Horror’s Dirty Little Secret

The horror fandom has a problem – and yes, despite what you may think, it is a fandom. Like any property or genre that acquires a massive fanbase collective, horror has spawned so much media and craftwork that it deserves the term.

But I digress.

I’ve been a horror fan literally as long as I can remember. What started as a largely solo experience renting offbeat horror films from my local mom’n’pop video rental outfit quickly blossomed into a huge interconnected community with the advent of the internet, and I’ve always been grateful for the company. Of all of the fan collectives I’ve engaged with, horror has always been the kindest, most welcoming, and oddly most protective that I’ve ever experienced. The past few years, however, have seen some misgivings creeping in, a few doubts here and there.

We have a problem, people, and it’s two words we all know: Jeeper Creepers.

The film was released in 2001 and garnered many fans. While it should seem on the face of the things that it’s just one more icon, one more beloved horror villain, entering our sphere, it is truly anything but. Because by the time this film was written, greenlit, produced, and released, the truly horrifying nature of its writer and director, Victor Salva, had been publicly known for more than five years.

Victor Salva was not new to the film community, or even the horror community. His first full-length horror film, Clownhouse, was released in 1989. He achieved more widespread acclaim with 1995’s Powder, starring Sean Patrick Flanery. But the truth of the matter is this: his first film should never have been released, and there should never have been any follow-ups. Because it is not conjecture or rumor, but rather a known fact that Victor Salva is a pedophile and sexual predator convicted of molesting a young boy and creating child sexual abuse material.

Let me say that once more, a little louder for people in the back: Victor Salva, the writer and director of Jeepers Creepers and the creator of the franchise is a pedophile and convicted sex offender who was jailed for sexual offenses against a child.

Yet somehow (and with the help of Francis Ford Coppola’s apparent intervention, for fuck’s sake), UA/MGM saw it fit to give this man open leave to film and promote Jeepers Creepers, which begs the question: were they out of their god damned minds?!

When the film was released in 2001, horror and film media conventions were already being held all over the world. Dragon*Con had already been going strong for nearly 15 years; Flashback Weekend was just beginning. This horror community that we love was already enormous and constantly growing! And yet there was a collective ignorance – a willful ignorance – of Salva’s crime and predatory nature, allowing him into this space that we as fans had created.

Because this wasn’t a whisper or a rumor, it was a well known fact, to the degree that it garnered headlines and protests when Powder was released, even as it was backed with the starpower of Lance Henriksen, Mary Steenburgen, and Jeff Goldblum. People knew. There was no denying what Salva had done and the danger he still represented, and yet… it was simply ignored.

And today, with a three-film franchise and a reboot, Jeepers Creepers still has rabid fans that clamor for merch and somehow try to defend its release, knowing full well that Salva’s first slasher, Clownhouse, is purposely out of print due to his systematic grooming and molestation of its young star beginning when the boy was only seven years old. 

Why do we tolerate this? Why was this man given further inlet into creative spaces where children would be present? As recently as 2017, Salva was still showing up to conventions and film screenings.

When J.K. Rowling began slowly losing her mind and descending into transphobic madness in 2020, the reaction was instant. The Potterverse takes up a huge swath of fandom and her outdated TERFy talking points divided it quite quickly, between those who chose to tolerate her hate speech, those who agreed with it, and those who snapped their wands and walked away. Yes, there are still conventions and media being created for the ‘verse but they cater only to the audience willing to put up with the author’s stupidity and still, each time something new pops up, there is a choice to be made. The author’s cruel and callous words and behavior are never forgotten or brushed aside.

So when we have a man who presents a real physical danger, why do we, as horror fans, so often choose to ignore it?

Personally, I can’t let it go. As soon as I learned of what Salva had done, he and all of his work were dead to me. I remember seeing Powder in the theater and very much liking the film, but you’ll never catch me watching it again. I won’t be purchasing any Creeper merch, not even fanmade, because I won’t give a damn or a dollar to promote the work of a pedophile. 

Salva is not a welcome guest at most horror events these days, thanks to the efforts of people like the Soska Sisters, thankfully loud proponents of protecting fandom spaces from predators like Salva. But horror fans continue to defend the franchise.

Separate the art from the artist, they say. But that is a luxury reserved for the likes of H.P. Lovecraft (notorious racist) and Alfred Hitchcock (known for his considerable abuses of his leading ladies). When they are dead, they cannot profit. When they are dead, they won’t be invited into spaces where they can do harm. In today’s world, le mort de l’auteur well and truly only applies if the author of the media truly IS dead.

There is nothing Salva has created that is so wonderful or groundbreaking that it need persist the way it has. Let it go and find something new. Don’t line his pockets and don’t give him leave to harm anyone else. 

It’s time. The horror fandom is hugely diverse and supportive. Don’t allow this predator to thrive within our midst.