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sherrydramsey · 6 years ago

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Author Interview – A. L. Butcher (Eclectica Bundle) http://bit.ly/2GAF8vK

Hi everyone, we’re back with some new interviews this week! Today I’m chatting with Eclectica Bundle author (and curator!), A. L. (Alex) Butcher.

Sherry: Hi Alex, and thanks for stopping by for a chat! To begin, would you tell us a little about the story/book you have in the current bundle?

A. L.: “Tears and Crimson Velvet” is a short historical fiction based on characters from Phantom of the Opera; set in 19th century France the story follows Madam Giry and Erik (the phantom). She first meets him when he is a performer forced to sing and humiliate himself for the paying public in a travelling fair. They then meet again later, and Erik is in a desperate situation. Giry is the first person to show the confused and disfigured young man kindness, and he never forgets it. This is her story, and their story.

Sherry: That sounds like a fascinating exploration. Do you remember what sparked the idea for this story? What was it?

A. L.: I’ve been a Phantom fan since I was 11. My mother took me to see the stage show in London and I was enchanted. The original book, by Gaston Leroux is a masterpiece of tragic horror/mystery. There are dozens of adaptations of the story – some better than others. Madam Giry is an important character in a few, but a rather comical figure in the Leroux original. I wondered what if – what if she had met Erik before? What was she like as a young woman? What made her the lonely widow we meet? That was the basis of the story. I also have another ‘Legacy of the Mask’ Tale featuring Raoul De Chagny set twelve years after the events at the opera house. It’s sad, haunting and lyrical.

Sherry: I love how you’ve spun so much from this one theme. :) Now, imagine you’ve been kidnapped or trapped by a natural disaster. Which of your own characters (from any work) would you want to rescue you? Why?

A. L.: My Archmage Lord Archos. He’s a powerful sorcerer, and handy to have around in a crisis.

Sherry: Yes, I expect he would be! Why do you write short fiction? Love, necessity, marketability, or something else?

A. L.: I write novels, poetry and short fiction. It depends on the stories wanting to be told. Some start as shorts and grow and some reach their peak as shorts. I like reading short stories, and they are fun to write, but in many ways more challenging than a novel. The author only has a short word count to introduce characters, build or describe the world, and get the adventure done.

Sherry: Do you belong to any writer’s groups or communities? Do you think these types of social interactions are important for writers?

A. L.: Lots! The indie author community is, for the most part, supportive and welcoming. Every author is different, and his or her work is different and many of us don’t have a broad skillset. There are some great writers out their who know nothing about marketing, or networking, for example. Or have the talent but not necessarily the technical skills. Communities and groups can offer support, ideas and teach a new (and experienced) writer some of the skills he or she doesn’t have. Networking is really important – you might have written a great book but if no one knows it’s there then no one will buy it. You may not know the proper genre, or key words, or how to source or make a suitable cover. You may not know that a particular group of readers is really keen on this genre or that.

I’ve made tons of friends, not just people I follow on FB. People I chat to, we share ideas and likes and dislikes, we compare sob stories and successes and we support it other.

Sherry: I have to say I love the collaborative idea behing BundleRabbit and these bundles, and the chance to meet and interact with other writers, as we’re doing now.

Have you had to deal with bad reviews? How do you manage them?

A. L.: Yes. I’d say most writers have at least one bad review. It happens. At the time I was upset – but now I am not that bothered. I have good reviews as well. Not everyone likes my work – and that is fine. I don’t like every book I read either. I may not necessarily agree with what a reviewer says or thinks but arguing over it is NOT going to help, if anything it will make things worse. It happens. Move on.

Sherry: Agreed. Do you think there were early influences as a reader that have guided the stories you create as a writer? What were they?

A. L.: Oh yes. I loved to read, and still do. My father and grandmother would make up stories to tell us, and I think that was a huge influence.

I think CS Lewis – Chronicles of Narnia helped to fuel my love of fantasy, and the classics such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights gave me the darkness of my own books. Not to mention Phantom – that has been a huge influence on my life – not least a ten-year career working in theatre after I worked on that tour.

Reading to children and story telling is so important. Kids have a vivid imagination and it is great if they are allowed to indulge that.

