MAKING OF THE VIDEO: Alice Cooper – He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)

The first half of the 1980s had not been kind to Alice Cooper. He had struggled through both alcohol abuse and a flailing music career, with a string of disappointing albums failing to regain his former glory. After the mediocre performance of 1983′s DaDa, Cooper’s contract with Warner Bros. (his home since 1971) expired and, after undergoing a slow process back to sobriety, was signed to MCA the following year. Teaming up with guitarist Kane Roberts, the two began to collaborate together as songwriters for what would become Cooper’s sixteenth studio album (and his ninth as a solo artist), Constrictor. His first single in three years would be He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask), which was released to coincide with Paramount’s horror sequel Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

The pairing of Alice Cooper and the franchise’s iconic antagonist Jason Voorhees was an inspired move; both had enjoyed considerable success but had begun begun to lose popularity with their target audiences and so both the single and the movie were intended to give them a new lease of life. Although he had previously appeared in the low budget European B-movie Monster Dog (directed by schlock master Claudio Fragasso, later known for his cult flick Troll 2), Jason Lives would prove to be Cooper’s horror breakthrough, which would later be followed with roles in John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness and Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Although Cooper would not star in the movie itself, the appearance of Jason in the promo video for He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask) would introduce him to a new generation of horror fans.

Around this time Cooper had also opted to return to his trademark makeup, something which he had abandoned earlier in his career (much as Kiss would do several years later). Having distanced himself from the theatrics of his 1970s output by attempting to embrace new wave and punk with his albums Flush the Fashion and Zipper Catches Skin, Cooper had chosen to return to the style of shock horror that he had championed with his concept album Welcome to My Nightmare a decade earlier. With this in mind, being hired by Paramount to shoot a video for a Friday the 13th movie was a perfect way for Cooper to revamp his image and once again revel in the macabre. Although he would contribute three songs to the soundtrack – Teenage Frankenstein would also be featured on Constrictor, while Hard Rock Summer would be recorded exclusively for the film – only the one track would be released as a single and would finally allow Cooper the comeback he had craved.

The promo video for He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask) was directed by Jeffrey Abelson, whose subsequent work would include the Guns N’ Roses hit You Could be Mine, which was released to promote the blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991 (and featured a cameo from the movie’s star, Arnold Schwarzenegger). With stuntman Dan Bradley having been replaced by newcomer C. J. Graham just days into the shoot, Jason would appear in the music video through montages on a cinema screen during a showing of Jason Lives, which a young man (also called ) Jason has taken his date to watch. Suddenly, during a scene in which the film’s hero (Tommy Jarvis, portrayed by Thom Mathews) digs up Jason’s coffin, the killer crashes through the cinema screen, before removing his mask to reveal Cooper underneath.

The special effects crew who had worked on the movie were mostly absent for the video shoot, resulting in a hastily designed Jason. The focus of the movie would instead be on Cooper, who traps the couple inside a cage before suddenly releasing them. When the young Jason returns home to his father (who sits with his back to the camera) and is asked whether or not he enjoyed the movie, Jason confesses that he did not understand it. The father spins around once again to reveal Cooper. The song proved to be Cooper’s long-awaited comeback but Jason would not fare as well; Jason Lives continued to commercial decline the Friday the 13th franchise would endure until Freddy vs. Jason in 2003.