by Valarie Thorpe

e weren't on the set of Darkwolf when it was being filmed, but if we had, there was one thing we would've wanted to see more than any other - 6 foot, 3 inch Kane Hodder explaining to the teeny Tippi Hedren how her movie The Birds was the first to really scare him. Kane recently talked with us and set the scene.

"I didn't film with her during Darkwolf but I watched her shoot her death scene I think it was. I told her that The Birds was the first horror movie I saw that really scared me and everyone thought it was pretty funny," Kane said with a laugh.

Kane and Tippi both star in the recently released Darkwolf, the latest in the once-again popular lycanthropic genre, directed and written by Richard Friedman.

Basically I play the guy that is the human version of Darkwolf," Kane said. "The biker's a bad guy too...he kills as the biker and he kills as Darkwolf. When he's transformed, he kills as he's looking for a girl to mate with and not happy with those who don't help him in that search."

What was it like to play the regular-looking Joe instead of the monster? "It's nice to play the guy that doesn't have three hours of make-up before shooting," Kane said letting go another laugh.

A friend of Kane's handled the stunt coordinator duties, as well as the role of the much-costumed Darkwolf.

"He had very little vision with the wolf head on and I could appreciate how difficult that is since that's usually me. So I of course had a great deal of fun just torturing him, putting stuff in his way to trip over, things like that."

A reunion of sorts took place on the set of Darkwolf as Kane again worked with Stephen Williams (X-Files 'Mr. X'). "And as you might remember," Kane said with a strong, disturbing chuckle, "I was already familiar with killing Stephen since I snapped his spine back as Jason [F13 part IX], which of course was very easy."

So how does a director working on a low budget make a solid film and land top actors.

"Connections and quality people," Kane said. "And even though they're (the actors) not getting paid what they should, they're basically saying 'hey, he's a great guy and I'll do this.' ... I was shocked at how good the film looked considering the budget. It's very well shot, well produced and much better than it should've been."

And Kane is not easily impressed, as his favorite film is one of the genre's landmark movies.

"The Exorcist isn't only my favorite horror movie, it's my favorite movie. Even though it's old, it stands on its own. While the clothing and hairstyles make it look dated, every single other thing stands up."

Hodder has always been a big fan of horror movies though and that love continues unabated even though he wasn't cast in Freddy vs. Jason for a follow-up performance to his tremendous job in Jason X. And you'd be mistaken if you thought our 5 foot, 6 inch selves were going to badger Mr. Hodder about that bit of f'ed up casting. For details about that be sure to check out the braver Jo Blo's interview with Kane.

"I loved horror movies before I ever acted in them...the way I look and my size somewhat dictates that I'm always going to be the bad guy. And I'm happy with that - I'm never going to say something like 'playing Jason ruined by career.' In a lot of cases, it can help when people think it would be cool to cast the guy who played Jason."

The Darkwolf DVD is available now and includes "The Making of Darkwolf" featurette, cast and crew blooper reel and theatrical trailer. It's presented in 1:78:1 full aspect ratio.

And Kane had one more important piece of news to pass along to all of you who've seen Darkwolf or are planning on picking it up.

"I just want you to know one thing - that's not my ass."

Ha! Screw Freddy vs. Jason, big time is when you have what Kane has ... an ass double.