Sherry: Tell us about your other works, projects, publications, and what’s on the horizon next. This is the shameless self-promotion portion of the interview. ;)

A. L.: Let me see: I have the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles series (currently three novels and working on a fourth.) These are fantasy/fantasy romance with a touch of erotica (i.e. sexy scenes), they are dark – elves are slaves, and magic is illegal so my female lead who is an elven sorceress is in big trouble. Elves have no rights, women have few rights, mages have no rights. The land of Erana is run under martial law by the feared Order of Witch-Hunters and my gang have to avoid their machinations and heavies, whilst trying to bring some good – albeit beyond the law. It’s a dark world.

I also have several short stories set in Erana – the Tales of Erana series; a collection of short family-friendly fantasy stories; a book of poetry, two Legacy of the Mask Tales, and historical fantasy novellas in Heroika: Dragon Eaters and Lovers in Hell from Perseid Press.

I curate bundles too – so I have work in half a dozen bundles and curator only for a few more.

What is next? I am working on a story for Perseid Press, book 4 of the Chronicles and several short stories.

Sherry: Thanks so much for chatting, Alex! I look forward to reading more of your stories!

British-born A. L. Butcher is an avid reader and creator of worlds, a poet, and a dreamer, a lover of science, natural history, history, and monkeys. Her prose has been described as ‘dark and gritty’ and her poetry as ‘evocative’. She writes with a sure and sometimes erotic sensibility of things that might have been, never were, but could be.

Alex is the author of the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles and the Tales of Erana lyrical fantasy series. She also has several short stories in the fantasy, fantasy romance genres with occasional forays into gothic style horror, including the Legacy of the Mask series. With a background in politics, classical studies, ancient history and myth, her affinities bring an eclectic and unique flavour in her work, mixing reality and dream in alchemical proportions that bring her characters and worlds to life.

She also curates for a number of speculative fiction themed book bundles on BundleRabbit.

Her short novella Outside the Walls, co-written with Diana L. Wicker received a Chill with a Book Reader’s Award in 2017 and The Kitchen Imps won best fantasy for 2018 on NN Light Book Heaven. Alex is also proud to be a writer for Perseid Press where her work features in Heroika: Dragon Eaters; and Lovers in Hell – part of the acclaimed Heroes in Hell series. http://www.theperseidpress.com/

Remember to grab the Eclectica Bundle while you can for stories from all these great authors!

#IFTTT #Sherry D. Ramsey

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angrycollectordaze-me-blog · 5 years ago

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怎样写好批判性分析论文

在国外大学，批判性分析论文是众多论文作业中难度偏大的一种，这是因为涉及到了批判性思维。对于大部分留学生而言，在出国留学之前都没有接受过批判性思维的教育，所以一下很难写好批判性分析论文。那么怎样写好批判性分析论文呢？下面就给大家讲解一下。

如何让您的批判性分析论文从平平无奇到令人敬畏呢？

一篇批判性分析论文需要分解文章的各个不同组织部分，以便解释作者的论点或主要观点。但只是解释不同的组成部分以及它们与论点或主要观点的关系将会让论文读起来非常无聊。

好的批判性分析论文会关注三要素——effectiveness（有效性），organization（组织性）和appeal（吸引力）。

Effectiveness（有效性）

我不能夸大保持论点有效的重要性。我将在稍后讨论如何发展论点，但是您一旦确定了论点，就要确保论文剩余的部分是用于证明您的论点的。

我从Katniss那里吸取的教训——成功和真正的伟大不能三心二意，而是要坚定目标。

在她的案例中，Panem人民摆脱了暴政。对您来说，就是要写出一篇好的批判性分析论文。相较于她的目标，写作似乎并不令人生畏对吧？

Organization（组织性）

组织性是确保您的写作逻辑合理流畅。保证您的论文组织性好的最好方法之一就是写一个outline（大纲）。这样，您可以在写的偏题太远之前计划好一切，这样也能避免忘记重要的部分。

Appeal（吸引力）

我称之为“非无聊因素”，其他人可能称之为创造力。在这种情况下，我并不是在谈论成为下一个莎士比亚，我的意思是要让读者参与进来。

只将必要的信息展示出来并不会创造愉快的阅读体验。当您在撰写和阅读您的批判性分析论文的时候，要把自己放在读者的位置，并判断是否需要更多展示个性的东西。

以下是写一篇好的批判性分析论文的步骤：

现在您已经了解一些在批判性分析论文中应该包含哪些内容，下一步让我们来展示一些真实的例子。在您批判性的阅读文本之后，写作过程只剩下四个步骤。

1.写好论点

2.撰写大纲

3.写论文内容

4.修改润色

每一个步骤都需要更多的解释对吗？好，那接下来我就来展示这些步骤。在接下来的例子中，我将分析作者Suzanne Collins在The Hunger Games（饥饿游戏）系列中的主要观点并回答她是否成功地将主要观点贯穿其中。

