I’ve heard so many stories about Victor Salva I’m starting to believe they’re urban legends, but what is the truth? It sure doesn’t seem like the shirtless boys running around in Jeepers Creepers 2 had any idea. Did they think they were actually performing in a horror movie, or did they know they were starring in a pedophiles personal porn tape? Well it’s your lucky day, because Horror Yearbook is about to answer all of your questions, especially if you’re asking “Who the hell is Victor Salva and what the hell are you talking about?” Read on and find out.

First, what did he actually do? Did he molest the kid from Clown House? If he did how did he get caught? They certainly didn’t answer those questions on the recent Clown House DVD now did they? No “Under the Sheets With Victor” special features, or a look behind the scenes. It didn’t even have cast or crew interviews. Want to know why? Because it’s all true, and I’m sure those are some memories nobody wanted to revisit.

According to The San Francisco Examiner on Oct 25, 1995, “Victor Salva confessed in 1988 to five felony counts related to having sex with a boy he directed in a low-budget film.” The name of that low-budget film was indeed “Clown House,” and the boy was indeed Nathan Winters who played Casey. It’s also safe to say that “Clown House” was Nathan’s last film. Salva’s mistake was allowing his extracurricular activities with Nathan to be caught on tape. One plea-bargain and fifteen months later, he was out on parole and ready to start filming again. (The legal kind, not the kind involving him performing fellatio on under-age boys.) However, what is probably the most unknown part of the story, is that Francis Ford Coppola was a producer on the movie, and according to Nathan Winters, Coppola sued his mother for breach of contract after she found out about the molestation and pulled him off the set. If you check Francis’s profile on IMDB.com it shows no producing credits for “Clown House,” but it does show he produced “Jeepers Creepers” and “Jeepers Creepers 2,” another two of Victor’s famous horror movies. Hmmm. It also seems The Sundance Film Festival isn’t running around telling anyone “Clown House” was nominated for “The Grand Jury Prize” in 1989 either.

How does Victor keep getting work you ask? I don’t know, ask Coppola, he’s the one who produced his last two movies! What I do know is Disney was involved with Victor’s first mainstream hit “Powder”. (Actually it was made for Caravan Pictures, which is owned by Disney.) So it’s probably safe to say they washed their hands of the whole ordeal after they collected their money. Disney claimed to know nothing about Victor’s private video collection before hiring him, but they sure knew about it after good old Nathan Winters protested the movie and it made national headlines. In spite of Nathan’s call for a boycott of the film, it still made an impressive $7.1 million at the box office. Roger Birnbaum, head of Caravan Pictures, claimed “No children were harmed during the making of this film.” O.K. I made that one up.

With “Powder,” and the ordeal with Nathan behind him, Salva was able to make his most disturbing and successful movies to date, “Jeepers Creepers 1 & 2.” The “Jeepers Creepers” movies involve a monster, dressed like a perverted flasher, who comes back every 23 years to chase little boys. In the first movie he only gets to sniff some underwear and steal one kid’s eyes, but in the sequel he and Victor hit pay dirt with a busload of shirtless high school boys. It’s worth a watch after you read this article if you want to see what I mean.

I guess Victor did his time, and some would say he deserves a second chance. I’m sure his past will always come back to haunt him, but what it doesn’t seem to hurt is his career. His last movie, “Peaceful Warrior,” came out in 2006, and I’m sure we’ll see him again after that. The best part is you can track him through the Meagan’s Law website. Don’t believe me? Try it. I did, and he is there with a whole different set of credentials.