When I was about 13 or 14, I had an English teacher who made a deal with me that I could get out of doing all of the year's regular work if I would write a short story a week and on Friday read it to the class.

Early career
In 1986 he 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 feature-length film Clownhouse (1989) and many subsequent films. His biological father abandoned the family and Salva reports that the stepfather was often drunk and physically abusive. Salva wrote and directed the horror film Jeepers Creepers (2001) and its sequel Jeepers Creepers II (2003).

He is best known for directing the films Powder and Jeepers Creepers.