步骤#1：写好论点

论点会告诉读者您的批判性分析论文是关于什么的。想想您的论文想要完成什么内容，并说明清楚。

因为这是一篇批判性的分析论文，因此涵盖了相当广泛的主题范围。所以一个相当冗长的论点是可以的。

对于我的论点，我可能会写这样的东西：

In The Hunger Games series, author Suzanne Collins effectively demonstrates the dangers of modern issues of war, inequality, and violence. She uses President Snow and The Capitol as gross exaggerations of the worst habits in US society: vanity, greed, conformity, and lack of empathy. By contrasting these exaggerations against the main character, Katniss, Collins successfully gets readers to understand and even sympathize with her main idea.

步骤#2：撰写大纲

就像接管国会大厦一样，写一篇批判性分析论文需要您制定一个计划。

大纲似乎是不必要的工作。但实际上，它会使您的工作变得更加容易。您可以事先组织好所有的想法，这样可以使写作过程更快。

一篇批判性分析论文有几个组成部分，所有这些都应该以某种方式在您的大纲中反映出来：

*关于这本书，论文或诗歌的背景信息

*您的论点

*这篇文章的摘要

*分析

根据您的写作风格，您的大纲可以像您希望的那样完整或者简约，只要它能让您了解您的批判性分析论文的细分。

我的大纲可能是这样的：

1. Introduction

1. Background information

1. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, 2008-2010

2. Thesis statement

2. Summary of the story

3. Collins’s purpose

1. Showing the dangers of war, inequality, and violence

1. War = catalyst for the Hunger Games to be created in the first place.

2. Inequality between The Capitol and the rest of Panem creates tension and eventually revolts.

3. All of Panem is violent, not just the Hunger Games. Creates unjust sense of power for ones committing the violent acts, (rightful) mistrust of government by the victims, and results in death of many.

4. Organization and Style

1. Three-part series showing Katniss’s life during and after the Hunger Games. Told in first person and portrays rise to her role as the Mockingjay.

5. Effectiveness

1. Through a thoughtful portrayal of the stark differences between the Capitol and the rest of Panem, and how apathetic Capitol residents can be about the suffering of others, as well as the pure evil characterized in President Snow, Collins is highly effective in making readers understand her main idea.

6. Audience

1. Teenagers and young adults, but can be enjoyed by older adults as well.

7. Conclusion

1. Throughout The Hunger Games series, Suzanne Collins is able to effectively show her readers what can happen to the world if war, inequality, and violence continue.

您的论文大纲可能与我的相似。如果您正在分析非小说作品，您也可以包含其他元素。无论您写的是什么样的文章，您的文章都必须包括介绍（introduction），正文（body paragraphs）和结论（conclusion）。

步骤#3：写论文内容

既然您有了大纲，那么您就有了一个基本的写作计划。剩下的就是填写所有重要细节。

因为每篇文献都不同，所以没有两个分析会是完全相同的。但是，几乎所有批判性分析论文中都应包含一些因素：

*作者的论点或主要观点

*论文的组织、风格和有效性，以保持与论点或主要观点一致

*该作品如何吸引某些受众

但是，不同类型的文章确需要其他类型文章的细节。例如，非小说作品可以分析作者的偏见，作者可能没有考虑的观点，以及作者是否是依赖假设或意见而不是事实。

以下是一些关于非小说作品的批判性分析的例子：

EXAMPLE 1：

A Critical Analysis of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov

In the article “Dangerous Minds,” author John Pekkanen uses Authority, Emotion, and Fact in a non-biased manner to discuss the topic of medical treatment of severely mentally ill individuals.

Pekkanen’s authority in this piece is clearly identifiable to the reader. He is good faith reporter; he states no views at any point in the article. He remains outside; aloof if you will, of the article at all times. There are no uses of the words I, us, them, etc., indicating that he has a particular stand on the issue. He has researched for this piece very carefully, taking relevant news and surveys from the last couple of years and piecing them together in an informative manner.

