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Terry's
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Book Reviews: | ||
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By
Kane
Hodder & Michael Aloisi
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You wouldn't believe it but Kane Hodder was bullied when he was a kid, getting the crap beat out of him numerous times. Hodder who is from Sparks, Nevada reflects back on these painful memories where in certain instances he was persecuted for no reason at all by faceless, nameless kids. When reading these occurrences you might be brought back to times something happened similar in your own life. Hodder's father was a project manager for the Corps of Engineers and was gone most of the time in the boy's early childhood. His dad would be away to some far off place like Korea for up to a year at a time. This was gut-wrenching period for Hodder until he and his mother finally got the chance to go away and live with him shortly before his 12th birthday. The boy found this out via a phone call where his dad informed him that they were going to join him on an assignment on a tiny island somewhere in the South Pacific. That place was Kwajalein which is part of the Marshall Islands. It was a coral atoll, which meant that the entire island was made of coral. Something that is kind of cool about that place was learning about all the references to the place known as "Kwaj" in many of the films Kane Hodder has been a part of. You almost want to go back and re-watch them to hear/see where they are within those films. There is no doubt the most dramatic part of the book is the sections Hodder talks about the grim, horrific story of how he sustained severe burns on fifty percent of his body on July 13th, 1977. He had filmed an episode of the TV series Emergency! his first job as a stuntman and he was in a stunt show called Yesterday's Guns when a local reporter wanted to profile him in an article. Hodder figured he'd do a fire stunt for the picture to accompany this article. This turned out to be a life changing decision that would put Hodder through incredible amount of physical and mental pain. Reading about what happens is as graphic as any Friday film but this is even more frightening as it happened for real. On top of this, Hodder admits he has been lying about exactly what happened for the past 30 years because in his words, "I couldn't admit how fucking stupid I was." How Kane Hodder endured the years of torturous rehab and how he came to grips with being a scared man for life is fascinating. Hodder comes clean that he didn't deal with it without fault. He still has the scars both mentally and physically to this day. The worst part of it probably is how it's traumatized him with how he treats his family. He has a phobia that he says he will never be over that's alienated and humiliated his family and it's a sad side effect of the terrifying accident. I'll let him tell you exactly what that is. Of course there are chapters devoted to his work playing Jason Voorhees. How he got to play the iconic horror figure the first time and each successive sequel. He talks about funny, dramatic and absorbing anecdotes regarding each Friday film. Plus his work on the other films (big budget and lower fare as well) and TV shows is discussed with a big focus going to the Victor Crowley character he plays in the Hatchet films. The man is pretty straight forwarded proclaiming he's been an a-hole for most of his life. He craved attention as a youth doing stupid things to get attention. As an adult he's been pretty angry (some of that must come from the frustration of getting burned) and one never to back down from a fight (there are even subchapters dedicated to fights he's been in over his lifetime). As an adult he fought to get into movies and television as a stuntman and succeeded accomplishing that. The fact he did this after getting burned is admirable. He knows that he was he was put on this earth to do stunt work. When he's stunt coordinating or just doing stunts he always make sure the stunts will be safe as possible. A testament to this is that he's never broken a bone in his body. That should confirm his safety-first approach. I'd recommend picking up this book and learning about the man who has earned the distinction of being The World's Most Prolific Cinematic Killer.
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