Victor Salva (born March 29, 1958 in Martinez, California) is a U.S. film director, mostly of horror movies. His body of work includes the films Powder and Jeepers Creepers. His work is often overshadowed by his conviction for sexually molesting a twelve-year-old boy.
Salva grew up watching watching "Creatures Features" on television and is a self-confessed "Jaws baby". In 1986, Salva made the low budget horror film Something in the Basement which attracted the attention of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who in turn helped Salva finance his first, and many subsequent, feature-length debut, Clownhouse (1989). While directing this film, Salva sexually molested one of the film's stars, then-twelve year old Nathan Forrest Winters. The sexual acts were videotaped by Salva, who pled guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct, one count of oral copulation with a person under 14, and three counts of procuring a child for pornography. Salva was sentenced to three years in prison. He served 15 months of the sentence before being paroled.
It would be seven years before Salva made another film. He began with the The Nature of the Beast (film in 1994). Then came the Disney financed Powder (1995). It was during this time that Winters once again came forward with what Salva had done to him. The subsequent media coverage, and speculation as to why Disney would hire a convicted sex offender, ensured that Salva would not make another film until 1999's Rites of Passage, which took the Grand Prize at the Santa Monica Film Festival.
Salva wrote and directed the horror film Jeepers Creepers (2001) and its sequel Jeepers Creepers II (2003). In 2006, he directed Peaceful Warrior.
