Writer(s): Salva
Starring: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, and Patricia Belcher
Jeepers Creepers is the simple story of Trish and Darry (pronounced just like the food group), a brother and sister who catch sight of a mysterious creature dumping something down a tunnel while on a deserted roadway. Rather than keep driving, what do they decide to do? Go back to the site of the tunnel and snoop around. Would it surprise you in the slightest if I told you what a terrible idea this turns out to be? Darry ends up inside the tunnel, where he sees some things he cannot unsee; he emerges in shock, unable to talk about the hidden horrors of the tunnel.
Trish gets behind the wheel and they try to move on and forget about what they saw; it's not easy when an aluminum (or metal) truck belonging to “The Creeper” starts to follow them. The Creeper is a tall, black demon-looking thing, with long old-man hair, and sharp teeth. He is also one of the least convincing monsters in movie history. He is not scary, he is not menacing; just by showing him, which they do later on and then many times after that, the filmmakers ruin any chance they had of anyone taking their movie seriously.
It's the kind of movie that relies solely on the stupidity of its characters (and by extension, its target audience) for its “scares” to work, but most of them are only of the “jump” variety...sustained tension would require some kind of intelligence behind the camera. Countless, countless times Darry and Trish have ample time to make an escape, but instead sit and stare at “The Creeper”, waiting until it starts coming after them to run away, then throwing in some kind of typical horror contrivance to make the getaway more “intense”. For example, Trish frequently stalls the car because she seems unfamiliar with the idea of a stick shift. This would be a legitimate problem, if it wasn't established earlier on that the car they are using for the trip belongs to her.
Anyway, the characters and plot continue to throw common sense out the window in desperate attempts to terrify the audience. It's so desperate for something to work that it even throws a psychic character in there, who Trish refuses to take seriously, even after she recites, with complete and utter accuracy, things that have happened to them in the past. The characters are too stupid to cheer for, and the plot too flimsy and familiar to get lost in. It's a joke of a film, and really, the less said about it, the better.
The entire mess was directed by Victor Salva, a man who was convicted of sexually abusing a 12-year-old star on the set of his first movie, Clownhouse, which he directed in 1989. Allegedly, he videotaped at least one of the encounters, in which he forced the young child to give and receive oral sex. The young star finally told his parents about the abuse, the case went to trial, and Salva was found guilty, and sentenced to three years, of which he served 15 months. (Curiously, according to IMDb, he directed the same youngster three years earlier, in his debut short Something in the Basement; wonder if he was “fine” on the set then, in order to gain the youngster's trust.)
Upon his release from prison, he laid low for a while, working as a telemarketer while writing scripts on the side. Eventually, one of them caught the eye of Disney, who agreed to produce it, with Salva set to direct from his own script. That film was Powder, and Salva's dream seemed to be coming true. But a month before release, several national publications ran stories detailing Salva's history as a sex offender, and the victim himself even spoke out against Salva and his film, urging theatergoers to boycott it. Instead, the opposite happened, resulting in a $77 million take at the box office (in a film that was shot for just $10 million.) Nevertheless, after the news broke, Disney distanced itself from the director and project, swore they had no idea, and, to their credit, have never partnered with him since.
You could base an argument on the standard claim that he “served his time” and should be allowed to go back to work like anyone else. Technically, it's true that, in the eyes of the law, he did serve his time. But let's also not forget the consistent failures of our own justice system, who felt that fifteen months (out of a three-year sentence) was enough time for him to be completely “cured” and returned back to society. But while he has supposedly apologized to the victim, and paid his restitution, he has vehemently denied that he needs help, or that he has a problem; when faced with the comments of experts that pedophilia is an addiction that can be helped with ongoing therapy, he dismisses it by claiming he doesn't believe in clinical studies that liken pedophiles to alcoholics, by insinuating without proper guidance, he is always just one moment away from a possible relapse. In his mind, he is cured, and that's good enough for him. Does that sound like a man who's serious about “fixing” himself?
The other main argument I keep seeing is that his films “entertain millions of people”, as if that should excuse his disgusting behavior. Face it, he was an adult at the time, and was clearly old enough to know the potential ramifications of his actions. The problem was that he did not think about that when he gave in to temptation, and now seems legitimately irked that people still talk about it. Others justify it by pointing out all the other stars that have gotten into trouble with the law before they were stars, yet whose prior offenses have been forgotten. The problem with these comparisons are that very few of them were for sexual behavior (some of the more common mentions: Will Smith, who beat a man to “near blindness”; Tim Allen for cocaine possession and drunk driving; Mark Wahlberg for “attempted murder” for beating two Vietnamese men; and a variety of others for drug and/or weapons charges), and none of them involved intentionally abusing adolescents.
Our culture seems to focus too much on the perpetrator of violent crimes and not the victim. Often, they have to live with severe emotional and psychological, if not outright physical, traumas for the rest of their lives. For them, there are no limits to their sentence, no early time off for “good behavior”; there's is only a constant barrage of fear and terror that can sometimes be controlled, but that also leaves the lingering question: does it ever go away? But let's forget about Salva for a minute, and look at the reasons why someone like him is allowed to thrive in Hollywood.
