At the recent Monster-Mania convention in New Jersey, Fango got a chance to chat with Kane Hodder, and naturally, the first thing we wanted to know about was HATCHET 2. Hodder recently wrapped writer/director Adam Green’s sequel, which is said to be currently set for a Labor Day release from Dark Sky Films and gave him even more to do than Green’s original.

“As usual, working with Adam was an absolute pleasure,” the actor tells us. “He always makes it fun, and I love his writing. He has always been very, very good at his job, and it’s great when somebody directs what they’ve written, because who knows the material better than him? He still has the enthusiasm that he brings to the set, which keeps everybody happy.”

Now for the meat of the matter: “HATCHET 2 has more than double the amount of kills,” Hodder reveals, “and several of them are just as good as the Mrs. Permatteo kill. There’s also a lot more Mr. Crowley; Adam wrote some great scenes for him, and I’ve never done anything like them. I’ve never had to do certain things that I do in HATCHET 2 as Mr. Crowley, so it was quite a challenge. Honestly—and I guess everybody says this when they talk about sequels, and I love the first movie, it’s my favorite horror film I’ve ever done—but I think this is going to be much better than the first one.”

As he did on the previous HATCHET as well as Green’s recent FROZEN, Hodder also served as the sequel’s stunt coordinator, and promises a lot more action for Victor Crowley this time around. “He has a really big fight with another character that ends in an unbelievable way. It was a lot more physical for me, and the makeup is better this time, because it allowed for more expression in my face and more movement of my body. Which also meant that there were much longer application and removal times. It was one of the hardest makeups I’ve had to work in, because I’d sit for three and a half hours and then have to do this physically demanding role, much more so than the first movie. Then it still took an hour and a half to take it off, because it was so well-blended. It’s going to look great.”

Robert Pendergraft, a member of John Buechler’s team on the original, took over on HATCHET 2’s prosthetics and gore, though Buechler returns on screen as Jack Cracker. “His role is much bigger than in the first one,” Hodder says. “Tony Todd is back too, and [his part as] Reverend Zombie is much larger too, and the fact that Danielle Harris took over the Marybeth role is just fantastic. I’ve worked with her in FEAR CLINIC too, and she was just a pleasure.”

Hodder also starred recently opposite another popular scream starlet, Tiffany Shepis, in writer/director Robert Conway’s SICKLE. “We did that in Arizona last year, and we had some really good scenes together. It was the first time Tiffany and I had done something together like that, so that was cool, and I think it’s gonna be a decent movie.” As for his role in the movie, “He’s very unfriendly—I know that’s hard to believe. He’s a sheriff who runs his town with an iron fist, I guess you could say. I hate clichés, but that’s pretty accurate. As you know, I’m trying to get more and more dialogue stuff and major roles, and that was just a great character. I actually did another movie in South Carolina called THE AFFLICTED, directed by Jason Stoddard. Leslie Easterbrook [with whom Hodder previously worked on THE DEVIL’S REJECTS] and I play a husband and wife, and one of us is a killer.”

Like many genre regulars, Hodder’s IMDb page is stocked with titles of upcoming productions that may or may not actually happen, depending on financing. In his case, his name is attached to not one but three dimensional genre flicks from Ethan Terra and Joe Knetter: BLACK FRIDAY 3D, THE UGLIES 3D and COWBOYS FROM HELL 3D. Hodder clarifies that situation: “I spoke to those guys last night, and one of them really is going to happen. They seem to be ready to talk to my agent, and I believe it actually will be done.” So which of them is the go project? “The 3-D one,” he quips. “It’s got a major role for me and from what I’m told, it has some pretty well-known actors attached and a pretty good budget, so we’ll see.”

Hodder also reveals that plans are afoot for yet another film with Green: “That’s kind of an anthology movie. He’s directing one of the segments and other well-known filmmakers are directing others. I believe there are four different stories and I’ll play different characters in two of them, so I’m really looking forward to that. And I just read for a major role in a huge movie; I don’t want to sound vague, but I don’t want to talk about it and jinx it. I never used to believe in that jinx, but every f**king time I talk in detail about a part that I’m up for, something happens. But it’s a huge movie with five different Oscar winners in the cast that would be fantastic to do.”

 

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