When he’s doing that oh-so-important monologue-ing, you really can sense his passion and conviction for what he’s doing, and later on see hints of the underlying psychosis which is obviously a prerequisite in his line of work.Īngela Goethals also does a terrific job as the plucky reporter lady trying to immerse herself in Vernon’s world and mind without losing track of her own morality or sanity, and when the cameras are off and she’s given more time on screen, she really shines. He can go from disarmingly normal and slightly effeminate to eerily intense in a heartbeat. Obviously Nathan Baesel gets the lion’s share of the credit for his portrayal of the title character. But it doesn’t even end there!Īcting wise, we get a cast of almost complete unknowns, but they all pull it off admirably.
Behind the mask the rise of leslie vernon series#
This alone places it head and shoulders above the Scream series (have I been too subtle in my dislike for those films?) and easily the best slasher film in recent years. Rather than trying to pass off awareness of the most basic tropes of the genre as some kind of cleverness, this is a film that is actually trying to lend some insight into those tropes. The prevalence of phallic and yonic imagery, the psychological journey of the survivor and most importantly, what is it that makes an ordinary guy choose to put on a mask and start stabbing people, even if he doesn’t have some tragic or twisted back story.
No, he gets into the real heart of the thing and talks about what it all means. Any monkey who ever watched a few slasher flicks knows that stuff. Vernon doesn’t just point out the obvious stuff like “the virgin lives” or “the closet is the safest place” like those are clever insights. Makes sense to me, keeping up with scared teenagers while making it look like you’re just casually walking along probably takes a lot of training.Īlong the way Vernon does his fair share of monologue-ing on the methodology and tactics slashers have been using for decades, and this is where the film goes beyond simple self-awareness and into the next vital step: deconstruction.
The crew follows wannabe slasher Leslie Vernon as he makes his preparations for the “big night”, selects his victims and does tons and tons of cardio. Granted it took me five years to hear about the thing, but this is the film industry we’re talking about, if you want an intelligent genre film you have to look hard for the sucker.īehind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is part old-school slasher romp and part hand-cam mockumentary in which a team of journalists follow a young hopeful looking to be the next big thing on the slasher circuit.
Behind the mask the rise of leslie vernon movie#
Can’t a movie about a big lad in a hockey mask chopping up teenagers be sincere anymore? But to my astonishment, this trend has produced a movie that mixes canny self-awareness with legitimate quality and insight, basically making it the Shaun of the Dead of Slasher films. This trend of self-awareness is always something that bugged and saddened me. The Friday the 13 th films had become toned-down camp and A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s headliner Freddy Krueger had made the (admittedly small) leap from figure of menace to sweater-clad punchline. In lieu of innovation (unless you count Wes Craven’s New Nightmare), the once mighty slashers had begun pointing out their own genre tropes and dispatching their victims with their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks. Even before the Scream franchise came along, the “slasher” sub-genre of horror had been wallowing in the pit of self-parody for quite some time.
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