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Why Kane Hodder Deserves a Lifetime Achievement Oscar

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At the inaugural MTV Movie Awards, the producers of the show decided to parody the Academy Awards’ Honorary Oscars by granting Jason Voorhees a “lifetime achievement” statue. The phony award, however, wasn’t handed out to any of the actors who actually portrayed Jason. In fact, the person who “accepted” the award was Jon Lovitz wearing a comically oversized hockey mask, while the bulk of his speech was dedicated to mocking the cinematic quality of the Friday the 13th franchise.

The intent was clear. MTV wanted to poke fun at the Oscars’ highfalutin, inflated sense of self-importance and I suppose giving the anchor of one of the most critically-maligned series in film history a “lifetime achievement” recognition was a pretty good way to give those stuffy Academy Awards snobs the old what-for.

But as far-fetched as the idea of Jason Voorhees winning a lifetime achievement Oscar may sound, there actually is a pretty solid argument that one of the many men who depicted him onscreen is indeed worthy of such an honor.

Now, does Kane Hodder objectively deserve an honorary Oscar simply for portraying Jason Voorhees in four motion pictures? No, but that’s why it’s called a career achievement award. While horror fans like us immediately equate Kane’s name with Friday the 13th, his overall resume in front of and behind the camera is certainly impressive enough to merit recognition from the Academy.

For starters, Hodder has had an amazingly prolific career. Over the last 40 years he’s racked up more than 100 acting jobs, and with the exception of his Friday the 13th appearances, pretty much all of them have been in independent, non-big-studio productions. Now in his 60s, the veteran actor is actually ramping up his workload; according to IMDb, he’s currently filming or preparing to film about a dozen movies.

Hodder is the anti-primadonna. He’s not some shiftless, huge-headed egomaniac who demands millions of dollars for passion projects. He’s a workhorse willing to apply his trade for just about any filmmaker out there. The Academy Awards, by and large, have forgotten that filmmaking exists outside of the big studio system. By honoring Hodder – whose expertise and name value has allowed scores of unknown filmmakers to get their indie projects off the ground and into the post-multiplex, post-Netflix movie market – the Academy could make a huge symbolic statement; that “B-movies” certainly have their place in the modern film industry (both financially and artistically) and that supporting truly independent filmmaking – where the budgets are in the thousands instead of the millions – still matters. The film industry isn’t just $100 million superhero movies or pretentious, star-studded Oscar bait, after all. It’s also straight-to-DVD and straight-to-streaming stuff like Hatchet and B.T.K.

In a way, Hodder is something of a modern-day Boris Karloff, a character actor whose greatest strength is his mere stage presence. For most of his career, he has had to perform more like Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton than Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks. Nobody’s going to look at Hodder’s performances in fare like Wishmaster, Prison, and Project: Metalbeast and think the guy’s Sir Laurence Olivier. Then again, I’d have a hard time imagining Sir Alec Guinness or Morgan Freeman being able to convincingly play a makeup covered monster who can’t express emotion through dialogue as well as Kane does, either.

But Hodder’s acting career isn’t the biggest reason he deserves recognition from the Academy.

When we think about the most important people involved in filmmaking, we usually think about producers and directors. However, the very lives of the cast and crew are entrusted to the hands of stunt performers and stunt coordinators, whose jobs is to keep actors and actresses alive. Not only is that a major responsibility, it might just be the biggest responsibility in the movie industry. Scenes can always be reshot and budgets can always be increased; lifelong injuries and tragic deaths can’t be undone.

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More than 100 people have received the Academy’s Honorary Oscar. Yet of them, a grand total of just two (Hal Needham and Yakima Canutt) received recognition explicitly for their careers in stunt work. Needless to say, the Academy has really slacked off on giving stunt performers their fair share of accolades (the fact there isn’t even a category for “Best Stunt Work” at the Oscars seems to indicate just how much they value the profession.) And with so many people being injured and sometimes killed filming the latest Maze Runner, Resident Evil and The Fast and the Furious movies, isn’t it about time the Academy celebrated someone who has spent nearly half a century keeping actors and actresses safe on the set?

Not even counting his TV gigs, Hodder’s performed stunts for more than 70 movies, including big-budget Hollywood flicks like Batman Forever, Daredevil and Gone In 60 Seconds. And on top of that, he’s served as stunt coordinator for more than 30 motion pictures, including The Devil’s Rejects and Monster. His track record is immaculate, and several directors – including Adam Green and John Carl Buechler – have spoken at length about his unparalleled professionalism. With a career that’s included stunt work and stunt oversight on productions as varied as Hollywood hits like Demolition Man, Se7en, and A Night at the Roxbury and indie cult fodder a’la House, Waxwork and the Hatchet series, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone still active in the industry who has had as much diverse set experience as Hodder.

And you’re unlikely to find anyone out there as passionate about set safety. Hodder knows all too well the damage accrued by stunts gone awry. A fire stunt early in his career almost claimed his life, and today he still has severe scarring over half his body. If absolutely nothing else, his perseverance in the industry – coupled with his efforts to raise awareness for burn victims, including his charitable support of California’s Bothin Burn Center – makes him a rarity in today’s movie-making cosmos; a selfless, good-hearted movie star more than willing to help out just as much behind the camera as he is in front of it.

In an industry known for elitists and multimillionaire moguls and conceited snobs, Kane Hodder represents the inverse of the Hollywood “ideal.” He’s a hard-working family man who embodies the ethics and values of all the blue collar laborers of the film industry – the carpenters, the special effects people, the gaffers and, of course, the sadly unsung stunt performers.

While Hodder’s impact on the film industry may seem superficial at first glance, once you take a look at his resume, there’s no denying his monumental influence on the medium – not just as Jason Voorhees and Victor Crowley, but as the man entrusted to protect the lives of Hollywood A-listers and indie unknowns alike in more than 100 movies and TV shows.

For almost 50 years, Kane Hodder’s extensive work as an actor and stuntman has been all but ignored by Hollywood’s big wigs. Giving Hodder an Honorary Oscar would be a symbolic token of appreciation not only for the man himself but all of the uncelebrated stunt workers in Hollywood and the indie scene alike. 

Jason already took Manhattan. And it’s long past time he took Hollywood’s most prestigious honor, too.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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