Salva, Victor

Peaceful Warrior (Widescreen)

Powder

For all its flaws, Powder is still worthwhile for attempting to be unique and well intentioned. The film's qualities were overshadowed after its 1995 release when it was revealed that writer-director Victor Salva had served 15 months in prison for molesting a child actor during production of the 1988 TV movie Clownhouse. Controversy aside, Powder is a welcome step off the beaten path with sufficient strengths to balance its weaknesses. Fantasy and drama combine in the story of a teenager known as Powder for his snow-white skin. Powder is introduced into a tiny Texas community after spending his entire life in his grandparents' basement. He's a wise genius, but an outcast, alienated by those who misunderstand and fear him. When a schoolmaster (Mary Steenburgen) and science teacher (Jeff Goldblum) discover that Powder has a capacity for empathic insight and possesses the power to control electricity, the unusual boy becomes a tragic Christ-like figure--peaceful, prophetic, and perhaps too good to survive in the real world. In telling this heartfelt story, Powder struggles to be all things to all viewers--equal parts E.T. and The Elephant Man--which compromises its overall impact. But even though it's not a great movie, it sincerely tries to accomplish something original and wonderful, and that's more than most movies can claim. --Jeff Shannon

You've never experienced anything quite like POWDER -- the uplifting, must-see hit that audiences and critics loved! Harassed by classmates who won't accept his shocking appearance, a shy young man known as Powder struggles to fit in. But the cruel taunts stop when Powder displays a mysterious power that allows him to do extraordinary things. This phenomenon changes the lives of all those around him ... in ways they never could have imagined. Hollywood stars Jeff Goldblum (JURASSIC PARK) and Mary Steenburgen (PHILADELPHIA) lead a top-notch cast in this unforgettable story of hope and wonder.

Jeepers Creepers

With confident style and low-budget ingenuity, Jeepers Creepers gets under your skin, provoking spine-tingling horror when college siblings Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry (Justin Long) encounter a flesh-eating demon along a barren rural highway. After a harrowing car chase that sets the movie's nerve-wracking tone, they investigate suspicious activity near an abandoned church, where a corrugated pipe leads to unimaginable horrors. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game against the regenerating demon, which feeds on fear--and selected body parts--according to a psychic (Patricia Belcher) who adds chilling portent to the routine climax in a besieged police station. Writer-director Victor Salva (Powder) emphasizes primal fear over logic, but plot holes are easily forgiven when you're scared out of your socks. A surprise box-office hit in late summer 2001, Jeepers Creepers will please even jaded horror fans with its back-to-basics frights. --Jeff Shannon

You can keep your doors locked. You can keep your eyes closed. But still, he'll get what he wants and what he wants is you. Brace yourself for "90 minutes of steadily mounting horror [that] delivers more than its share of honest chills" (The Baltimore Sun). From "the scariest opening sequence of any horror picture in recent memory" (Los Angeles Times) to "one of the gutsiest endingsto a film this year" (Dallas Morning News), Jeepers Creepers is the real deal in terror! On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens (Gina Philips, Living Out Loud and Justin Long, TV's "Ed") are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe. But when they stop to investigate,they discover that the grisly reality at the bottom of that pipe is far worse than they could have ever suspected and that they are now the targets of an evil far more unspeakableand unstoppable 'than they could have ever imagined!

Jeepers Creepers 2 (Special Edition)

Despite the usual symptoms of sequelitis, Jeepers Creepers 2 delivers the goods for those who enjoyed the 2001 original--a group large enough to propel this sequel to a record-setting opening in August 2003. While establishing the flesh-eating "Creeper" as a new horror icon with frantic action and more elaborate special effects, writer-director Victor Salva follows the traditional formula, dispensing with plot almost altogether and focusing entirely on threat, menace, mayhem, and gore. That's likely to disappoint horror fans hoping for a more revealing exploration of the Creeper's origins (room for another sequel, perhaps?), and by trapping nondescript teens in a school bus attacked by the Creeper, Salva severely limits the movie's overall potential. Still, there's something to be said for straightforward shocks, and Jeepers Creepers 2 delivers enough of them to justify its profitable existence. --Jeff Shannon

When their bus is crippled on the side of a deserted road, a team of high school athletes discoversan opponent they cannot defeatand may not survive. Staring hungrily at them through the school bus windows, the "Creeper" returns again and again. But when the teammates discover that it's selective about whom it attacks, it will test their ability to stick togetheras the insatiable menace tries to tear them apart!

Clownhouse

Rites of Passage

Nature of the Beast

A man picks up a hitchhiker who may or may not be a serial-killing thief.

Powder [Region 2]

For all its flaws, Powder is still worthwhile for attempting to be unique and well intentioned. The film's qualities were overshadowed after its 1995 release when it was revealed that writer-director Victor Salva had served 15 months in prison for molesting a child actor during production of the 1988 TV movie Clownhouse. Controversy aside, Powder is a welcome step off the beaten path with sufficient strengths to balance its weaknesses. Fantasy and drama combine in the story of a teenager known as Powder for his snow-white skin. Powder is introduced into a tiny Texas community after spending his entire life in his grandparents' basement. He's a wise genius, but an outcast, alienated by those who misunderstand and fear him. When a schoolmaster (Mary Steenburgen) and science teacher (Jeff Goldblum) discover that Powder has a capacity for empathic insight and possesses the power to control electricity, the unusual boy becomes a tragic Christ-like figure--peaceful, prophetic, and perhaps too good to survive in the real world. In telling this heartfelt story, Powder struggles to be all things to all viewers--equal parts E.T. and The Elephant Man--which compromises its overall impact. But even though it's not a great movie, it sincerely tries to accomplish something original and wonderful, and that's more than most movies can claim. --Jeff Shannon

Jeepers Creepers II [Region 2]

Despite the usual symptoms of sequelitis, Jeepers Creepers 2 delivers the goods for those who enjoyed the 2001 original--a group large enough to propel this sequel to a record-setting opening in August 2003. While establishing the flesh-eating "Creeper" as a new horror icon with frantic action and more elaborate special effects, writer-director Victor Salva follows the traditional formula, dispensing with plot almost altogether and focusing entirely on threat, menace, mayhem, and gore. That's likely to disappoint horror fans hoping for a more revealing exploration of the Creeper's origins (room for another sequel, perhaps?), and by trapping nondescript teens in a school bus attacked by the Creeper, Salva severely limits the movie's overall potential. Still, there's something to be said for straightforward shocks, and Jeepers Creepers 2 delivers enough of them to justify its profitable existence. --Jeff Shannon

Rites Of Passage (Widescreen Edition)