Perhaps Hollywood's most unsung auteur, Victor Salva's career has been one of moderate commercial success flooded with controversy. To some, he's a competent B-filmmaker with an eye for precision. To others, he's a brilliant thinking-man's Spielberg with an eye for jaded lead characters and some fantastic directorial flourishes. Nevertheless, Salva has brought an almost Hemingway-like approach to ...
show all Perhaps Hollywood's most unsung auteur, Victor Salva's career has been one of moderate commercial success flooded with controversy. To some, he's a competent B-filmmaker with an eye for precision. To others, he's a brilliant thinking-man's Spielberg with an eye for jaded lead characters and some fantastic directorial flourishes. Nevertheless, Salva has brought an almost Hemingway-like approach to his films, films that recall the visual display of Spielberg with characters that recall the rough masculinity of classic Howard Hawks. On the surface, Salva's films seem so deceptively simple, with what seem like basic plots and characters. But beneath the surface lies dark examinations on fear, repression, anguish, and misery. Salva grew up outside of San Francisco watching schlock horror films on television. A self-confessed "Jaws baby", he began channeling his filmmaking ambitions while in high school. He burst onto the scene in 1986 with the short film "The Something in the Basement (1986)", a low-budget chiller he made in his own backyard. The short caught the attention of filmmaking icon Francis Ford Coppola, who in turn helped Salva finance his feature-length debut, "Clownhouse (1989)". The film, shot for $200,000, centered on three young boys who are terrorized by mental patients-turned-clowns. A lost 80's horror gem if there ever was one, "Clownhouse (1989)" was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, and today remains a highly sought-after video item. It would be 7 years before Salva made another film. He began with the harshly underrated "Nature of the Beast (1995)". Filmed in 1994, the film followed a salesman who comes into contact with a mysterious, drugged-out drifter, while traveling along the isolated desert landscape. Notable for its satanic allegories, an effecting twist ending, and an honest-to-God actor's showdown between the always-compelling Eric Roberts and Lance Henriksen, "The Nature of the Beast (1995)"became a cult classic. Then came the Disney financed "Powder (1995)", about a young albino with special powers. While it garnered glowing critical reception and healthy box office profits, the film was ultimately deterred by revelations of Salva's past as convicted sex offender. The pervasive media coverage surrounding Salva's conviction sent the filmmaker back into seclusion, and it would be 4 years before the director was heard from again. But Salva returned, albeit quietly, with "Rites of Passage (1999)". It centered on a family threatened by both repression and two escaped convicts. Another harshly under-seen treasure, it was a successful foray for Salva into family drama, and the film took the Grand Prize at the Santa Monica Film Festival. Salva followed that with the modern-day horror masterpiece "Jeepers Creepers (2001)". With that film, Salva re-wrote the rules of the monster film genre, defying conventions in the days of special effects and self-referential clichés. The result was a well-directed, critically and commercially successful release that laid the groundwork for a sequel. Which is exactly what Salva chose for his next project, "Jeepers Creepers II (2003)". With a larger financial canvas to paint out, Salva painted in even more imaginative strokes and reinstated his command of the genre with a surprisingly effective summer horror sequel. "Jeepers Creepers II (2003)" broke box office records, claiming the highest-grossing Labor Day debut in movie history. As to where the director will go from here is anyone's guess, but one thing is certain: Victor Salva will continue to defy the odds and conventions with every film he makes.
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