Hatchet II – Victor Crowley speaks

There have been many men who have donned the mask of Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th films, but only one person played him more than once, and only one gave the masked slayer personality without ever speaking a word. His name is Kane Hodder, and after appearing as Jason in four Friday the 13th films, he was unceremoniously pushed aside by Freddy vs. Jason director Ronny Yu.

Word on the street has it that Ronny was looking for a taller Jason in the mega matchup that horror fans had been salivating for since witnessing Freddy Krueger’s glove coming up from the ground to take Jason’s mask down to the abyss of Hades in the finale of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday.

Kane was obviously disappointed by the decision to go with another actor, but hope springs eternal as a young filmmaker by the name of Adam Green asked Kane to play the role of maniac Victor Crowley in his new film Hatchet. A new horror icon was born in the tale that brought back memories of old school slashers like The Burning and Friday the 13th.

Adam Green is currently in heavy post-production on the long-awaited sequel Hatchet II. I talked to Kane about the sequel that should make all the gore-mongers of the world, like myself, very happy.

Jason Bene: Victor Crowley is back! What can fans expect from Hatchet II?

Kane Hodder: Well, honestly I know everybody likes to say this to try and promote their movie, but this movie is going to be better than the first one, and I absolutely love the first one. In the first movie there were eight kills, and this time there are seventeen. And at least four, in my opinion, are equal to Patrika Darbo’s kill, which I think is the best one from the first movie. There’s at least four of them that are equally as crazy as that. The story is fantastic. Adam has explained a lot of stuff from the first movie, and Tony Todd is back in a much bigger role. It’s the same role, but a much bigger part of the story. Danielle Harris has taken over the Marybeth role, and she’s phenomenal.

Jason Bene: The fact that there are this many kills means Victory Crowley is going to get a lot of screen time.

Kane Hodder: Yes, he will. Not only that but Mr. Crowley has a lot more screen time too, which is good for me because I play that character too. There’s a lot of backstory to his character. More about Victor’s inception.

Jason Bene: It sounds like there will be flashbacks and backstory to what he is really about.

Kane Hodder: Quite a bit more. It pretty much explains everything that has happened up until the point of him starting to kill people.

Jason Bene: This must be very interesting for you because you took over the Jason Voorhees role late in the Friday the 13th series, and now you get to start from the beginning with Victor Crowley in Hatchet.

Kane Hodder: I know it is for me. Like you are saying, I am actually originating this character so I don’t have to worry about anybody else’s performance or their ideas or whatever regarding the character. It’s nice just to develop it between myself and Adam Green.

Jason Bene: Does Victor look the same in this movie? Usually with villains they start to decompose and change a little bit.

Kane Hodder: Both of those actually. He has a similar look and hasn’t really decomposed any, but it completely explains why he doesn’t. The make-up was redesigned. It still pretty much looks the same, but the make-up is a little more expressive in the face. You can see a lot more facial expressions. The body is streamlined a little bit.

Jason Bene: You and make-up artist John Buechler go way back. Does he return for this one?

Kane Hodder: No, he did not come back to do the make-up. Robert Pendergraft, who worked with John on the first movie is make-up effects supervisor on this. But John is back as his character. Also with him, a much bigger part. It was cool to have him back. It was kind of fun to work with him anyway as the character. This time I have scenes with him.

Jason Bene: Anchor Bay is not going to be releasing Hatchet II. Is this going to go to a major studio or another smaller independent company?

Kane Hodder: It’s still an independent company, but they are very excited about the movie and I think they will do a big push for it. We’re very happy regarding that.

Jason Bene: It sounds like you have a franchise on your hand. I think the sequel will get out to even more people, not just the horror fans.

Kane Hodder: No doubt. I was just in Monster Mania last weekend in New Jersey and at least half of the questions I got at my table were about Hatchet. Whereas it used to be 99% about Jason stuff. That’s why everybody is so excited about this because the first movie was so well done and so well acted. The whole story was just so fun for people to watch.

Jason Bene: Adam Green grew up with the horror films of the 1980′s, and he was basically doing a throwback to the slasher films of that era. He seemed to connect with that audience with Hatchet.

Kane Hodder: Plus, he has such enthusiasm. In my opinion he’s a brilliant writer. He has scenes in Frozen where the dialogue is so important. Especially in Frozen, because there’s not much going on except sitting in the chair. Some of the stories the actors relate to each other. The stories from Adam’s background are just so compelling that it makes it a great movie to watch without action.

Jason Bene: I was watching ‘At The Movies” and A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips were reviewing Frozen. They both said that his writing is better than his directing.

Kane Hodder: He is an amazing writer, but I think he is an incredible director as well. He seems to have every shot from every scene is already edited in his mind, so that when you come on the set there is no wasting time about how do we set this up. Adam and his D.P. [Will Barratt] have known each other forever. They work together extremely well.

Jason Bene: It doesn’t hurt that he is an genuinely nice guy.

Kane Hodder: Absolutely. He is a fan favorite because he is so approachable and genuine. He’s a real pleasure to work with.

Jason Bene: Are you going to run into any kind of ratings problems with Hachet II?

Kane Hodder: I’m sure it is going to have to be cut for the theatrical version and then have everything put back in for the DVD. It’s unfortunate, because we put so much work into some of these effects. Because there so over-the-top, it’s not even believable or serious. I don’t know why people complain about it. It’s so ridiculous, that it’s fun.

Jason Bene: Have there been talks of a Hatchet III? Or are they waiting to see how this one does?

Kane Hodder: Well, I know that Adam has a story for a third one in his mind. It actually would not disappoint at all, because he told me what it would be and I was like wow! It’s amazing that from the beginning that he’s already had three different ideas in mind for movies. The second one is going to be so incredible that I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t do a third as long as people realize it’s not going to be Victor killing people in the swamp again. It will be something different. It won’t be New York. It won’t be a cruise ship. And it won’t be space.

Jason Bene: Is there anything I haven’t asked about Hatchet II that fans might want to know?

Kane Hodder: If you saw the DVD of Hatchet you realize that I like to fuck with people a lot; especially the actors. And, of course, there is a lot of that going down in the second one. It will make for a lot of fun extras on that one too, because I do things just to entertain myself, and at the same time scare the hell out of other people.

We at Killer Film are stoked to see Hatchet II in the near future, and we thank Kane Hodder for giving us an EXCLUSIVE interview on the project.