To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story

I've been interested to see this since I first heard about. Kane is one of those Horror Icons that seems like an interesting guy. He's one of the best stuntmen in the business and been some of the biggest characters in horror like Jason Voorhees & Victor Crowley. I figured if anything it wouldn't be a dull watch. I'm a sucker for documentaries anyway. Combine that with my love of Horror and this was pretty much a no-brainer for me.

This was actually much more than I expected. It has a lot of heart. We learn a lot about Kane and how he came into acting/stunt work. The trials and tribulations he's gone through as well as the triumphs. There are loads of interviews with members of the horror community, friends and Kane himself.

I don't want to spoil anything so I will leave it at that. Even if you're not a big horror fan it's worth a watch. A must see for those of us who are horror junkies. It's a damn interesting view. We get a glimpse into the life of one of the people most synonymous with the genre. It's touching, funny, and as I said, has a lot of heart.

My Rating: 8/10

Now, I'm REALLY sad I pissed off Jason. I mean, Kane.

What this man has been through...I can't even begin to imagine. Before seeing this, I knew he was a burn victim, but not to any extent as what he describes in this incredible documentary. How ANYONE could survive what he went through is a miracle. I even had to double back and listen to his ordeal a second time to get it all in.

(Side Note: I do, however, know of the twitching. I've had very bad back pains, sun burns, chicken pox, Valley Fever and stomach aches all while never being able to rest comfortably enough to sleep. He describes this, amongst many more painful experiences, and because I've also had the "FINALLY! Drifting off to sleep..." mode violently and immediately interrupted by "the twitch" or jerk, it was a connection I could make with his story to know how true it all was.)

When I say now that I haven't given you a tenth of his story above so you can experience his words and testimony for yourself, know I am being truthful. I do want you to hear from him in this great documentary.

I seriously thought the title of this movie was just a snappy, quick and recognizable phrase associated with Kane Hodder's career path. No. It's one of the most accurate titles I've ever heard. Bravo.

And bravo to this film as well. I learned so much and appreciated so much more about this man. The man behind the infamous mask. I even have his (and mine as well) favorite look/mask of Jason, the one from his Part VII: The New Blood, hanging at the end of my bed. Seriously.

This film's not so much his roles, though that does take a good percentage of screen time. You can learn more about those, but mostly Jason Voorhees, in the other awesome documentary: Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th. This would be a great companion to that film, though it's already a hefty 7 hours and adding another almost 2-hours here...yeah, I guess it's worth it.

Totally recommend this heartfelt story of a man who's made mistakes, lived to tell others about them and come out a much better person who can, and does, inspire others. And others did come; there were numerous clip conversations with so many more horror icons and welcomed faces and voices.

Despite all I've said above, I couldn't get past one "choice" made by the director: Kane's Cutaways. Mostly in the first half you'll witness the scenes quickly transitioning from people telling their stories/testimonials to Kane wandering around a hospital that's supposed to be sterile and in the desert. And not just wandering, he looks pretty much senile and not sure where he's at or how he got there. Sadly, these scenes were distracting and unintentionally hilarious right smack dab in the middle of a heartful speech or remembrance. After the, no joke, 15th time, I knew this would be a regular and I best get used to it. I wasn't wrong.

With that, and no real "other side of the story" - probably because Kane also executive produced this, I'd still highly recommend this movie.

***

Final thoughts: I said in the beginning that I pissed off Kane Hodder. Well, that did happen way back in 2014 when I first met him, sadly. Also previously stated, I was having a little issue with my back and I was in line to purchase Kane's book at the very first Mad Monster convention in Phoenix, Arizona. It was also my first convention, horror or any sort. Anyways, the Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Photo Op/signing I pre-purchased was coming near, the line was getting long for that, my back was acting up and Kane was entertaining fans in front of me, telling this what seemed like to me: a very long story and it tried my patience. Unfortunately, and despite me telling myself, he's not doing anything wrong, I still showed my discomforts. And Kane did not miss any of my body language.

