Victor Salva is best known as the writer and director of the Jeepers Creepers films, but a decade before the first of those was released, he spent 15 months in prison for molesting 12-year-old actor Nathan Forrest Winters on the set of his film Clownhouse.
United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock PhotoDirector Victor Salva on the set of Jeepers Creepers 2.
As a self-described protégé of legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola, Victor Salva has long been one of the most controversial directors in Hollywood. His debut feature film, Clownhouse, premiered in 1989, but even that was seen by many as undeserved. Just one year prior, Salva was convicted for sexually abusing the 12-year-old star of Clownhouse, Nathan Forrest Winters, during the movie’s production. Salva had even filmed the abuse, providing irrefutable evidence of his crime.
He pleaded guilty to the charges, landing him a sentence of just three years behind bars — and he served only 15 months. But, somehow, Salva’s career in film didn’t end with his conviction. In fact, it had barely even begun. While working as a telemarketer after he was released from prison, Victor Salva continued to write movie scripts, and in 1995, he released a direct-to-video film called The Nature of the Beast, which garnered him some widespread attention in Hollywood and led to studios once again optioning his scripts.
Then, in 2001, he wrote and directed the Coppola-produced Jeepers Creepers, which became a breakout hit, leading to even more work for Salva. However, when it came time for the release of Jeepers Creepers 3 in 2017, Salva’s past came back into the spotlight, largely due to a character in the film being a victim of child sexual abuse — and dialogue that implied justification for that abuse. Nathan Forrest Winters, meanwhile, continued to protest Salva’s films and even released a documentary detailing the abuse that he endured.
Victor Salva’s story is a disturbing look into the dark underbelly of Hollywood — and how those with power can get away with some of the most vile crimes imaginable.
Victor Salva’s Troubled Early Life
Born on March 29, 1958, Victor Salva grew up in a troubled, abusive home. His father abandoned the family when Salva was young, leaving his mother in the care of two young boys. She eventually remarried, but her second husband was an abusive alcoholic.
As Salva told the Los Angeles Times in a 2006 interview, “He’d been drinking since he was 14, so it was very volatile — liquor put him in touch with his anger. He was physical with us. He’d hit me or sometimes slam me or throw me across the room. It was like living with a landmine.”
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoVictor Salva began therapy after his release from prison, and some people in the industry have claimed he has redeemed himself.
As an escape, Salva turned to movies. He became obsessed with monsters, especially the titular one from Creature from the Black Lagoon and the shark from Jaws. In his free time, Salva wrote and directed short films, producing more than 20 by the time he graduated from high school. But his struggles at home continued, and they only got worse when he came out as gay.
“I was thrown out of the house at 18 — they told me to stop being gay or get out,” he said.
His major career breakthrough came in 1986, when he submitted a short film titled Something in the Basement to various film festivals, where it caught the attention of Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola was so impressed that he gave Salva $250,000 to make his first feature film, Clownhouse. Unfortunately, it was on the set of that very film that Salva’s abuse of Nathan Forrest Winters, a 12-year-old actor, would take place.
The Sexual Abuse Of 12-Year-Old Nathan Forrest Winters
“I didn’t know of anything improper going on,” Coppola would later recall of the Clownhouse set, “although I witnessed some things that caused me to raise an eyebrow. Only in retrospect did things really add up. You have to remember, while this was a tragedy, that the difference in age between Victor and the boy was very small — Victor was practically a child himself.”
Victor Salva pleaded guilty and was convicted of sexually abusing Winters in 1988, a year before Clownhouse was released. Despite Coppola’s claim that the two were fairly close in age, that is simply not true. Salva was 29 at the time, while Winters was just 12 — 17 years the director’s junior.
MGMSam Rockwell, Nathan Forrest Winters, and Brian McHugh in Clownhouse.
As BuzzFeed News reported in the lead-up to Jeepers Creepers 3, Salva’s official guilty plea was for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 14, having oral sex with a child under 14, and procuring a child for pornography, as he had even filmed sexual acts with Winters.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, but he served just 15 months. When he was released, Coppola gifted him $5,000, which Salva lived on for a year while he tried to find work. He eventually got a job as a telemarketer, but he refused to put his dreams of directing films aside.
