Victor Ronald Salva (born March 29, 1958) is an American filmmaker. He has primarily worked in the horror genre, most notably as the writer-director of the commercially successful Jeepers Creepers (2001) and its sequels Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) and Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017). Outside of horror, Salva wrote and directed the fantasy-drama film Powder (1995).
Salva's filmmaking career has been controversial due to his 1988 conviction for sexually abusing a 12-year-old actor who starred in his feature film debut Clownhouse (1989), along with possessing child sexual abuse material. This controversy has led to protests against his films, including a boycott of Powder organized by his victim.
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Early life
Victor Ronald Salva was born in Martinez, California, on March 29, 1958. He was raised Catholic. His biological father abandoned the family, and he has said that his stepfather was a physically abusive alcoholic. Salva was interested in horror and science fiction from a young age; his favorite monster movie was Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the local newspaper reported in 1975 that the 17-year-old Salva had gone to the cinema to see Jaws 55 times. His family disowned him when he came out as gay at age 18. He was a childcare worker before becoming a filmmaker, which drew scrutiny during his sexual abuse conviction.
Career
By the time Salva graduated from high school, he had written and directed over 20 films, both short and feature-length. To finance his filmmaking hobby, he often held two jobs during the week. His short horror film Something in the Basement (1986), an allegory about a young boy awaiting his brother's return from a bloody war, took first place in the fiction category at that year's Sony/AFI Home Video Competition. The film went on to win several national awards (including a Bronze Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival) and brought Salva to the attention of Francis Ford Coppola, who then agreed to produce Clownhouse (1989), the first theatrical feature film Salva wrote and directed. Coppola reportedly saw so much potential in Salva that he gave him the same cameras he had given George Lucas for the production of American Graffiti (1973). Salva would go on to describe himself as Coppola's protégé.
