Victor Salva

Victor Ronald Salva is an American film director and screenwriter born on March 29, 1958, in Martinez, California. He grew up in a Catholic household, experienced a turbulent childhood marked by an absent biological father and an abusive stepfather, and later came out as gay at age 18, which led his family to disown him. Fascinated by horror and science‑fiction from a young age, Salva famously watched Jaws fifty‑five times in 1975 and cited Creature from the Black Lagoon as his favorite monster movie. By the end of high school he had already written and directed more than twenty short and feature‑length films, financing his early projects by holding two jobs simultaneously. His 1986 short Something in the Basement won first place in the Sony/AFI Home Video Competition and attracted the attention of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, who mentored Salva and provided him with the same camera equipment he had once given George Lucas. Salva’s first theatrical feature, Clownhouse (1989), was produced by Coppola, but the film’s legacy was marred when Salva was convicted in 1988 of sexually abusing child actor Nathan Forrest Winters and possessing child pornography, resulting in a three‑year prison sentence and lifetime registration as a sex offender. Despite the conviction and ensuing public boycotts, Salva returned to filmmaking, working as a telemarketer while writing scripts on weekends, and eventually directing the cult‑favorite horror series Jeepers Creepers (2001), Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), and Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017). He also explored other genres with Powder (1995), a fantasy drama about an albino boy with supernatural abilities, and Peaceful Warrior (2006), an adaptation of Dan Millman’s semi‑autobiographical novel. Salva’s later horror efforts, including Rosewood Lane (2011) and Dark House (2014), continued to showcase his penchant for atmospheric, macabre storytelling, often emphasizing bleak endings and a tone that refuses to be taken entirely seriously.