Victor Salva’s Career Since His Release From Prison
MGMGina Philips and Justin Long in Jeepers Creepers.
After Nature of the Beast, Salva was hired by Disney to direct his next film, Powder. This drew significant backlash, led in part by Nathan Forrest Winters himself, who protested the film and handed out leaflets that said: “Please don’t spend your money on this movie. It would just go to line the pockets of this child molester.”
Per the Los Angeles Times, Winters told the Associated Press at the time that seeing Salva return to filmmaking “just makes me sick. I’m not going to stand by. He should not be allowed to live his life as if nothing happened.” Disney claimed they were only made aware of Salva’s previous conviction after production had begun.
MGM had reservations about hiring Salva for Jeepers Creepers after the Powder backlash, but once again, Coppola came to his rescue and vouched for him. Coppola defended his decision, saying, “I was criticized for it, but my attitude is, he has a talent, and that talent in itself is good. We don’t have to embrace the person in believing that their art is a contribution to society.”
United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock PhotoNathan Forrest Winters (center) was just 12 years old when he suffered sexual abuse by Victor Salva, though he claimed the director, who was friends with his mother, had groomed him since he was six.
Salva, too, has defended his actions, calling them nothing more than a “stupid mistake.” In a 2001 interview with Neil Young, he said: “Well, I’ve never made any effort to hide this… This has followed me around ever since it happened, but once people meet me the phantoms go away and they realize I made a stupid mistake, years ago… My past is going to follow me around for as long as people want to talk about it.”
But Salva hasn’t just courted controversy for his past. In fact, decisions he made during the writing and filming of Jeepers Creepers 3 once again brought his history into the spotlight. They also raised questions about how remorseful the director really was.
Inside The Controversy Surrounding ‘Jeepers Creepers 3’
TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock PhotoVictor Salva directing on the set of Jeepers Creepers 2.
One scene in Jeepers Creepers 3 involves characters making a rape joke about the film’s lead character, Addison, who has to live with her grandmother because her stepfather was making “overtures” toward her.
In response, another character says, “Can you blame him though? I mean look at her. The heart wants what it wants, am I right?” Salva’s 2011 film Rosewood Lane also features a joke that alludes to pedophilic feelings. Of course, there is a difference between including a line of dialogue in a movie and committing a criminal act — but when the writer of that line is guilty of the act he’s referencing, it naturally raises some questions.
To some, though, Victor Salva’s past is not what defines him. Coppola, for instance, has spoken highly of Salva’s work and growth since his release from prison. Lionsgate president Tom Ortenberg, whose studio produced Salva’s Peaceful Warrior, admitted the studio was “aware and concerned. But [Salva’s] taken responsibility for his actions, which not everybody does, so we felt he’d paid his dues and could move on.”
Screen Media/American ZoetropeJonathan Breck as The Creeper in Jeepers Creepers 3.
Michael Ohoven, the producer of Jeepers Creepers 3, spoke in a bit more nuance about his decision to work with Salva. “I’m not the one who’s trying to condone anything. I think it’s absolutely repulsive and horrific,” he told BuzzFeed News.
“I think often in life you’re confronted with: ‘Do you believe in redemption? Are you willing to give second chances?’ And again, I’m not advocating for anybody, or trying to make anybody’s decision. But I had to make the decision to say, ‘Look, I believe he is a man who’s done something absolutely horrific some 30 years ago. I believe he has turned his life completely around.'”
Victor Salva has not made a film since Jeepers Creepers 3, which also notably released at the peak of the #MeToo movement in 2017, so it’s hard to say if the larger Hollywood system has decided if Salva should be allowed to move on from his past. Other directors, like Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, have faced similar allegations and managed to win Academy Awards — but allegations are still, from a legal standpoint, different than a conviction. The culture of accountability has also changed since then and will likely continue to do so.
“I don’t bring up my past unless someone asks,” Salva told the Los Angeles Times. “If they do, I say, ‘How would you like to be defined for the rest of your life for one bad thing you did 20 years ago?’ I have no expectation for people to forgive me. All I can hope is for people to recognize my right to redeem myself.”
After reading about the controversial director Victor Salva, go inside the story of Jared Fogle, the Subway spokesperson who was outed as a pedophile. Or, learn about Gavin Smith, the film studio executive murdered by his lover’s husband.