The author’s use of emotion in the article is evident within the first five words of the article. From these words the reader can tell that they are about to be told a story, five stories to be exact. The first story is the murder of Kevin Shifflett. Gregory D. Murphy, Kevin’s assailant, grabbed him from behind and slashed at the boy with a knife. He then hit the child’s great-grandmother with the end of the knife and stabbed a fifty-one year old woman that tried to help. Kevin, who had been stabbed eighteen times, died at the scene (Pekkanen 135). The second story is of Russell Watson. Who fantasized he worked for the CIA, and was being hunted by snipers and the Navy SEALS. He was under the impression that the government was sending him messages through the fillings in his teeth….

EXAMPLE 2：

A Critical Analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, we find a unique tale of a science experiment gone wrong, however there is much more to the story than meets the eye. Shelley uses this story to expose fundamental issues with social construction. She also uses the story to highlight the consequences of a man’s struggle to maintain control over a fear of a natural feminine “cultural power”. Anne Mellor, author of the article “Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein”, simply states that Frankenstein “portrays the consequences of social construction of gender that values the male above female.”(274) Mellor digs much deeper when she puts this fundamental issue of gender inequality into context of Frankenstein. She explains how Victor Frankenstein has virtually eliminated the necessity to have females at all, he is able to do this because of the power in which Mary Shelley has given him the novel. The author of the article simply puts it as so, “By stealing the female’s control over reproduction, Frankenstein has eliminated the female’s primary biological function and source of cultural power. Indeed, for the simple purpose of human survival, Frankenstein has eliminated the necessity to have females at all.”(274), which very deliberately supports Anne Mellor’s claim that “Frankenstein’s scientific project – to become the sole creator of a human being – supports a patriarchal denial of the value of women and of female sexuality” (274). Upon analyzing Shelley’s Frankenstein we, as readers, extract a tale of power and control. While in Mellor’s article, Frankenstein becomes a portrayal of the consequences…

EXAMPLE 3：

A Critical Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Charlotte Perkins Gilmanthe Yellow Wallpaper is a detailed account of the author battle with depression and mental illness. Gilman state of mental illness and delusion is portrayed in this narrative essay. Through her account of this debilitating illness, the reader is able to relate her behavior and thoughts to that of an insane patient in an asylum. She exhibits the same type of thought processes and behaviors that are characteristic of this kind of person. In addition, she is constantly treated by those surrounding her as if she were actually in some form of mental hospital.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman state of depression began after she gave birth to her one and only daughter. She was diagnosed and given a prescription of rest in order to cure her disease (Kennedy 469). Gilman was taken away to a secluded home by her husband in order to obtain suchrest. However, as it becomes evident to the reader, thisrest actually plays a role in furthering Gilman mental state. The reader watches as Gilman condition worsens as a result of this treatment. It is through her writing and documenting that the reader is able to relate her to a mentally insane being (Kennedy 469).

As is evident to the reader, Gilman is suffering from some sort of mental disorder and/or illness. As is defined by one doctor, disease of the mind is any medically recognized disorder that may render a defendant incapable of understanding the nature and quality of his or her actions or knowing that those actions were wrong(Rogers 221)…

对于小说来说，大部分内容都不是事实（这就是所谓的虚构）。所以您的分析可能包括作者用来实现主要观点的文学手法，来讨论角色或情节的重要性。

以下是一些关于小说作品的批判性分析的例子：

EXAMPLE 1：

A Critical Analysis of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov is about a Russian family that is unable to prevent its beloved estate from being sold in an auction due to financial problems. The play has been dubbed a tragedy by many of its latter producers. However, Chekhov labeled his play a farce, or more of a comedy. Although this play has a very tragic backdrop of Russia’s casualty-ridden involvement in both World Wars and the Communist Revolution, the characters and their situations suggest a light-hearted tone, even though they struggle against the upcoming loss of the orchard. Apathy and passivity plague the characters and contribute often to the comic side of things. Sometimes, however, the passivity erupts the tragic flaws of the characters as they fail to save the estate. Another theme of The Cherry Orchard is the thin line between reality and outer appearance between which the characters cannot distinguish. Although indirect, this confusion provides the play yet again with comedy. On the contrary, the confusion is also seen as another tragic flaw…

