A film director who was sentenced to three years in prison for abusing the 12-year-old child star of his debut film almost 30 years ago has apparently not learned his lesson or changed his ways. He’s now being accused of incorporating tasteless and insensitive child sex abuse jokes in his new film.
Victor Silva, director of the Jeepers Creepers franchise was convicted of child molestation in 1988. He was sentenced to three years in prison that same year for abusing the 12-year-old child star of his film Clownhouse. He was 30 years old at that time. He was also charged for filming the molestation and for possession of child pornography. However, he managed to cut his jail time to almost half, serving only 15 months.
Silva is controversial again as his new movie Jeepers Creepers 3 originally featured a scene suggesting about the sexual abuse between a 13-year-old runaway, and her stepfather through a dialogue exchange where one character was shown even giving sympathy to her molester.
The character was heard asking: “Can you blame the stepdad, though? I mean, look at her. The heart wants what it wants, am I right?”
Some viewers have watched said scene through advance screenings, and many found the said scene quite disturbing including critics. John Squires took to Twitter and wrote: “If this excerpt from IGN’s review of Jeepers Creepers 3 doesn’t make your skin crawl, not sure what will. Victor Silva needs to be stopped.”
After the controversies and criticisms that contentious scene many find disgusting, it has been deleted from the movie version that will be shown to the general public.
Almost three decades may have passed since Silva’s conviction and sentence, but to the child he victimized then, the memories and the wounds remain fresh and painful. Actor Nathan Forrest Winters spoke about the abuse and said of Silva: “He spent the better part of the year grooming me and my parents. Developing the trust. It was very calculated, and a long process, as it is with most pedophiles.”
Winters, however, found the courage to share his whole traumatic experience with Silva’s abuse to shed light not only on what happened to him and how he he was able to transcend the harrowing ordeal, but to also draw attention to the issues of molestation and pedophilia in Hollywood, which sadly continues to happen today, almost 30 years since Silva abused him.
Winters shared: “The film will show my journey from victim to survivor.It is my belief that we as a whole in this country have been too afraid to face such an unspeakable topic and continue to turn a blind eye, which has allowed these predator of our children to go unchecked for too long.”
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