Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
7 out of 10
Devotees of the Horror genre tend to get a bit defensive but they also crave mainstream respect. That combination has led to the creation of an entire sub-genre devoted to deconstructing the genre itself. Wes Craven helped invent it with New Nightmare (perhaps the best Elm Street film) and brought it to great success with the Scream franchise.
Behind the Mask takes a bit of Blair Witch Project (although cinephiles will see greater similarity with the Dutch black comedy Man Bites Dog) giving us a photogenic female reporter, Taylor Gentry (Angela Goethals), and a two man crew interviewing a man who plans to be the next legendary Psycho Killer. He claims to be Leslie Vernon, the survivor of an elaborate backstory involving a local town killing an evil child by throwing him over a waterfall. In classic slasher style, Leslie plans to reappear on the anniversary to slaughter the teenagers using the old family home for a party. Leslie lets us in on the preparation that goes into his killing spree, including the endless cardio workouts required to chase down sprinting cheerleaders without getting winded, let alone while appearing to limp along like one of Leslie's idols, Jason Voorhees.
But where Scream took place in a universe where the victims and villains (heroes?) had seen every other slasher film, Behind the Mask lets on fairly early on that it takes place in the same universe as the films. Taylor's introduction is perky-but-grave narration over shots of Camp Crystal Lake, Elm Street, and Haddonfield (the Halloween films). The film nails the sing-song nonsense of local television reporting and her interviewing isn't much better; I half expected her to ask Leslie Vernon what kind of tree he'd be (presumed answer: a Murder Tree). This stuff is kind of cute and could be seen as satire, but it got me off on the wrong foot with the character: I instantly loathed her. These early scenes are the roughest, mostly because the protagonist and her film crew are all morons, creating next to no sympathy for them.
Fortunately, Leslie himself, played by Nathan Bassel, is charming as hell and carries the movie on his own. The slashers are always more interesting than their cookie-cutter victims. As he plans the deaths of the stereotypical stoners and horndogs, Leslie has the same eager smile and gleam in his eye as any horror fan discussing the arrow-through-the-throat that dispatched Kevin Bacon in the first Friday the 13th. Although Leslie has plenty of psychoanalysis and academic analysis to offer, the film is best when it remains focused on the great nugget of mystery: exactly why people like horror films, the more awful and gory the better, and our attraction to the killers. As she wrestles with her conscience, Taylor is captivated by Leslie and his plans. The attraction goes the other way too; Leslie is clearly smitten as he talks of his hopes that the "virgin girl" picking up a phallic weapon to fight back.
The film slides back and forth between rough handheld footage pretending to be Taylor's documentary and a glossy third-person perspective that mostly looks quite good for the budget. The shifting style ends up being a bit like an annotated novel; you've read the story before, so the commentary becomes the main text. At crucial moments, the horror story plays out on its own and the viewer is left to compare events to Leslie's predictions. However a few problems still remain: It was not a good idea to leave in the scene involving Leslie's marginally important home library because all the dialogue about it makes the four bookshelves shot in close-up seem silly. The final sequence was exposed poorly, giving very low contrast and turning all the blacks into gray. Still, those are the sort of technical and budgetary problems that are easily overcome by a clever script and decent performers.
Although firmly a Slasher film, the film is filled with delicious references to all sorts of horror films. The song from the close of The Shining plays in the background and Zelda Rubinstein (the psychic from Poltergeist) has a cameo. Of course, the biggest cameo goes to Robert Englund (Freddy Kruger himself) as Leslie's "Ahab". If, like Taylor, you can't figure out what the term "Ahab" means in a slasher movie context, you're probably not in the target market for Behind the Mask.
Directed by Scott Glosserman; Written by Scott Glosserman and David J. Stieve; Starring Nathan Bassel, Angela Goethals, Zelda Rubinstein and Robert Englund
Viewed on 16Mar2007 at Regal Fox Tower 10
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