(Long Island, N.Y.) Last night, my movie-going cohort and I were trying to decide on a new film to view this week. There were, as always, a plethora of various releases to decide upon, but the showtimes of the vast majority of them were pretty inconvenient, save one – an independent movie in limited release called Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. I’d never heard of it, but the plot synopsis I read online sounded interesting enough, so we gave it a whirl. It ended up being a fun little movie, through not without its flaws. Read on!
Basically, Behind The Mask is a “fake documentary” of sorts, alas The Blair Witch Project. The premise of the movie is that supernatural serial killers like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers are real and are actually out there killing people in their respective film neighborhoods. A film crew is contacted by Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel), an up-and-coming psycho-slasher, who invites them along as he plans his very first mass-murdering spree. The crew, headed up by intrepid reporter Taylor Gentry (Angela Goethals), shadows Leslie as he stalks his intended victims, tours the lonely country house the killings will occur at, and even meet with Leslie’s mentor, himself a retired maniac killer from the 60’s who is now settled down and happily married.
All of Leslie’s careful planning comes to a head at the end of the movie, when the stereotypical wild teens are lured to an isolated location to drink, do drugs, and have sex- you know, all the things that you’re NOT supposed to do in horror movies. Anyone who knows anything about this genre knows that these acts always lead to certain death. If anything, your typical slasher movie can be seen as a thinly-veiled public service message about staying on the straight and narrow- straying from that path will ultimately result in dismemberment by a masked, blade-wielding lunatic. So stay home and study, kids.
However, there’s a twist at the end of Behind The Mask- it turns out that Les wasn’t being completely forthcoming with the film crew on his real motivation for the evening’s festivities. What could his true intentions be?
Overall, the movie has some novel ideas. It’s not every day we get to watch someone planning out homicides in such a lighthearted manner, and Behind The Mask’s protagonist leaves no stone unturned, sticking to every major horror movie cliché and convention while gearing up towards his big day. Watching Leslie explain how he’s rigged possible on-location weapons to break if the teens attempt to use them on him or how he chooses his “Survivor Girl” is funny, and his childlike eagerness towards his “career path” can be endearing at times. Well, as endearing as a man planning to eviscerate innocent teenagers can be, anyway.
On the negative side, the movie drags on way too long, which is strange because it’s only 90 minutes in length- short by today’s standards. The main problem is that exposition is kept at a maximum, and while keeping an audience informed is nice, they generally don’t enjoy being led by the hand through every single plot point like they’re brain-dead. Film is a visual medium- find a way to express things as they’re happening, instead of just talking about it the whole time.
Also, the film is low-budget and amateurish and it shows. However, it never gets too bad- I’ve seen more expensive-looking movies made with a whole lot less talent, believe me.
In closing- Leslie is a likable guy (for a serial killer) and Behind The Mask worth watching, especially if you’re looking to see something a little different. Horror fans (like me) will especially get a kick out of all the slasher movie references and cameos. There’s very little blood and gore in the film, which is odd considering its subject matter. In fact, it doesn’t really do much at all to deserve its ‘R’ rating, aside from its characters spouting out a few choice potty-mouth phrases here and there, but even that’s infrequent. The movie could have easily gotten away with PG-13, but the MPAA’s ratings system rarely makes sense nowadays.
It’s not perfect by any means, but give Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon a shot – you may be surprised. Or you may hate it, but hey, don’t blame me then.