EXAMPLE 2：

A Critical Analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

EXAMPLE 3：

A Critical Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman the Yellow Wallpaper is a detailed account of the author battle with depression and mental illness. Gilman state of mental illness and delusion is portrayed in this narrative essay. Through her account of this debilitating illness, the reader is able to relate her behavior and thoughts to that of an insane patient in an asylum. She exhibits the same type of thought processes and behaviors that are characteristic of this kind of person. In addition, she is constantly treated by those surrounding her as if she were actually in some form of mental hospital.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman state of depression began after she gave birth to her one and only daughter. She was diagnosed and given a prescription of rest in order to cure her disease (Kennedy 469). Gilman was taken away to a secluded home by her husband in order to obtain such rest. However, as it becomes evident to the reader, this rest actually plays a role in furthering Gilman mental state. The reader watches as Gilman condition worsens as a result of this treatment. It is through her writing and documenting that the reader is able to relate her to a mentally insane being (Kennedy 469).

接下来让我们回到我的关于The Hunger Games（饥饿游戏）的事例文章。

由于批判性分析论文的性质，没有两个正文段落看起来是一样的。但是，我论文的effectiveness（有效性）部分可能看起来像这样：

While most of the people in Panem struggle and starve, the people of The Capitol live in the lap of luxury. Children of the Districts live in fear that they will be chosen for the next Hunger Games, while children in The Capitol view the Games as entertainment. They live in two different worlds, and it’s these differences that emphasize the apathy of Capitol residents toward the suffering of others. Because President Snow is the man in charge of the Hunger Games, as well as the one responsible for the suffering throughout the Districts on a daily basis, he represents the epitome of evil. Through these differences, Collins successfully allows her readers to see how the evil of the few in power and the apathy of the many can contribute to war and violence.

以上就是关于批判性分析论文的写作讲解，希望同学们都能通过这几个范例，来学会批判性分析。

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viralhottopics · 8 years ago

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Playing Jason Voorhees: Three Actors Who Played The Villain Discuss The Fraternity Of Friday The 13th

As soon as guests made their way out of the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel’s labyrinthine parking deck on Feb. 3, they weren’t greeted by the expected strings of elevator muzak. Rather, they were bombarded by the dulcimer tones of Metallica before running headlong into a mob of people (the males generally donning studded denim jackets with Cannibal Holocaust patches, the females usually clad in tattered jeans, fishnets and every hue of black lipstick imaginable)double-fisting 24 packs of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the lobby.

No, these were not the visitors attending the Southern Region National Black Law Students Association meeting. These were the merry, jolly sorts participating in this year’s Days of the Dead horror convention.

And these are unmistakably the most hardcore of the hardcore horror fanatics. Not content with merely cosplaying as their favorite celluloid psychopaths, those waiting in line at the ticket booth compared and contrasted Freddy Krueger tattoos while discussing the most minute intricaciesof ultra-obscure genre films such as The Leopard Man.

The scent of patchouliand raspberry-tinged deodorizer spray wafted over the show floor, where merchants hawked all sorts of kooky knickknacks – running the gamut from blood spattered hockey masks and lawsuit baiting “mash-up” t-shirts depicting random pop cultural icons gussied up as moviedom’s most memorable murderers to stunningly realistic replicas of mutilated cats and infant onesies depicting the mugshots of real serial killers like Richard Ramirez and John Wayne Gacy.

While the old comic books, action figures and VHS cassettes for sale garnered their fair share of attention, the real draw of the event was its smattering of genre movie staples offering a photo op or their John Hancock for cold hard cash. While names like Bill Johnson, Sid Haig and Doug Bradley may not resonate with the hoi polli, the Days of the Dead attendees flocked to them like teenage girls making a mad scramble at Justin Bieber. Surreal doesn’t begin to describe the scene of green-haired men wearing shirts reading “fuck the world and fuck you, too” and elementary school-aged children in panda costumes rapt with attention as the co-writer of Night of the Living Dead showed off a framed paycheck from 1968 – all while self-described “dominatrix wrestlers” in chain mail bikinis feverishly gyrated one table over.

While there were plenty of attractions to keep attendees occupied – full movie screenings and punk rock concerts and costume contests and special effects demonstrations, among others – perhaps the most popular events of all were the numerous panel discussions in which horror all-stars gathered to reminisce about the good old days of cinematic guts and gore.