I still purchased his (expensive to me) autobiography and autograph within, but he never seemed to recover his annoyance with my impatience. I did feel bad that's the one interaction with the man who would play one of my all-time favorite characters on screen.

And now, years later, after seeing this documentary and what he suffered in life, I feel even worse. Kane, if you do read this, please accept my apology. Though, hopefully, you won't remember this even happening.

I met Kane in '90 at a toronto horror convention, it was a big deal for me at that time. He was really cool. Very friendly. I brought a sharpie knowing I might get a few autographs, he signed a photo, let me take pictures, and a bit later someone else was asking him for an autograph and he looks over to me and says "hey, *says my name*, can i borrow your pen?". That was the coolest. Such a small thing but even my girlfriend was like "hey he knows your name!".

This was a great documentary. I admit i teared up a few times.

Years later i would work on jason x. Never would have dreamed of that. Hope he does Jason again.

This is a surprisingly good movie. Kane Hodder is a very funny, compassionate all around awesome human being.

The stories he tells are the main force of this film. Starting with a tale of being bullied, through long, sometimes graphically excruciating accounts of a terrible full body burn stunt accident and onto the legends that made him the most iconic actor to take on the famous role of Jason Voorhees in some of the later Friday the 13th movies. The worst part was the incompetent doctors who almost killed him because they did not know what they were doing.

The film is full of great interviews with fellow horror icons Robert Englund, Cassandra 'Elvira' Peterson, Bruce Campbell, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, directors Adam Rifkin, Sean S. Cunningham, Adam Green, makeup artists, tattooists, old friends and family member.

This is honestly one of the most thoroughly researched documentaries I've seen in a long time. According to the Q&A I attended with director Derek Dennis Herbert, they had thirty nine hours of footage with Kane alone.

They were even able to get Kane to revisit the San Francisco Burn Unit that saved his life over 40 years ago. This is not a fluffy nostalgic puff piece about a horror movie actor. There is real emotional healing in those scenes. I was considering sharing a trailer for some of the PTSD facebook groups I belonged to, but I don't think a trigger warning would be enough to prepare some of the members for the endless scenes of hardcore movie violence.

I enjoyed horror movies as a teenager a lot. But I've had to walk out of horror movies in more recent years because of my PTSD. This film is unexpected, and I wish there was more that I could do to help it get the attention and praise it deserves.

It does get a bit long towards the end, especially for a theatrical film, but I still have to give it my highest recommendation.

So Sayeth the King of Funny Faces.

To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story (2017)

**** (out of 4)

This here is an excellent documentary that has Kane Hodder talking about his career in front of the movie camera as well as the various tragic events that led to him getting roles in films like the FRIDAY THE 13TH series as well as the HATCHET series.

If you're a fan of slasher movies then you'll known who Hodder is but I'm not too sure how much of his story you'll actually know. I'll admit that I really didn't know too much about him outside of what I knew about the making of various films he appeared in and that's why TO HELL AND BACK: THE KANE HODDER STORY was so great. Not only do we get to know about his stunt work, which led to him getting to play characters like Jason Voorhees but we also get to know what happened before that.

A great portion of the running time is devoted to an event that happened to Hodder when he was twenty-two years old. I'm not going to ruin what happened for those who don't know but there's no question that the stuff dealing with this event is the highlight of the film. Not only do you learn about these things but it helps make more sense of how he handles his work on movies as well as how he deals with his fans.

There are a lot of familiar faces who show up for interviews including Adam Green, Robert Englund, Danielle Harris, Bruce Campbell, John Carl Buechler, Sean S. Cunningham, Sid Haig as well as others including some of Hodder's family members. All of the interviews are extremely good and entertaining but a the same time there's no doubt that the highlight are the interview clips with Hodder who gets to tell his own story.

Throughout the story there are countless clips from his movies and this here is a major plus. There's no doubt that horror fans are going to love this documentary but I think Hodder's story is strong enough to where even outsiders will be entertained by this film.