ve seen Freddy or Jason in a new picture.

The Creeper always kind of reminded me of The Jersey Devil in that episode of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest that I watched when I was a kid. What a creepy monster. I’m actually surprised I haven’t seen a movie based on that American folklore. The closest we got was an X-Files episode back in the day.

The Jeepers Creepers movies are good for a scare, especially if it’s late at night. I’ve seen both of them several times and re-watched bits of them again on television from time to time. I appreciate the first one in particular because I think Justin Long does a good job as his character and really sells the fear. The sequel is good for the kills, some tense moments and some jumps, but I can’t recall any of the characters’ names if you pressed me.

I might also find the movies a bit more scary because they’re supposed to take place in my home state of Florida. However, I do have to suspend my disbelief at the beginning of the first movie, since we don’t really have basements in Florida because we’re so close to sea level and the water table. On the other hand, we are known for our tacky roadside attractions, so the ending of the second film is totally believable.

I was surprised to learn that Jeepers Creepers 3 takes place between the first movie and the second one. That kind of takes the wind out of the sails as to whether the creature is gonna buy the farm. But I was heartened to read that the sister of Justin Long’s character from the first movie at least makes a cameo in this film. Viewers had always speculated that the third film would focus on the sister, perhaps set 23 years in the future, where she has a son and must protect him from The Creeper. I still remember a fan-made trailer trailer that mixed clips from Burning Bright with Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2 to relate that concept. Well, we can always anticipate that for the fourth installment.

For now, I want to go into the third film cold. I tried to avoid spoilers while doing my research. I want to be able to watch Jeepers Creepers 3 at night and get a few jumps out of it. The movie should be good for a few scares.

We’ll find out this weekend.