And that evening, Days of the Dead attendees weren’t getting just one beloved screen psychopath performing a grindhouse version of Inside the Actor’s Studio – they were getting three of them.

The Unholy Trinity

Almost universally reviled by critics but nonetheless a perennial box office powerhouse (earning more than $460 billion worldwide across a spate of a dozen motion pictures), the long-running Friday the 13th series more or less represents the James Bond cash cow of Hollywood slasher series. The same way numerous actors over the years have portrayed Agent 007, about a dozen men – including credited actors and uncredited stunt doubles – have donned the iconic hockey mask (and sometimes, burlap sack) of franchise anchor and serial oversexed teenager slayer Jason Voorhees.

Three of the most memorable actors to ever put on the Jason regalia – part two’s Steve Dash, part six’s C.J. Graham and the only man to portray the character more than once, Kane Hodder – took the stage for a reunion and free-floating chit-chat on opening night at Days of the Dead 2017, each sharing personal recollections of their respective experiences beneath the ghoulish goalie mask.

That is, except for 73-year-old Dash (birth name, Steve Daskewisz), a former New York cop turned movie stuntman, whose tenure as Mr. Voorhees preceded the unveiling of the horrific hockey equipment in Friday the 13th Part 3.

“I got called one day for a job – there was this guy they hired to play Jason on Friday the 13th Part 2and his name was Warrington Gillette,” Dash recounted. “He was going to go through a window … he said he was a stunt man, but when it turned out he had to go through the window, he was scared shit.”

The stunt coordinator asked Dash if he was up for portraying Jason instead. He drove all the way to Connecticut for what he believed was his big acting breakthrough.

“I said ‘holy shit, I got a lead role in the film,’” he reminisced.

Alas, the title role in the film that was initially dubbedJason wasn’t exactly what Dash had anticipated. He recounted the words of stunt coordinator Cliff Cudney. “‘The whole deal is you wear this bag and you kill all these kids that are having sex and then, at the end of the film, then they kill you … and you have no lines.’”

Still, Dash soldiered through the shoot, in which cast and crew had to rough it through freezing filming conditions and sleep in unheated cabins. Such a miserable experience, Dash turned down an offer from Paramount to reprise the role in Friday the 13th Part 3.

“If I would’ve known then what I know now, I would’ve taken the job because I would’ve made a lot of money like Robert Englund,” he said, referencing the man who made a mint portraying Freddy Krueger in eight A Nightmare on Elm Street films.

Fellow stuntman – and one time Culver City, Calif. Chippendales dancer – C.J. Graham was likewise brought in as a replacement Jason for Friday the 13th Part 6, which, incidentally, was filmed in nearby Covington, Ga, in the mid-1980s.

“The first dailies come back and unfortunately, he didn’t resonate with quite the physique they were looking for,” Graham said. “It is kind of a Cinderella story, you know, but I knew what I was getting into when they pulled me back to [Paramount producer] Frank Mancuso’s office.”

Kane Hodder, 62, is the only actor to portray Jason in more than one film. In fact, he played the character in four consecutive movies, beginning with 1988’s Friday the 13th Part 7. Hodder made quite the impression on the director of that film, John Carl Buechlerwhile working as a stunt coordinator on an earlier horror flick titled Prison. When asked to put live nightcrawlers on his body while portraying a zombie, Hodder one-upped director Renny Harlin by stuffing a dozen real worms into his mouth.

Buechler was instrumental in getting Hodder the Jason role. He even paid out of his own pocket to bring Hodder in for a screen test.

“Because there were a lot of stunts to do in this particular movie, I think that’s what helped put me over the edge,” Hodder said. “I loved playing the character, and would’ve done it for free.”

Becoming Jason

As the first actor to portray the notorious Friday the 13th killer (discounting, of course, Ari Lehman’s seconds-long appearance as the character at the end of the original film), Dash more or less had carte blanche when it came to creating Jason’s mannerisms. From the get-go, he didn’t think the antagonist should’ve been much of a sprinter.

“They wanted me to run a certain way,” he said. “I said ‘no, I’d rather lope.’”

The burlap sack get-up was quite problematic, Dash recalled. With only one eye hole slit into the mask, he wore a patch for several days to help himself get acclimated to losing peripheral vision during filming.

