Victor Salva & Jeepers Creepers 2

[Ash]

I was planning to see this until I read all the horrid reviews of it.

What turned me off is the fact that nearly every review I read mentioned director Victor Salva's previous child molestation conviction and how in the new Jeepers Creepers film he can't seem to resist getting the young guys to remove their shirts.

I remember several months ago we all discussed this here on the Phorum about the first J.C. movie.
Here's a couple of quotes from some reviews I read:

"For the second time, convicted child molester Victor Salva has written and directed a movie about a decrepit stalker of beautiful young boys. The Creeper, who resembles that other destroyer of innocence Freddy Kreuger, singles out his victims and carries them off into the night to eat selected body parts.

The real horror of "Jeepers Creepers 2" is that its familiar theme of savoring tender young flesh is serving as Salva's postprison therapy."

Here's another:

"The tongue-smacking Creeper has a wicked sense of humor, but what’s to be made of his fondness for male flesh? Once again, it’s impossible to separate Victor Salva the director from Victor Salva the convicted child molester. (There are enough boys in the film to make up an entire football team but it’s anyone’s guess as to how many schools send three-girl cheerleading squads to the state championships.) Once the three adult chaperones in the film are disposed of, it’s not long before Salva, err, Creeper descends on the Abercrombie & Fitch models huddled nervously inside their school bus. Even when the boys in the film do manage to put their clothes back on, it’s only a matter of time before the Creeper takes one kid’s shirt off (amongst other things) via an impromptu surgical switcheroo."

This all sounds like an exercise in perversion for Victor Salva.

How and why is this man still directing films?


Personally...I think I'll pass on this one.  

If I did go to see it in the theater I would not be able to get Salva's obsession with young boys out of my head and I would hate the movie just for that reason.

What do you think?

[Will]

Depends....do you like Roman Polanski movies like The Pianist? He's convicted of molesting young girls.....which is just as bad.

Then again, art is art, life is life. I like GG Allin's performances, but I wouldn't have wanted to hang out with the guy. If a movie is good, it's good. If a person is messed up, s/he's messed up.
But if s/he is messed up and makes a good movie, well, I'll see the movie, but I won't invite the director to babysit.

Then again, I thought the first Jeepers Creepers was about as entertaining as an icepick in the forehead, so I'll pass anyway.

[wuggles451]

You know ill probally still see Jeepers Creepers 2 despite the reviews. I just liked the first one that much. Maybe it is healthy for Mr Salva to exercise his perversions on film instead of an innocent kid. The fact that the Creeper stalks the males also adds a creepy touch (no pun intended) to the movie.

And when i say "healthy" i dont mean an unnatural atraction to children is healthy by any means just that if him making movies keeps him form molesting kids then let him keep making movies dammit. People still let Micheal Jackson make music (who didnt see the Jacko comparison coming)

[Chadzilla]

How and why is this man still directing films?

Well, he has paid his debt - done his time, gone to counseling and so on and so forth.  He has every right to seek gainful employ.  As the parent of a young boy, I refuse to pay one hard earned cent to see any movie Salva makes.  If he had done Freddy Vs Jason I would have skipped it, but I would not barred him from making it.

I don't watch many of Roman Polanski movies either.  Yet I watch movies that feature Tim Allen (convicted drug dealer) and Charles S. Dutton (who I heard did time for manslaughter) and I am a big fan of Danny Trejo (who likewise did time in prison).

People can be reformed, perhaps Salva has.  I just am not interested in paying to see his movies.

I'll consent to watch movies that feature character actor Jeffrey Jones (the principal in Ferris Bueller, Criswell in Ed Wood), even though he got busted buying kiddie porn (or was it paying a kid to model for him).



Post Edited (08-29-03 18:05)

[StatCat]

I refuse to watch anything by Salva because he is truly a scumbag and there's a huge difference between even comparing him and Polanski at all.  To my knowledge Polanski slept with a teenage girl who probably gave him consent. This is indeed wrong but Salva took it to a much deeper and greater degree after molesting the kid in his movie clownhouse forcefully. Salva truly shouldn't be making films in my view.

[NEC]

<>

Well from what I heard he also gave her a quaalude, but still it is different from what Salva did, and not just because Salva had molested a boy.  Yes, Polanski screwed up. Big time. That is something I will never deny he did.

[yaddo42]

Since what Hollywood responds to is the bottom line, the way to affect Salva's career is to do what others have said they will do: refuse to spend money to see his films. If enough people are willing to boycott his work that no studio can make money from a Victor Salva directed movie they, will stop employing him.

I can see how the knowledge of Salva's criminal past is troubling considering that the themes of so many of his movies deal with young men or teenage males and often involve predatory monsters, madmen, escaped convicts, etc. I have a hard time watching Jeffrey Jones in anything now without the knowledge of his crime sticking in my mind, especially as the high school principal in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". I also have a hard time watching James Stacy in the 1975 movie "Posse" even though it is one of my favorites since I found out about his 1996 conviction for molesting an 11-year old girl. He served his sentence and was released, but that still makes him a known sex offender.

I won't be seeing any of Salva's work, past or future, and I encourage others not to either. To me child molestation is a crime that crosses a moral line beyond other criminal offenses and has a high rate of recitivism from what I've read, I believe in shunning and isolating the offenders.

[jmc]

The question to be asked about Polanski....are his films just an excuse to indulge his fantasies?   I think that's probably the big difference between Polanski and Salva....other than talent, of course.

[akiratubo]

I can't wait to see part 2.  I watched Jeepers Creepers knowing who Victor Salva was and what he did.  I've read several analyses of the veiled pedophilia in Jeepers Creepers and a lot of it is a big stretch.

I don't know if Salva is homosexual or not but, if he is, perhaps that's why he likes to film shirtless young boys.

[wuggles451]

Finally someone elso who wants to see JC2 i was begining to feel like a bad person for wanting to considering the point of veiw most of you share on the movie.

[Nobody]

Anyone who even sticks up for that freak has serious problems. When he sits home and beats off thinking about little boys he probably laughs at all the people who keep paying to see his movies,which enables him to make even more movies filled with hidden references to gay pedophilia. Here's a page thats points out almost all the f**ked up s**t in part 1 http://movieweb.com/columns/orange/rev_jeepers.html

[wuggles451]

Im not sticking up for Salva I'm just stating that i liked Jeepers Creepers despite his disgusting crime.

[NEC]

<>

You shouldn't fee bad. You haven't done anything wrong. I say if you want to see it, just wait until it's on HBO or something, or if you get a free coupon from the video store in the future. That way you aren't really supporting Salva's bank account.

[Jim Hepler]

According to the 13 year old girl, she did not consent to Polanski.  But I've heard a lot of weird stories, it isn't exactly open and shut.  The kid with Salva was 12.  One year apart.  And I don't THINK (not positive) he *physically* forced him at all.  

I'm not at all suprised Roman Polanski is one f**ked up guy though - his whole family got killed in the holocaust, then his pregnant wife was killed in the Helter Skelter Manson murders.

[Jim Hepler]

Er..

"The “monster� here “could� be a metaphor for the psychological disorder that urges pedophilia in men. Salva doesn’t ask us to sympathize with one of society’s biggest taboos. Instead, he shows it’s ugliness as an evil growing inside, out of control, that can’t be stopped. "

According to that link you gave, Salva intended JC to be about how horrible what he is, is.