Don't know if anyone else noticed this but when Craig T. is talking to the paranormal investigators he states the mother's age as 32. Then he says Dana (eldest daughter) is 16. This means the mother would have had her at age 16! Not sure if this would have been legal in whichever part of the US it's meant to be!
Well in the novelization of the film, new material was written in to explain that Diane is Steven's second wife and Dana is her step daughter. But that's just in the novelization. In the movie Dana is her daughter. And as far as the age goes, you just got to chalk it up it was a different era and also to shit happens. π€·ββοΈπ€·ββοΈπ€·ββοΈπ€·ββοΈ
shareIn NJ, 16 is the legal age of consent. But I got the impression they were in California, I don't remember why I thought it.
Also, people weren't so quick to ruin a man's life over consensual sex if the girl was old enough to know what she was doing back then.
In the case of the movie, maybe they were both 16 when she was born, or she was 16 and he was 17.