It wasn’t until Part 2‘s climactic scene – in which “final girl” Amy Steel does in the villain with a mean machete blow to the jugular – that Dash said he felt like he was portraying a true movie monster.

“The only time that it came to reality with me that I was a character was when we were in Jason’s lair,” he said. “I had to develop – and I wasn’t intentionally developing – the character … I was just being Jason.”

Apparently, Dash’s menacing disposition made a big impact on the film’s leading lady.

“Amy Steel wouldn’t talk to me for the whole shoot,” he said. “The first time I talked to [her] was 25 years later.”

By the time Graham came on board, Jason Voorhees was already one of Hollywood’s most famous (and feared) villains. Considering the opening sequence of Friday the 13th Part 6 pays homage to a certain Universal Monsters masterpiece, perhaps it’s not surprising he found inspiration for the character via the horror classics of the 1930s.

“It was more of the Frankenstein factor of the old Boris Karloff days, the curiosity factors,” Graham said. “The powerful force that was unstoppable, no matter what you put in front of that person.”

Before filming on Part 7 began, Hodder rewatched all the films in the series. He said he took elements of each previous Jason and incorporated it into his portrayal – albeit, with quite a few touches of his own.

For starters, he decided early on that Jason should’ve been played more zombie than human – so that made running a big no-no. He also sought to introduce a few body language quirks to non-verbally express the character’s ill intentions – primarily, by breathing rapidly and puffing out his shoulders instead of simply standing still before axing, knifing or spearing his latest prey.

Hodder also took great strides to elicit real terror out of his fellow actors. Before shooting began, he said that sometimes he would wander off into the woodlands and scream into the night to intentionally creep out his cast mates.

Few know his unique style of method acting as well as actress Joleigh Fiorevanti, who played one of his victims in the 2006 film Hatchet – a Friday the 13th inspired neo-slasher starring Hodder as the recurring antagonist Victor Crowley.

“They never saw me live in the makeup until they were on camera, and the best scene where that is evident is where I come out and grab Jolie and the belt-sander to the face,” Hodder said. “She was crying knowing I was right behind her off camera, waiting for the moment where I turned the thing on … she was so terrified that when she turns around in the movie, she drops to her knees – and she wasn’t supposed to do that – so I had to grab her hair and yank her up and ad lib a little bit.”

Slaughter On the Set

Dash doesn’t have to think too long to drudge up his most memorable murder in Part 2.

“My favorite kill was wheelchair-down-the-stairs-backwards-with-a-machete-in-the-head,” he quipped as the Days of the Dead audience roared with applause.

It was actually a pretty intricate little stunt, he recollected. The prop itself was tied to a line traveling down the stairwell, and the rainy, nighttime shooting conditions made it even tougher to pull off.

“It took about a week to put that thing together,” he said, “and there was no rehearsal because it was a one-shot deal.”

While Part 6 had its fair share of memorable executions – Graham himself is fond of the scene where an unlucky sheriff has his spine folded up like an accordion – perhaps the most iconic sequence of the entire film is the grand finale in which the flick’s hero attempts to drown Jason at the bottom of Crystal Lake with the help of a humongous boulder.

While the exterior shots of Jason Liveswere filmed just outside the city limits of Atlanta, that scene was actually shot in an Olympic-sized swimming pool in Los Angeles. Black felt was draped around the natatorium and safety divers were onset to provide Graham a steady supply of oxygen.

“They dropped me in the water in normal wardrobe – and that is a real chain around my neck – and they stood me on a cinder block 20 feet down,” he said. “We went down several times and finished the shot in one night.”

Hodder had a similar experience filming Part 7. He described the unanticipated results the first time he hopped into the pool while wearing the full body Jason costume.

“I floatedright on top because foam latex is so full of air bubbles,” he said. “The safety divers had to attach a cable at the bottom of the pool … and then looped it around my ankle because when I would go underwater, I would stay perfectly upright.”

Although Hodder does have some misgivings about the critically maligned Jason X – when a New Line Cinema rep told him the concept was “Jason in space,” he thought it was a joke – he does appreciate it for facilitating what he considers one of the most inspired death scenes in the entire franchise.

“At least there’s the frozen head kill in there,” he said, “that’s a good one.”

Behind the Screams

Hodder, already a huge fan of the Friday the 13th films, said he was utterly awestruck the first time he donned the goalie gear and tattered mechanic uniform.

