If a Slasher Hall of Fame ever existed, Kane Hodder would have to be one of the first inductees. He’s played Jason Voorhees (4 times!), Ed Gein (above), and most recently, Victor Crowley of HATCHET (his best so far, I feel). Even his own name sounds like it belongs to a crazed murderer! Hence, it comes as no surprise to me that Hodder has TWO more upcoming flicks based on real-life serial killers: Dennis Rader (the B.T.K. killer) and Ted Bundy. He recently spoke with Fango on the films (both directed by Michael Feifer who also worked with him on ED GEIN: THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD).
Hodder first spoke about B.T.K. where he plays the titled killer (of course!): “BTK was a great character to play because for half of the movie, as in real life, people love the guy. With Ed Gein, everybody who knew him thought he was weird. But BTK, Dennis Rader, was very popular—he was a church president, he was a Boy Scout leader—but then he had that other side. For me that was terrific, because for many of my scenes I had to be likable, and then of course in the other scenes, I’m despicable.”
One challenge Hodder had to face was the fact that his B.T.K. character would not be the typical silent executioner he normally plays. ”I had probably four times as much dialogue. When you shoot a movie on a short schedule, that’s a lot of words, especially for a stunt guy, you know what I mean? I’ve never been trained as an actor at all, never had an acting class, nothing. So it was a little tough, but a lot of fun. Michael’s the only guy I know who can shoot a feature-length movie in 10 days and not have it come out looking horrible. I don’t know how he does it, but he does it.”
It seems that Hodder truly loves working with Feifer as evidenced by his joining with the director yet again for the Ted Bundy picture. However this time, surprise, surprise, Hodder is NOT playing the killer! “When Ted did his killing, he was a young guy, and I can’t pull that off. I can pull off maybe being a different size than these guys,” he said, “but not the age. I play the warden of the prison that executes him, so I get to have some good scenes with Bundy.”
B.T.K. is aiming for a release on DVD some time this year, while the Ted Bundy flick does not yet have a release date (or a title).