One of my big delightful surprise films of last year was a small indie film by the name of “Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon“. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much, I put it at #100 on my top 100 all time favorite/best movies list. A few months ago I had the opportunity to interview director Scot Glosserman on the NowLive network and asked him about the possibility of a sequel. He suggested that he’d very much like to do one.
Today, more stuff is coming out… and it looks like a Behind the Mask 2 could be on the horizon. The good folks at moviehole give us this:
Penner David J.Stieve tells Icons of Fright, “Obviously the focus of that or the metaphor involved there, as it happened with Nathan as an actor or Scott as a director, or me as a writer, it’s how do you handle that ‘freshman phenom/rookie of the year’ type thing!” Stieve poses. “That’s the symbolism at play; how does Leslie handle his success? And of course you have the whole genre-specific constructions and conventions of a horror sequel. There’s specific conventions involved with every killer that comes back. How the town reacts, who the people are that survive, and who fills what role coming around again…so there are all these very specific genre expectations for a sequel that are ripe for the picking but there’s obviously the metaphor of how does Leslie as the ‘artist’ handle his fame, does he handle it well, does he burn out too quick, keep himself in check, does he do it right? There’s a very rich soil to till from a storytelling standpoint.
This is terrific news. Here’s the thing. Every once in a while some little film like this comes out that has a fantastic CONCEPT, and the concept is enough to make you enjoy the film. That’s great… and for certain Behind the Mask had a WONDERFUL concept. HOWEVER… the thing that really endeared me to the film wasn’t the concept…. but the character.
Leslie Vernon ended up being one ofthe best characters I’ve seen on screen in a long time. You just can’t help but love him… and ultimately be scared to death of him at the same time. Any chance for us to visit that character again is one I’d welcome with open arms.
Oh, and I know like 99% of you haven’t seen Behind the Mask yet… so go hit Blockbuster or add it to your netflix que. You can send me a “thank you” email later.
I think some of those commenting about this movie missed the point.
Firstly, the first two thirds of the movie is a mocumentary, and as a mocumentary, it works really well.
Not only did it set up the final portion of the movie – the “slasher” portion – but it offered quite a few chuckles along the way.
There are a few interesting gems/references in there as well.
For example, the actor that played Eugene (Scott Wilson) actually starred in “In Cold Blood”, a movie that detailed the brutal murder of a family, their escape and their capture and then execution.
The “slasher” portion of the movie, while somewhat “run of the mill” was also interesting because of the twist.
Most slasher movies fit into the “seen one, seen them all” category – but not this one. It at least tries to be something a little different, and in that regard, it succeeds.
All in all, I found Behind the Mask quite enjoyable and I’d recommend it to anyone over a Jason, Freddy or Michael movie.
im really excited that there might be a sequel i mean yes it wasnt scary but i dont think it was supposed to it was just showing you all the things that a killer goes through to get what he wants to do they plan and come up with the “what ifs” and they try to make there plans and its pretty cool to see how it all works im a huge fan of scary movies especially micheal freddy and jason but leslie vernon is hott sorry has no point to this whole thing but he is :)
this films blows up all other slasher films. You guys talk about not being scared. . . but do you really get frightened by movies any more? I would nearly wet my pants watching Friday the 13th when I was 8-10 years old. Sure, there’s the shock or suspense factor, but in BTM:TROLV they lay it all out for you. What’s better than that? I love the premise, love the execution, and I gotta say, I have a sick sort of admiration for Leslie Vernon. I wish a sequel would come out.
I have to agree with JD on this one. I recently noticed this film at the video store and remembered that it got some postive press here so I picked it up. While I enjoyed the idea of the film, in execution it simply wasn’t very intersting. The majority of the film was not a horror movie but a doc about a horror movie, which in and of itself is of course not a bad thing if it is interesting and well done. Sadly I felt this section was very weak for the most part. The finale of the film is supposed to flip the switch in a way and become a horror movie. This simply wasn’t scary and the the “monster” just didn’t make for a very frightning horror hero like the ones so frequently mentioned by the characters of the film (Freddy Krueder etc.). I still think its an intersting concept, but really I don’t expect much now and I wouldn’t see it without hearing a lot of high praise.
What Frank said. Saw this at the Films For Food Festival. The spoof portion of the film was pretty good, the final third/slasher/horror part was standard and not scary at all.
Surprised this is being considered for a sequel. Did the first one make any money?
As long as this movie is available to rent a group of us are going to watch it on Friday night for our horror movie night!
I just saw this movie yesterday, and after john put it on his top 100 list I knew I had to see it. I thought it had an amazing concept which actually let us see what a murderer would do to prepare for the killings and the idea that killing someone was sort of like a business and Leslie had a mentor to help him made it realy funny, and if a 2nd movie was more of the same behind the scenes stuff then a sequel could work very well.
It was pretty good. But I don’t think a movie that pretty much busted big time at the theaters is gonna get a sequel. And I also agree that the last 3rd, when Leslie was carrying out his plan, was pretty flat in that I’ve seen the hack and slash too many times.
If they had kept the sort of behind the scenes banter as they had with Leslie the first 2/3rds, it might have been a little better.
The mask was sorta gay, though.
The main problem with “Behind the Mask” is the first half is a inspired parody of the slasher film. Then, it becomes a weaker film once Leslie Vernon goes behind the mask. The strength of the film is the performance by Nathan Baesel as Leslie Vernon, but in the second half he becomes a mute, a standard movie killer. This might be the point of the film but I do think it run out of steam.
you know John, this kinda brings up another point. This was a movie that I wanted to see, unfortunately I think it was only in a theater here in San Francisco for a week. The thing that bugs me is that at the same time every theater had multiple screens for Spiderman 3, it just seems a shame that these interesting smaller movies always get choked out. Right now, I’ve been hearing great reviews for a musical called Once, a Japanese anime called Paprika, and of course the Russian DayWatch. Can’t find them at any easily accessible theater, yet Fantastic 4 still has some shows.
and, yeah behind the mask is on my netflix list
I really liked the concept of this film, but for me where it fell flat was the fact that it wasn’t scary. It didn’t ruin the film for me though and I do still have interest enough to be curious of a sequel.