“I still can think back to the feeling I had when I was on the set,” Hodder remarked. “Saying ‘holy shit, there’s people around the world – literally – that know this character and I’m wearing the fucking mask.’”

He considers the one night of shooting in New York for the somewhat misleadingly subtitled Jason Takes Manhattan to be the single most remarkable moment of his 40 years in stunt work and acting. He vividly recalled thousands of spectators flocking to Times Square to catch a glimpse of his character.

“Just imagine, you’re in the costume, shooting one of the films, people know the character all over,” he said. “You’re standing out there by yourself, in between shots, and you just look over in one direction and they just start going fucking crazy, cheering and yelling and stuff.”

Promotional work for Part 8led to an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Showin 1989 when Hodder appeared as a guest on the program in full Jason get-up. Before filming, the host made the dire mistake of telling Hodder he was deathly afraid of his character – Hall’s terrified reaction when Jason yanked his hand at the end of the segment, Hodder said, was 100 percent genuine.

Interestingly, Graham said he also made an appearance in-character as Jason on The Arsenio Hall Show shortly after Hodder’s visit to the set. In a backstage skit set up by Paramount, he reprisedthe role – albeit, while wearing the old burlap sack from Part 2 instead of the more famous hockey mask – as a green room server.

Not that he didn’t have some memorable moments filming his canonical Jason Voorhees role. He recounted a scene where Jason plunged his arm inside the rib cage of Ron Parillo (yes, the actor who played Arnold Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter), and – before the Motion Picture Association of America rating board scissored it to shreds – yanked out his still beating, blood spraying heart. Then there was the shot where he had to bust open an RV door. The prop people merely unhooked the hinges, then Graham stepped up on a couple of crates andliterally sent it sailing off the frame with one punch.

Graham said he was treated very well during the filming of Jason Lives – indeed, he was one of the few cast and crew members to have his own trailer during the shoot. The antithesis of the Hollywood prima donna, however, Graham loaned out his mobile home to any weary set transportation workers who needed a quick nap; as a token of appreciation, the department let Graham keep the trailer after filming wrapped up.

An Ode to the Stuntman

While all three men share bonds in one of Hollywood’s more atypical acting fraternities, they are similarly united by an altogether different type of brotherhood – the fellowship of stuntmen.

Before portraying Jason, Dash, Graham, and Hodder all had extensive experience as Hollywood stunt performers. Hodder alone has performed stunts in more than 100 films and television programs – including big budget offerings like Lethal Weapon 3, Batman Forever, Gone in Sixty Seconds and Daredevil – and has served as stunt coordinator in more than 40.

“This is the person who keeps everybody alive on the set,” Graham remarked. “He’s the general.”

Hodder certainly takes set safety seriously. Early in his career, he was nearly killed in a fire stunt gone awry. Nearly four decades later, his neck, biceps, and upper body still display the scars of third-degree burns.

“Sometimes, the directors get really crazy with what they want to shoot and it becomes an art to say ‘OK, that’s great,’ even though what they’re coming up with you know in your mind is impossible,” Hodder said. “In your mind you’re saying ‘we have to do it this way or else somebody’s going to get killed,’ but you have to present as if you are making the shot even more exciting … it’s kind of a tightrope you walk.”

He brought up one of his more harrowing recent stunts – a sequence in the 2010 horror film Frozen in which an actress had to lie on an icy road, with a car jettisoning downhill swerving to avoid hitting her at the last second. “That kind of stuff is some of the most nerve-racking,” Hodder said.

Although Dash has never served as a stunt coordinator, he has performed stunt work in more than 30 films and television programs. He said he greatly admires coordinators like Hodder, who not only are tasked with ensuring performer safety but doing so without costing the studio extra money.

“If the budgets for these stunts is $600,000, it better not be $600,001,” Dash said, “because they’re on his ass constantly.”

And if you’re wondering what could possibly strike fear into the heart of a man who has the word “kill” tattooed on his bottom lip and whose biography touts him as “the world’s most prolific cinematic killer?”

“If you’re going to shoot for three months and you have 100 stunts, it’s going to be very hard to budget, and you’ve got to stick to that budget,” Hodder said. “Or else, those producers have no interest in hiring you for the next film.”

Forget being chased through the woods by a hockey mask-wearing psychopath with a machete –the fiduciaryresponsibilities of filmmaking terrifies even Jason Voorhees himself.