Behind the Mask

 

 

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wasnt quite expecting what i got with this one but it worked out quite fine. for starters i thought leslie was a girl, wrong there and then i wasnt expecting the mockumentary style either but either way i lucked out and this was a refreshing watch. it was very much like man bites dog except this serial killer is trying to be like the horror movie type and i think they pretend like movies like nightmare on elm street and halloween are actual events. its all done very well and held my attention to the very end.

Having mixed feelings about "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon" strikes me as being inevitable since the movie itself is a mixture of mockumentary and homage. The conceit of writer-director Scott Glosserman is that Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Meyers are all real and that with a combination of brains and luck Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) could be the next great serial killer. But these days if a tree falls in the forest it better be captured on film so Leslie allows young documentary filmmaker Taylor Gentry (Angela Goethals) to interview him and film his preparation for his official "return." The obvious point of comparison here is to "Scream," but whereas director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson were interested at playing with the conventions of the horror film from the outside, Glosserman and co-writer David J. Stieve take more of an insider perspective. Taylor might not know what an "Ahab" is, but Leslie and his mentor Eugene (Scott Wilson) can explain such terms and why having an "Ahab" is a cause for celebration.

My favorite running gag in this 2006 film is that Leslie meticulously plans his death scenarios, choreography the path his victims will take and anticipating areas of concerns. Baesel's performance is at the heart of this film because he manages to make Leslie seem like a merry prankster one moment and the next turn him into a menacing figure who sooner or later is going to turn on Taylor and her crew, including Britain Spellings as the affable Todd Best, even if she never picks up on the inevitableness of that point of no return. Meanwhile, Leslie is on the lookout for the young woman who could be his survivor girl, and thinks he has found one in the virginal Kelly (Kate Lang Johnson), especially since she has the requisite cast of "supporting characters" as friends, such as Stoned Guy (Teo Gomez) and Slightly More Stoned Guy (Matt Bolt). The script was also enough to entice Robert Englund to play Doc Halloran and get Zelda Rubinstein to show up for one day's work as mistress of exposition on the legend of Leslie Vernon (you have to love a slasher with a name that is associated more often with women than men).

I was rather surprised that in the end Glosserman turns his film into a flat out splatter flick, but unlike "The Blair Witch Project" his characters reach a pont where they have to put down their cameras and try to escape with their lives. If this is some sort of rejection of the inherently voyeuristic nature of P.O.V. shots from the perspective of the slasher you will have to decide for yourself. My inclination is that Glosserman loves the genre too much to do anything other than embrace it, even given his comic approach. It is that affection along with both his creativity and Baesel's performance that make this film come out ahead in the end for me. Keep an eye out for little details in "Behind the Mask," but Glosserman was not content just to score Englund as Doc Halloran. That is Kane Hodder who played Jason in several movies walking into 1428 Elm Street (Nancy's home), and Eguene owns a Lament Configuration puzzle box. The DVD extras included deleted and extended scenes that flesh out the documentary part of the movie and a nice look at Baesel doing lines over and over again in readings to cast other characters. Final note: be sure to watch the credits at the end, although as soon as they start you should know what the payoff is going to be at the end (not that there should be a sequel because Glosserman needs to be given the opportunity to make a "real" horror film and not milk these ideas dry).

I found this film to be clever and entertaing.I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the slashers of the 80's.I had no issues when it turned into a movie for the last 26mins or so,it was a welcome twist to the film.Be sure to watch through the end credits for the sequel hook.It's not the greatest but it's different and smart.Definetly worth a rental for horror fans.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A gift to horror lovers
Okay, imagine first that all those supernatural slashers--the Freddy Krugers and Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers that have spawned seemingly never-ending franchises--imagine that... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Andre Farant

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
Behind the Mask is a great movie for anyone who loves slasher films and has seen one too many of them. Read more

Published on Nov 29 2009 by Neko

2.0 out of 5 stars Wannabe Absurdist Mockumentary of the Slasher Sub-Genre
Slasher films, a horror movie sub-genre, have devolved far beyond cliché. They are so narrow in there premises and void of originality that many seemingly follow the same... Read more

Published on July 11 2007 by K. Driscoll

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