Review of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) by Richard T — 17 Apr 2012

This was a original and satisfying treat for horror buffs. The film works like a documentary where they are interviewing this horror buff guy that has a lot of knowledge in the horror genre and is on a journey with him to create a real horror movie, which is the horror buff guy or Leslie Vernon's fantasy.

With Freddy, Jason and Michael all being real characters in this movie, and talking about them during the beginning of the film was a nice touch. And it's humorous and entertaining to watch as he goes about doing it and Leslie is charismatic and likable.

What I think would have been better is if they made every scene hand-held camera style cause it makes it seem like the event really happened. The people that are making the documentary is shocked during the final showdown cause like Leslie said, it's really going to happen the way he planned.

Than the crew grows a conscious and the hilarity and the fun keeps going with it's turn of events. The first 2 thirds of the movie is more on the fun side of things with the actual horror thrown in at the end which works pretty well with the build up with it's dark humor.

The main flaw I can see is that only horror buff will get the maximum enjoyment out of this film, but it's still a fun low budget and original film, I really liked the concept. The blond of the crew got annoying near the end though, but there was a reason behind it.

Some people maybe also turned off by the lack of blood and gore, but that just means more people can enjoy this film. It's a well done mockumentary, but may not be as good the second time around.