As with almost every major company within the United States (and probably the world), movie studios are all owned by large corporations (Warner Bros. by Time Warner, Universal by NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures by Viacom, etc.) But the media industry, in case you weren't aware, is massively huge, with billions upon billions of dollars pouring in from music and movies. You know how your favorite movie stars and artists have the red carpet laid out for them wherever they go, are treated like royalty, and are constantly bombarded by millions of loyal fans? Well just imagine all of the perks and wiles they are treated to in order to “reward” them for earning the studio money: we've all heard the “tame” stories about sex parties, drugs, and alcohol, but for some these get old. They bore of legal things and turn to sex with underage prostitutes, many of whom are trafficked in against their will and forced to perform for famous clientele.
Think this is far-fetched or outside the realm of possibility? There was a documentary about teenagers being abused in the film industry that was produced in 2014. It's called An Open Secret. It played at Cannes, in an out-of-festival screening to appeal to international buyers. No major studios picked up on it, and it screened at only a handful of U.S. theaters. It has never been released to DVD, and remains a hard-to-find video. Who made it? Only Amy Berg, the Academy Award-nominated director of Deliver Us From Evil, which, somewhat ironically, focused on molestation and sexual assault at the hands of Catholic priests. This presents a weird bit of irony: Hollywood seems just fine with outing molestation and sex abuse in other industries, releasing films like Spotlight to the masses and widespread acclaim, yet when it comes time to stare at themselves in the mirror, they refuse to look, and instead scramble to suppress it. And if this isn't a tactic to cover for their own, why else would a well-received documentary, from an Oscar-nominated director, suddenly disappear from the public eye with no explanation? (In the interest of full disclosure, many articles “blame” the film's failure on its focus on Michael Egan, who filed molestation lawsuits against several executives within the industry, including X-Men director Bryan Singer, which were thrown out when his story kept changing. The accusations against most others were dropped, with his attorneys issuing apologies to the affected parties. Rather bizarrely, however, the accusations against Singer were dismissed “without prejudice”, meaning that Egan can refile against him in the future, and Singer was exempt from his attorney's "apology list". Also lost in the shuffle was that Egan turned down a settlement of $100,000 from Singer's camp, because he wanted a conviction instead of monetary compensation. (Though in a huge irony, it was Egan himself who went to prison, for a completely-unrelated charge.) Once the filmmakers were made aware of the outcome of this lawsuit, they edited out most of Egan's role in the movie, though this “backtracking” has made many outsiders point out that it makes the allegations leveled by the other subjects--who have no ties to Egan whatsoever, and whose stories have not been discredited--questionable; a convenient way for an entire industry to try and “discredit” the entire idea through the actions of one.)
Even more recently, earlier this year to be more precise, child actors Corey Feldman and Elijah Wood both spoke out against pedophilia in Hollywood; Feldman experienced it personally, while Wood only knew of it through firsthand accounts. Both times, the statements made major news outlets for a day or two...then promptly disappeared, thus dropping out of the public's collective mind. Wood even issued a less-pointed "clarification" a day later, saying he based all of his statements on a single viewing of An Open Secret, thus watering down his claims that he personally knew of it. Where were the follow-up stories? Why aren’t we still hearing about this? Why hasn’t anyone, but for a select few, been identified by name? Where are all the hard-hitting exposes from investigative journalists? Why are those that speak out against it, always quick to backtrack, or "clarify" these statements? The ensuing media hush after those claims speaks wonders, and it is within that silence that I have found the answer to many of my questions.
Hollywood will not cannibalize their own, and will not allow their ways to be changed. And they have the power to prevent insiders from ruining them, while at the same time being given a blank check to ruin anyone they want that is less powerful than they are. This is the culture of the film industry, just as it is probably the culture of the music industry, as well. It is the kind of dangerous, reprehensible atmosphere that breeds Victor Salva's, and allow them to thrive while quieting the victims with threats, and acts of violence. It's the kind of place where not even the media dares to tread, a story too big to tell; a “boys club” where men can have whatever they want, whenever they want it, no matter the cost. Victor Salva has been outed, and in my eyes will forever remain a worthless piece of shit no matter how many times he accepts responsibility, or claims that he has apologized to the family, or assures us that he has magically changed without therapy or rehab, or begs people to move on from the past. Just as anyone has the right to forgive him, I have the right not to.
But at the same time, it's equally important to remember that Hollywood is full of similar cretins who have never been outed; those who are allowed to do as they please simply because they are good with a video camera and make all the right people a lot of money. It's impossible to tell how widespread the abuse actually is, but from the sudden backtracking of the few who dare speak out against it, and the silence from all the major “news” outlets and publications, it's an epidemic that will only continue to get worse the longer it's allowed to fester in the darkness.
MOVIE RATING: 1.5/10
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