Everybody knows Kane Hodder. We know he’s played two Horror Icons in his lifetime (Jason Voorhees and Victor Crowley), that he’s an accomplished and well-respected stuntman, a best-selling author and, of course, that he suffered an accident relating to a fire stunt gone wrong that left him severely burned.
To Hell And Back: The Kane Hodder Story is a documentary ostensibly taking Hodder’s biography to the screen, but in reality, it’s so much more than that. Showcasing the family man, the friend, the prankster and a million other sides to the man whose real name actually is Kane Hodder, Derek Dennis Herbert’s esteemed film gives us an insight into a character we thought we knew but really hadn’t a clue about.
A huge variety of well-known genre faces turn up onscreen to gush about how much they adore Hodder, from Adam Green to Bruce Campbell to Robert Englund. Along the way there are laughs and heart-warming moments aplenty but what’s surprising is how emotional the movie gets. I bawled like a baby, and I wasn’t the only one. It’s a must-watch, horror fan or otherwise and will hopefully get a proper release shortly.
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story is the harrowing story of a stuntman overcoming a dehumanizing childhood filled with torment and bullying in Sparks, Nevada. After surviving a near-death burn accident, he worked his way up through Hollywood, leading to his ultimate rise as Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th series and making countless moviegoers forever terrified of hockey masks and summer camp. Featuring interviews with cinema legends, including Bruce Campbell (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark), To Hell and Back peels off the mask of Kane Hodder, cinema’s most prolific killer, in a gut-wrenching, but inspiring, documentary. After decades of watching Kane Hodder on screen, get ready to meet the man behind the mask in To Hell and Back – an uniquely human story about one of cinema’s most vicious monsters
Wicked Horror caught up with Herbert to discuss his reasons for choosing Hodder as a documentary subject and what his next, Adam Green-related project might be. Check out our review of the movie here.
Interview conducted by: Joey Keogh
Camera: Richard Waters
Editing: Richard Waters
