Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Posted by John Campeaon 21. 11. 2006in News Chat
This is great news! As some of you may remember, I recently attended the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The absolute highlight of the festival for me was the screning of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. It is seriously one of the best, funniest, and most creative projects I’ve seen in a long long time.
Right after I got home from seeing the film, I instantly wrote to people I knew at Fox, Paramount, Lakeshore and a few others to tell them that they HAVE TO PICK THIS FILM UP! But it looks like they either passed… or got beat to the punch by Anchor Bay Entertainment (lucky bastards) who have set a limited release date of January 5th for the film.
My friend Todd gave this great summary of the film:
Set in an alternate reality where Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Mike Myers and all the great slasher icons of yore are real, actual people Scott Glosserman’s debut feature Behind the Mask introduces a new icon to the mix: Leslie Vernon. A troubled soul with a horrific past Vernon is in training to join the ranks of the great slasher villains. His mythology is in place, the setting is chosen, the target has been selected. Vernon lacks only one thing: publicity. And so the aspiring mass murderer invites a documentary crew to visit him and chronicle his training regimen, the night of his assault and, ultimately, the rise of his legend.Behind the Mask begins as a viciously smart deconstruction of the slasher film, a nuts and bolts breakdown of the formula that made the genre in the first place, all presented to the audience by Leslie Vernon, a friendly, funny, eminently likable young man who just so happens to want to kill people. But as the film progresses it slowly warps and mutates until it ceases to be a meta-film about slasher films and becomes a ripping slasher picture itself. In Leslie Vernon writer-director Glosserman has created such a strong, iconic character that by the time Robert Englund — that’s the real life Freddy Krueger, for you neophytes — turns up, he’s just icing on the cake.
The ending of the film is a touch weak, but all the rest more than makes up for it. It is funny as hell, and makes great commentary on the whole slasher genre. It’s sort of what the scream movies tried to do… but Scream isn’t even in the same leauge as Behind the Mask. This film is just plain wonderful. Make sure you get out to watch it when you have the chance. See the trailer below.
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Never agreed with you more.
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
I’m spreading the word. That was an excellent trailer.
Looks decent. Might have to invest a couple hours into watching it, although realistically, I’m not big on the whole genre.
You’ve never seen this genre (slashumentary) GODFATHER.
That was the longest trailer I have ever seen.
It’s not a new genre, and there’s no such thing as a slashumentary. It’s just a slasher movie with a creative fanboy-gimmick to it.
Well, since I was there when the director was asked what he considers his film and he called it a Slashumentary, I would say that is exactly what it is.
:)
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
If you ask Paul W. S. Anderson if his movie “Resident Evil” is a good movie he would probably say yes.
Directors are conceited. They’re artists.
Hey Henrik,
You never saw it. Drebacca and I did. It’s amazing.
I’m sure it is, but it’s a movie within an established genre.
Henrik,
You haven’t seen the movie. You have no basis for saying anything about its “genre” until you do.
Have you guys seen Man Bites Dog? This idea isn’t entirely new. Although this does look to be more of a comedy.
It’s obviously fictional.
Why would you argue that it’s a documentary about slashers? If it’s not a documentary, why would you call it a slash-umentary?
It’s a slasher movie.
Henrik,
You haven’t seen it. See it, then you’ll understand why they call it a slashumentary. Why try to argue it with us when you have no idea what it is we’re all talking about yet?
As a side note… the term “mockumentary” is a commonly understood genre… and yet it is fiction. it is still it’s own sub genre. As is the slashumentary.
Subgenre of what? Is the mockumentary a subgenre of comedy? And slashumentary a subgenre of horror? That’s ridiculous and confusing as hell.
But if slashumentary is meant as a subgenre of horror, then I guess we’re both right.
Excellent! I’d heard people say such great things about this but I had given up on ever having an opportunity to see it on the big screen! This is excellent news!
It’s a comedic look at the horror genre. Though to be fair, it does evolve into a more straight forward horror film towards the end.
The fact that you’re arguing this is ridiculous. It is what it is. You wanna call it a horror movie – fine. You wanna call it a comedy – fine. I think my point is only that you should see it because it’s a great movie and will easily enter my ten best of the year list.
If you REALLY care, here is my total review for this movie:
http://www.moviepatron.com/moviereviews/b/behindthemask.html
I am so glad this is getting a release…I saw the trailer months ago and have been hoping it would get a wide release…good old anchor bay..the other good news with them having picked it up is that we will also get 10-15 different versions released on dvd over the coming years ;)
can’t wait to see it
Wait, hold the mustard.
While I have heard great and wonderful things about the film (and even before MB raved about it) while the best news is that they landed a distributor…but I have to ask ONE question.
Is this the first “theatrical” release for Anchor Bay? This company in the past has specialized in various DVD licenses, such as Tapeheads, Near Dark, The Evil Dead films, John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’, Witchboard, Manhunter…and all of the double, triple, quaduple dips thereof.
I dunno. With Anchor Bay, sounds like a DTV release to me (but they would give it a decent treatment). Then again, if there is merit to this going for a limited theatrical run, then this would be the first film that they distributed theatrically. Is that true?
I thought that too…It sounds like they are giving it a short theatrical run in a few cities but for them it will all be about the dvd…I know I will be buying it.
This movie is amazing….It was the only movie at the toronto after dark film festival I gave a 4/4 review for….and I would agree with John, and Scott Glosserman (the director) that it is a SLASHER-mentary..Everyone who hasn’t seen it…you gotta to go for the limited release…it’s a movie not to be missed!
I’ve mentioned it before and I think people who ARE NOT into the whole slasher film should also see this movie. It is not terribly gory, it is just a really solid film.
The cast did amazing and scenes just unfolded so smoothly one could easily forget the sort of film they are watching.
This ain’t your grandpappy’s slasher film.
@ darren j seeley
Here’s a snippet from the press release they sent me, it is intended to be Anchor Bays biggest theatrical release
“Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, which premiered at SXSW ’06 and has gone on to become a film festival darling garnering several awards, critical acclaim and a devout internet following, will mark the largest theatrical release thus far for Anchor Bay Entertainment, a leader in the horror genre, which is now part of Starz Media. The film is slated to open in the U.S. on Jan. 5, 2007.”
where are you jay?? here I am being all positive and not a word???
I can’t wait to see this film
Thanks, BITH. Once I get my new 2007 calandar, I will mark that date on that month.
In addition, I’m sort of rooting for Anchor Bay, too. Only so many bucks they can spin out on the hundreth re-issue of Children Of The Corn…