Victor Ronald Salva (born March 29, 1958) is an American filmmaker.<!--Please do not add back that he is convicted sex offender here. The first sentence should be limited to his occupation. His conduct is adequately dealt with in the second paragraph of the lead.--> 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.
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. His family disowned him when he came out as gay at age 18, 11 years later at age 29 he was caught molesting a 12 year old boy.
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.
Following his 1988 conviction for sexually abusing Nathan Forrest Winters, the 12-year-old star of Clownhouse, Salva took a hiatus after his release from prison in 1992; he worked as a telemarketer during the week and wrote scripts during the weekend, supposedly delivering them to well-known producers while posing as a delivery boy. He followed it up with Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), again executive produced by Coppola. His next film was Peaceful Warrior (2006), an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical book Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. The film depicts the emotional and physical trials of a young gymnast and his awakening under the tutelage of a mysterious spiritual guide. He then returned to the horror genre for his films Rosewood Lane (2011) and Dark House (2014).
Salva wrote, directed, and produced Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017), which drew controversy for incorporating a character who was the victim of child sexual abuse. Dialogue that suggested justification for the abuse was later cut from the film.
Salva has described his films as "atmospheric and macabre, with no happy endings, but not to be taken totally seriously".
Child sexual abuse
Salva was convicted of sexual assault in 1988 for sexually abusing Nathan Forrest Winters, the 12-year-old star of Clownhouse, and videotaping one of the encounters in which he forced Winters to perform oral sex on him. He was sentenced to three years in state prison, of which he served 15 months, and lifetime registration as a sex offender. Winters later picketed Salva's film premieres and released a documentary detailing the abuse by Salva, which began when Winters was seven years old following a year of grooming.
Filmography
{|class="wikitable sortable"
! Year
! Title
! Director
! Writer
! Producer
! class="unsortable"|Notes
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| 1986
| Something in the Basement
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| Short film
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| 1989
| Clownhouse
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| 1995
| The Nature of the Beast
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| 1995
| Powder
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| 1999
| Rites of Passage
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| 2001
| Jeepers Creepers
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| 2003
| Jeepers Creepers 2
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| 2006
| Peaceful Warrior
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| 2011
| Rosewood Lane
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| 2014
| Dark House
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| 2017
| Jeepers Creepers 3
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