“Oh, but he’s back, he’s the man behind the mask”
- Alice Cooper, “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)”
A few months ago, ESPN ran one of their “30 for 30” documentaries on Professional Wrestler, Ric Flair. The documentary was built around Flair’s professional wrestling career, but the most fascinating parts of the documentary were the glimpses into his turbulent personal life, and Flair’s relationship with his family. The documentary was an unflinching, and at times, brutal, look at the dark side of Flair’s hard-partying, jet-setting lifestyle. My fiancé– who is not a wrestling fan– sat next to me the entire time, transfixed with Flair’s story, proving that you don’t necessarily need to be a fan of something to appreciate the story of the human being at it’s center. Both of us came out of the documentary feeling as if we knew the man, Ric Flair, better than we did going in. TO HELL AND BACK: THE KANE HODDER STORY never quite reaches that same level, but there are moments—one in particular– where it comes close.
TO HELL AND BACK: THE KANE HODDER STORY is a new “talking head” style documentary from Dread Central Presents, and director Derek Dennis Herbert, and inspired by Michael Aloisi’s autobiography, UNMASKED: THE TRUE-LIFE STORY OF THE WORLD’S MOST PROLIFIC CINEMATIC KILLER. The film features interviews with Aloisi himself, as well as horror luminaries: Robert Englund, Cassandra Peterson (Elvira), Bruce Campbell, and of course, Kane Hodder, as they chronologically walk the viewer through Hodder’s life and career.
The documentary focuses a lot on his career. A little too much, to be honest. TO HELL AND BACK takes you from the beginning of Hodder’s career as a stuntman (more on that soon), all the way up current day and his most recent role in the perpetually-soon-to-be-released “EXPENDABLES of horror” movie, DEATH HOUSE. Thankfully, Herbert doesn’t dive to in-depth into his FRIDAY THE 13th work, as most Hodder fans know those stories thanks to things like CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES and the various behind-the-scenes features through the years. Where Herbert does spend a lot of time is on his late career work, which is both a positive and a negative, as the moments spent with films like HATCHET at least feel like new ground that is being covered. On the flip side of that coin are the moments when stuff like THE BTK KILLER get treated with a type of reverence that doesn’t necessarily befit the films themselves.
It’s unfortunate that TO HELL AND BACK is as career-focused as it is, because the moments revolving around Kane Hodder as person–and what he’s been through–are the film’s most captivating. Hodder is a genuine, and engaging personality; qualities that shine through when he is on-screen being interviewed. The segments when the film is at its most engaging– and terrifying– are the ones spent covering his accidental burning during a stunt at the beginning of his career.
Here’s the story:
A news station came to Hodder with an idea for a story about a local kid (Hodder) making it in the movie business as a stunt coordinator. Kane was happy to take part in the story, and even offered to stage a live stunt for the cameras where he set himself on fire to demonstrate the types of things he would be doing in the movies. Hodder performed the stunt once, and wasn’t happy with it, so he decided to it again, not realizing that he didn’t have enough rubber cement to do the stunt a second time. The news reporter told Hodder not to worry, and she ran back to her office to grab the rubber cement she kept at her desk so that he could perform the stunt again. Unbeknownst to the reporter, and Hodder, the rubber cement itself was too flammable, and Hodder was immediately engulfed in flames.
Hodder was eventually taken to the hospital where he would endure “months of torture” as the hospital was ill-equipped in both equipment, and staff. For example: When the doctor went to give Hodder pain pills, Hodder’s father told the doctor not to, as he didn’t want his son to become addicted to the pills like some of his friends in the Army had. The doctor listened to Kane’s father, resulting in excruciating pain for Hodder as they scraped his skin with scalpels, attempted skin graft surgeries, and moved him from room to room during his stay at the hospital. Eventually–after Kane developed a staph infection–the hospital finally decided to move him to a specialty burn unit in San Francisco, something that should have been done months prior considering the extent of Hodder’s burns.
The story is horrific, and watching Kane Hodder break down while telling it, isn’t easy. This is the first time he’s told the story on-camera (it was covered in UNMASKED) and he struggles to get through it. Hodder is a proud man, which is something that is evident in the way he talks about even the smallest of roles. Hodder was the first actor to really take pride in playing Jason, and is still the only one to do so over multiple movies. He claims that he never talks about the accident for fear of embarrassment, and he admits to having suicidal thoughts due to the entire ordeal. It’s an incredibly human, and heartbreaking story, but it’s also one that leads to the most honest, illuminating moments in TO HELL AND BACK.
It’s following this story that the documentary immediately jumps back into the telling of Kane’s career chronologically. On one hand, it’s understandable. This is a film called TO HELL AND BACK, and you need to focus a good amount of time on the “BACK” part of the title, and that’s not limited to just his time as Jason Voorhees–it includes his post-FRIDAY THE 13TH work as well.
On the other hand, the time Hodder spent as Jason Voorhees is the most important in his career. That’s really the part where he is “BACK”, especially when he performs a stunt in Part 7 where he is set ablaze. That moment feels like it should have been the capper on the story the doc is trying to tell, as it’s the moment when Hodder’s story begins to come full circle. The focus on Hodder’s post-FRIDAY career is different route than expected, and Kane seems very proud of his work, but I’m not sure if the chronological nature of TO HELL AND BACK doesn’t hurt it on a storytelling level.
As a quick aside; Hodder not getting the part of Jason in FREDDY VS JASON is covered in TO HELL AND BACK. The loss of the role to Ken Kirzinger is treated as a big setback for him–and it is–but I’ve always thought Hodder was a bit sensitive when it came to this. I understand his disappointment, but it seemed that for a long time he refused to let it go, and I always thought he came off as bitter toward Kirzinger.
Hodder’s bitterness toward Kirzinger always seemed unfair. Hodder should know better than anyone that opportunities like FVJ don’t come along every day– especially for a stuntman–and the resentment Hodder seemed to have for Kirzinger always felt misplaced. TO HELL AND BACK provides some context to the situation, as Hodder explains that Kirzinger’s agent misrepresented his client to the studio by telling them Kirzinger had already played Jason in a past movie– when in fact he had only played Jason as a stand-in for Hodder in JASON TAKES MANHATTAN. Either way, TO HELL AND BACK presents Hodder as someone who seems to have finally found some peace with the entire situation, and that’s nice to see.
That sense of peace is probably the most important thing took away from TO HELL AND BACK. Hodder seems like a man who is proud of the career he has had, and most importantly, seems to be at peace in his personal life. TO HELL AND BACK isn’t perfect, and I’m not sure how accessible it is to those without a familiarity with Kane Hodder going in, but for fans, it’s a nice overview of his life and career. I just wish it was more focused on the former, and less on the latter.