Review of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) by Michelle P — 13 Oct 2010

I had heard all the hype surrounding Behind the Mask for a while before I decided to attempt it and it lived up to my expectations big time! In this movie's world, all the movie killers exist (Freddy, Jason, Michael, Chucky etc.

). We get to follow around 'the new guy' by the name of Leslie Vernon as he plans his own movie-style killings. A documentary crew follows him around and as covers everything from choosing his 'stereotype' victims (hilarious), figures out places that are to his advantage (very clever) and even throws in a history to explain why he does what he does.

The screenplay was very well written (Glosserman + David J. Stieve), obviously by huge horror fans and I must admit, poked fun at the genre in a very clever way, channeling 'Scream' a lot of the time with its smarts and knowing better than to succumb to it.

In smaller features, the actors need to work a little harder to be convincing and I'm glad to say this one wasn't a downer in that field. Nathan Baesel switched from scary to lovable in no time and several times throughout.

Very ranged and natural. Angela Goethals had me convinced she was a valid journalist and had me feeling for her when conflict arose (either externally or internally). Robert Englund shined in the time he was given to work with.

a different kind of role for him for once and he did it extremely well. Scott Wilson and Zelda Rubinstein show up in very small but memorable bits and Kate Lang Johnson was cute as the 'survivor girl'.

Scott Glosserman could switch from DV documentary to 16 mm slasher flick and not throw me off in the least bit. Always ahead of the game and always carrying a unique style! Well done! On the lower half, once the last act came in, I can't say I was enthralled when the last third kicked in and became a full fledged horror movie.

That kind of hurt it since it was giving us a 'behind the scenes' almost the entire time. There was also questions that arose in my head when it came to the crew's involvement. Morality is one thing, but if anything like this actually got released they would go straight to prison for it.

That hurt its 'realism' factor a lot. I was surprised at the lack of gore for a movie that claimed to know all about horror flicks. They forgot one of the major factors! There was some, but hardly enough for the gore-hound in us all.

.. Lastly, Robert Englund was criminally underused for being third billed here. He definitely deserved more screen time than what he got. But in all its flaws, I still recommend Behind the Mask, especially if you're a fan of the genre.

It has wonderful cameos, funny bits, really random plot devices (that were also satirically funny) and pokes at other movies all over. The movie is far from perfect but its smarter than most, felt very original, had respect for what it was making fun of and tried its damndest, so I couldn't help but be swooned by this one.

Give it a shot and have a blast!