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Jeepers Creepers - What A Creep!
It boils down to a really strange tuation. Horror movies are, for the most part, primarily marketed to kids. We - we being the adults who grew up with an enduring love for the gruesome and gory - all, for the most part, became attracted to horror movies in our youths. As teens for many, even younger for others, we were drawn to films that often featured teenagers and even children facing off against horrors real enough to keep us up at night, listening for every squeak and shudder of a house settling for the night, certain it was the big-screen terror coming to claim another victim.
What few of us really thought about was that, at times, the young stars of these films were being faced with horrors much more real, and far worse than we could imagine. An article appeared on Huffington Post today, regarding horror veteran Corey Feldman speaking out on the seedy underbelly of Hollywood.
"I can tell you that the number one problem in Hollywood was, and is, and always will be pedophilia. That's the biggest problem for children in this industry... it's all done under the radar. It's the big secret," he said.
Feldman said he was surrounded by pedophiles when he was 14-years-old and didn't realize until he was older just what these "vultures" were and what they wanted. Feldman says it was these people who abused both him and close friend and troubled teen actor Corey Haim, who died last year at the age of 38.
Pictured Below: Jeepers Creepers creator - Victor Salva
This if course immediately brought to mind the strange case of Victor Salva, known primarily for the popular horror film series Jeepers Creepers. Hollywood likes to forget that long before Jeeper Creepers graced our screens, there was another horror film that Salva both wrote and directed: Clownhouse.
Clownhouse debuted in 1990 and made a serious mark in the horror genre. Escaped mental patients, a traveling circus, clowns and Halloween drawing near? It seems almost the perfect mix for a great horror film, but sadly, it was the onset antics of Salva that were truly scary. It seems that Salva was more focused on making his own private films after hours: in the year following the film’s release, Salva was convicted on charges of child molestation and child pornography, both of which were related to lewd acts with a 12 year old boy, one of the film’s stars. Salva himself was 29 years old at the time.
After serving only a year in prison, Salva - who to this day remains a convicted sex offender and is required to register as such in his state - continued to pursue a high profile career in filmmaking. Granted, he hasn’t had as much success as many in the field, but Jeepers Creepers and its subsequent sequel (with forthcoming third film in the series) garnered much attention, enough to let Salva’s star rise a little higher - enough to have his next film, Rosewood Lane, go into production.
Feldman told Nightline, "There are so many people in this industry who have gotten away with it for so long that they feel they're above the law. And that's got to change, that's got to stop."
If you look at the IMDB message boards regarding this film, you will see several comments to the effect of “he served his time, it’s over, let it go”. But is this something we should be really letting go? Rosewood Lane’s storyline is said to revolve around a neighborhood paperboy. Should Salva, who, yes, served his time, really be allowed to work around children or even teenagers?
Don’t get me wrong. I like scary movies. But some things are just a little too frightening, even for me. We enjoy horror movies perhaps because many of the horrors faced in these films are so far outde of what we encounter in our every day lives as to make the horrors we DO face - disease, poverty, etc - seem a little more mundane. We even watch films where children are hurt or even killed, but we know at the end of the day that the young actor or actress will walk away from the frightening scenes they portray and back to the same banal existence we all face.
Maybe I am in the minority. There are a lot of things that get me angry, but few things horrify me and piss me off to such a degree as an adult taking advantage of a child. Salva’s films are scary - but not as scary as the thought of what might happen if he were left unsupervised with his young stars again.
Full Article Here: Huffington Post
What few of us really thought about was that, at times, the young stars of these films were being faced with horrors much more real, and far worse than we could imagine. An article appeared on Huffington Post today, regarding horror veteran Corey Feldman speaking out on the seedy underbelly of Hollywood.
"I can tell you that the number one problem in Hollywood was, and is, and always will be pedophilia. That's the biggest problem for children in this industry... it's all done under the radar. It's the big secret," he said.
Feldman said he was surrounded by pedophiles when he was 14-years-old and didn't realize until he was older just what these "vultures" were and what they wanted. Feldman says it was these people who abused both him and close friend and troubled teen actor Corey Haim, who died last year at the age of 38.
Pictured Below: Jeepers Creepers creator - Victor Salva
This if course immediately brought to mind the strange case of Victor Salva, known primarily for the popular horror film series Jeepers Creepers. Hollywood likes to forget that long before Jeeper Creepers graced our screens, there was another horror film that Salva both wrote and directed: Clownhouse.
Clownhouse debuted in 1990 and made a serious mark in the horror genre. Escaped mental patients, a traveling circus, clowns and Halloween drawing near? It seems almost the perfect mix for a great horror film, but sadly, it was the onset antics of Salva that were truly scary. It seems that Salva was more focused on making his own private films after hours: in the year following the film’s release, Salva was convicted on charges of child molestation and child pornography, both of which were related to lewd acts with a 12 year old boy, one of the film’s stars. Salva himself was 29 years old at the time.
After serving only a year in prison, Salva - who to this day remains a convicted sex offender and is required to register as such in his state - continued to pursue a high profile career in filmmaking. Granted, he hasn’t had as much success as many in the field, but Jeepers Creepers and its subsequent sequel (with forthcoming third film in the series) garnered much attention, enough to let Salva’s star rise a little higher - enough to have his next film, Rosewood Lane, go into production.
Feldman told Nightline, "There are so many people in this industry who have gotten away with it for so long that they feel they're above the law. And that's got to change, that's got to stop."
If you look at the IMDB message boards regarding this film, you will see several comments to the effect of “he served his time, it’s over, let it go”. But is this something we should be really letting go? Rosewood Lane’s storyline is said to revolve around a neighborhood paperboy. Should Salva, who, yes, served his time, really be allowed to work around children or even teenagers?
Don’t get me wrong. I like scary movies. But some things are just a little too frightening, even for me. We enjoy horror movies perhaps because many of the horrors faced in these films are so far outde of what we encounter in our every day lives as to make the horrors we DO face - disease, poverty, etc - seem a little more mundane. We even watch films where children are hurt or even killed, but we know at the end of the day that the young actor or actress will walk away from the frightening scenes they portray and back to the same banal existence we all face.
Maybe I am in the minority. There are a lot of things that get me angry, but few things horrify me and piss me off to such a degree as an adult taking advantage of a child. Salva’s films are scary - but not as scary as the thought of what might happen if he were left unsupervised with his young stars again.
Full Article Here: Huffington Post
dew
Friday 8/12/2011 at 07:05 PM | 80520
Seriously had no idea that this went on so much in the film industry but I did know about Salva and he should in no way shape or film be allowed to work with a child or teenager again, in fact he should not even be allowed to be a filmmaker anymore. Just looking at that picture of him pisses me off, his films arent even scary, the creeper films were just kinda fun to watch and the creeper looks cool but thats about it.
Sephit
Tuesday 8/16/2011 at 07:44 AM | 80741
