*Trigger Warning*
So a few months ago, I rediscovered one of the best bad horror films I’d ever seen. When I first watch Clownhouse, I must’ve been ten-ish and on my friend’s beat-up sofa munching stale popcorn and drinking Kool-Aid while a perfect mix of stupidity, pointlessness and violence played out on screen. What more could a horror loving boy ask for?
So, naturally, when I found it floating around YouTube, I was all happy and shit – especially once I found it was as terribly awesome (or is that as awesomely terrible?) as ever. I even decided to write up a review for it to premier during Halloween-month. To prepare, as always, I Googled all about it.
Why? Why the hell did I do that? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
CHILDHOOD RUINED
Turns out, the horror on screen paled to what happened on set. The film’s director, Victor Salva molested the film’s twelve-year-old star, Nathan Forrest Winters. Molested. Here, let me say that again:
M.O.L.E.S.T.E.D.
On film. ON FILM. He recorded the sick shit he made the boy do. For four years. That means from the ages of eight to twelve, Winters was repeatedly sexually assaulted.
Makes my skin crawl in ways that cheesy little movie never could.
Winters, showing true strength, eventually told his parents what happened and Salva was arrested, tried and sent to prison for three years (outrageous), but only served eighteen months (bullshit).
That was 1987. Fast forward to 1995 and Powder was released. Y’know, that one about the magical albino kid? Well, guess who directed it. Did you say… Victor Salva? Then you, my friend, are right. Here, have a cookie. You’ll need it.
In less than a decade, Salva went from dirty kiddie diddler to major motion picture director. How’d he pull that off? Shouldn’t he be persona non grata after what he did to a little boy who was manipulated into trusting him? Well, at least there were no minors on set, right? Um, maybe. The producers admitted, when they were presented with Salva’s past (which they claimed not to know about until during production) couldn’t say if all actors were over eighteen.
F.U.C.K. Y.O.U.
Oh, and did you catch the knowing while filming? I’d ask why his ass wasn’t fired but I’m sure there’d be a bullshit, ass-covering excuse and I don’t feel like dropping another f-bomb so soon.
(Disney-owned Buena Vista, who distributed the film claim they never knew. Because of their family-friendly reputation, which they rely on for their continued success, I’m gonna give ‘em the benefit of the doubt on this one.)
NOT A CAREER KILLER
Following the hubbub surrounding Powder’s release, brought to you by Nathan Forrest Winters who protested it (have I said how bloody brave this boy, who was twenty by then, is?), Salva should’ve been tossed out like the trash he is. Only he wasn’t. In 2001, Jeepers Creepers premiered and thrust him back into the spotlight. Luckily, again, no sign of underage boys anywhere near set. Small consolation.
There shouldn’t have been a set. There shouldn’t have been a Jeepers Creepers, no matter how enjoyable the film was. Salva, even though found in possession of many homemade child porn tapes, shouldn’t keep getting work. Especially when kids are involved – like with Jeepers Creepers II.
Yes, he was allowed to work with a child. Did no one tell the boy’s ‘rents? Why would they do that?
Isn’t a child’s well-being more important than some crappy sequel? Oh, wait…
G.R.E.E.D.
FOR THE RIGHT PRICE, HOLLYWOOD FORGIVES ANYTHING
The sad truth is, Hollywood doesn’t care what you do. Look at Mel Gibson, Sean Connery, Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby. All have done really fucked up shit, from drunken racist rants to wife beating to sexual assault, yet they still have careers (even the dead pervert). And when Hollywood says, “it’s cool,” the world follows suit.
C’mon, H’wood. Stop it. Don’t be an enabler. You make it way too easy for dirtbags to keep being dirtbags. It’s one thing when Gibson goes all “sugar tits” and spits out a pathetic non-apology and is welcomed back into the fold, but Salva put his penis in a boy’s mouth. Big. Fucking. Difference.
But I guess all that money a child molester makes you makes up for what he did to Nathan Forrest Winters…who was EIGHT when it began. Eight. And he’s not the only one. Remember Corey Haim (you know, the cute one) and how he told the world about how pedo-happy Hollywood types are? The casting couch is no place for a child (or an adult for that matter). Directors and producers are in positions of power and have no right to use that power to make actors do things that anyone not a perv would find despicable. Stop being a haven for them.
I’d like to think in 2015, things would be better and horrible people like Victor Salva would no longer be welcome in Hollywood. But Jeepers Creepers III is coming so I think it’s a safe bet that people like him, who commit heinous acts against children, will be welcomed with open arms and bushels of cash.
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