TRIGGER WARNING!!!
Right now, Bill Cosby's rape allegations are coming back out of the woodwork and it has completely tarnished his career. He's lost sponsorships and TV Land has pulled reruns of THE COSBY SHOW from airing. You know what? Good. However, people like Victor Salva are STILL making films and the press are STILL covering his films. A lot of people like to claim that they can "separate the art from the artist," but that pegs the question...should we?
The best example of this sort of "forgiveness" is Roman Polanski. Polanski is hailed as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and with good reason. ROSEMARY'S BABY is one of the greatest horror films ever made, and Polanski has proven himself to be a dynamite director. Here's the thing though, he committed a heinous crime. He fled to France hours before his sentencing in 1978 and has been essentially "hiding" out in France ever since. I use the word "hiding" loosely, because he's not some hermit, he's just not coming back to America. I can call ROSEMARY'S BABY a brilliant and iconic film worth seeing, because it's something Polanski created BEFORE he molested a thirteen year old and was convicted. I don't feel good about it, but I won't hold his previous talents against him. Everything he's done after the fact? It does not exist in my world, and it shouldn't. I don't care how brilliant of an artist you are, you do not get a free pass on sex crimes because you're a talented artist.
JEEPERS CREEPERS feels a little bit autobiographical, with Salva playing the monster. Unlike the typical slashers or monster, 'The Creeper" preys on its victims much like a stereotypical pedophile. The first JEEPERS CREEPERS film shows a brother and a sister being stalked by the creature, in particular, the brother is the one the monster desires. In JEEPERS CREEPERS 2, as the monster admires his victims (predominately shirtless male boys) from afar, his eyes roll back (much like a male orgasm) when he finally sees the victim he desires. He then licks the glass of the school bus, and he caresses his victims before he strikes. I'm sorry, but JEEPERS CREEPERS is a giant metaphor for raping men, and Salva was paid money to essentially "safely" re-enact his guiltiest desires. That's sick. Seriously, seriously, sick. And this isn't the only time. Even his non-horror films like POWDER are littered with weird traces of pedophilia. One of the JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 producers, Bobby Rock, has even gone on record saying, the original JEEPERS CREEPERS "did very well at the box-office — that's all that matters to us." "Us" being Rock and his co-producer...Francis Ford Coppola.
The fucked up thing? Salva didn't make JEEPERS CREEPERS until AFTER he had already been convicted and served time. That means producers willingly handed over a TEN MILLION dollar budget to this guy to make a movie. He made this film AFTER the media-explosion during his film POWDER when it became known that Disney had financed a film made by a child molester. People like to claim "he served his time, let him move on" but I disagree, 100%. People like Victor Salva should not be allowed to continue to make art for the world. Unfortunately money talks, and since JEEPERS CREEPERS and its sequel did well financially, there's apparently a third installment in the works. Gross. Sex crimes against children are unforgivable, and Salva does not deserve to be forgiven so easily. Victor Salva already made his movie, and it contained pornographic acts on a 12 year old. That should have been enough, but apparently Hollywood doesn't care.