Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

She said:

We have so many urban legends in our culture. Those ghost stories that we scare ourselves with around the campfire or at slumber parties. The tales of boogiemen that makes us keep the light on in our closet. This movie explained it all to us. It was beautiful.

When we look at our favorite serial killer franchises as a form of reality, we want to ask ourselves why do they do what they do? The answer is simple; for us to have the good, one must first have the evil. It took us through, like a 20/20 television special, of how exactly the killer goes through the whole task. The choosing of the group, the location, the traps, the little hooks and lures that bring us to the part that we as the voyeurs of the slaughter, come to love and expect. Not only do we see our masked killer as human, we grow to like him. We enjoy his almost childlike pleasure in preparing. His enjoyment of his craft, and yes the painstaking work he puts into perfecting it. His little jests and jabs and jokes were wonderful.

I must admit, I loved seeing the familiar faces of horror icons and little glimpses of horror movie nods, like the little girls in white jumping rope. And of course, the movie had Robert Englund (squeal).

I have to say, it was very different watching the movie from the opposite side, actually rooting for our masked killer instead of the token heroin, the survivor girl. I wasn’t very shocked by the twist or the ending…. and you must watch the entire credits please…but that isn’t the point. Understanding the metamorphosis, understanding of the why and how and who, that was the point of the film. It was not a gore fest, really. Though there were some creative scenes, our movie wasn’t about the deaths. It was about the change, the rebirth of our own weakness. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…. or more importantly, who doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And who knew the closet represented the womb?

Definitely worth watching, if for the profound intelligence of the piece.

5 carrots chopped extra fine out of 5

He Said:

Most of us of hear the saying before that serial killers look just like you or me. Generally, when the horror genre gives you a ‘behind the scenes’ look at whatever their big baddie of the moment is, he’s usually pretty wigged out, twitchy, sweaty and dirty. (The exception being Hannibal Lector of course.) In Behind the Mask, this is indeed the case as we meet mild mannered Lesley Vernon as he makes his case and prepares for his debut weekend as the new supernatural serial killer on the block.

There’s so much to love in this one, it’s hard for me to narrow it all down into one focused flow. Little bits and pieces sprinkled all over this flick help to make it a highly enjoyable romp of mass murder and homage. The most enjoyable part of Behind the Mask is Leslie Vernon himself (Nathan Baesel). With his child like enthusiasm, his artistic view point, and general normalness in preparation of his big night, Baesel’s performance cements the idea of humanizing the ‘supernatural serial killer’ and really helps to get you rooting for the bad guy. The rest of the cast was good as well with Robert England in spitting image homage to Dr. Loomis of Mike Meyer’s fame (while it is a cool cameo, no girlish squeal from me) as well as the clichéd performances of the kids partying at the Vernon house. (That is, clichéd in a good way; I mean, it’s all part of the master plan of course)

The plot and writing here were outstanding as well. The effort towards humanizing a serial killer is understandably a rather large task to overcome. These folks are monsters after all. But watching the plot unfold with Vernon’s boyish enthusiasm, painstaking detail on setup, training, help from retired members of ‘the biz’ (i.e. former serial killers), you cannot help to fall in line with this guy and stand right along side him throughout his journey. Sure, we’ve all rooted for Jason or Freddy throughout their killing spree’s, but that’s more because that’s what they do; monsters being monsters, and that’s what you paid your hard earned cashed to see. With Leslie Vernon, you’re rooting for the guy because you like him. Out side of his life’s goal to be a homicidal maniac, he’s a pretty stand up guy! Out side of the writing behind the title character, there are some other deep thoughts written in there such as imagery in the horror genre; phallic weaponry, closets and their feeling of womb like security, birth imagery, and the base concept that in order to good, you must have evil to go along with it. They are by products of one another after all.

With all of the above listed, this is an entertaining flick from the get go filled with many a good laugh, and some excellent character building. While it may seem a bit like a Blair Witch knock off at first glance, it’s far from it indeed. And while the writing showcases a man working a craft, not a killer, up through the majority of the film, we reach a point towards the end of the film that we take drastic turn. With an almost physical feeling of change, the film soon hinges drastically into your standard slasher fare. This is some what expected towards the beginning, but the change is handled so well that you can nearly feel the change of pace. From here on out we’re looking at a fairly standard slasher that nothing stands out amongst the others, but we’ve had such a good time watching the preparation for this night it’s a fun watch all the same.

So….

This is a great flick. You don’t always hear that here at Cinema Fromage. It’s a pretty good departure from all of the horror that’s hitting shelves these days, and will give you something new to enjoy. Sure it may have it’s flaws, it may have some plot holes. In the end though, it’s just a plain good time to watch, a factor that many of today’s horror flicks tend to forget about.

And really, Nathan Baesel kicks ass. He’s just that fun to watch.

5 mild mannered professionals out of 5